The vessel was unlike any other starship.Instead of the usual graceful design of Federation ships,the Defiant was a compact,boxy and almost ugly design.The central body is a three deck block with the a single deck bridge mounted on the top for four decks in all. The upper deck contains the bridge, engineering support spaces and some crew quarters. Deck two features main engineering, a simple medical bay, more crew quarters and the ships communal mess hall. The third deck includes the transporter room and ships storage and cargo bays and the deuterium fuel tanks. Deck four houses the ships replication storage tanks and systems, the antimatter fuel pods and the small shuttle bay. The single computer core is split between decks two and three.The navigational deflector is located in a prominent housing on the ships bow, which also contains a probe launcher. Flanking the deflector housing are a pair of torpedo tubes capable of firing both quantum and photon torpedoes. Aft of this the nacelles are fitted directly to the main hull, flanking the bridge. Each nacelle housing includes four warp coils and two of the ships pulse phaser cannon. The nacelles supporting equipment are contained within a fifth deck which hangs below the normal four; this deck is divided into three levels of crawl way spaces. Aft of the nacelles is the aft torpedo tube, and the ships armament is completed by a turret type phaser array aft of the bridge.

In the 2367 Borg attack on the Federation, the Defiant Class ships were launched even though it was still months away from completion,in a attempt to inflict some kind of damage on the Borg vessel.However the Borg ship was destroyed by the USS Enterprise-D before the Defiant ships were able to engage the Borg.

The Defiants continued to outfit in spacedocks for several months, where serious faults in the design developed.Overpowered and over gunned for a ship of its size, Defiant experienced serious problems with her structural integrity during warp flight and weapons operation.With the BOrg threat now less urgent, the President of the Federation ordered the Defiant project shelved in favor of the new Soverign Class which was then under construction.

In 2370, the USS Odyssey was destroyed in a encounter with the Dominion. The first Sovereign Class ship was still under construction, Commander Benjamin Sisko of Deep Space Nine requested that the Defiant be assigned to a mission against the Dominion. The ship was then equipped with a cloaking device by the Romulans.

A field engineering team was finally able to overcome the problems with the structual integrity system.Although not an especially fast ship by Starfleet standards, Defiant is far more manoeuvrable than any vessel of comparable size at both Warp and Impulse speeds. This, combined with her inherent toughness and high level of firepower, makes the ship a formidable fighting force. Despite this, Starfleet has had a difficult time getting approval to put the ship into series production, due in part to the designs perception as having failed originally, but also because of political trepidation within the government over fielding a dedicated warship. Fortunately these problems have now been overcome and the Defiant class is finally in full production.

Type- Escort Vessel

Units-NX 74205 USS Defiant , NCC 74210 USS Valiant , NCC 75633 USS Sao Paulo , plus 28 others. 5 were lost in the Dominion war.

Date of Commission- 2367

Dimensions- 170.0 meters X 20.0 meters - 5 decks

Mass- 120,000 metric tons

Crew Compliment- 50

Armaments- 4 Class 1 pulse phaser cannons, 1 Type 10 phaser-total output of all phasers is 70,000 terawatts , 3 pulse fire photon/quantum torpedo tubes + 100 torpedoes , 1 standard probe/photon torpedo launcher + 100 torpedoes

Defence Systems-Auto modulated high capacity shield system-total capacity of 2,376,500 terajoules , heavy duranium/tritanium double hull , 20.0cm ablative armor , high level structual intregrity field

Warp Speed Capability- Normal cruise: Warp factor 6 , Maximum Cruise: Warp factor 8.7

Strength Indices(1000 is equal to a Galaxy class ship)- Beam firepower: 1400 , Torpedo firepower: 2150 , Weapon range and accuracy: 810 , Shield strengh: 880 , Hull Armor: 3400 , Speed: 955 , Combat Manuverability: 30,000

Overall Strengh Index(out of 1000)- 1560

Expected Hull Life- 20 years

Refit cycles-Minor: 6 months , Standard: 1 year , Major: 5 years