The USS Valiant was a Federation starship that was in service during the early 23rd century. It was lost while exploring star cluster NGC 321 in 2217.
The ship attempted to make first contact with the system's principle planet, Eminiar VII. While in orbit, the Valiant was warned to leave the system, but was "attacked" and subsequently declared a casualty in the war with neighboring Vendikar. The Valiant and the Earth expedition making the report failed to return from its mission. The ship's disposition is listed as "missing in space".
In 2267, on stardate 3192.1, the USS Enterprise was sent on a similar mission, only this time to open diplomatic relations with Eminiar VII. It was at this time that the fate of the Valiant was discovered. (TOS: "A Taste of Armageddon") Template:StarshipValiant
Background
The Valiant registry of NCC-1223 was originally referenced in the Star Trek Encyclopedia. An early edition of the Encyclopedia speculated that the Valiant was of the Template:ShipClass, but that erroneous note was removed from later editions due to the fact that, in TNG: "Power Play", Data mentions that all Daedalus vessels were taken from service years before the Valiant mission.
There is no canon information about this ship's registry or class; yet for many years, large parts of Trek fandom believed the Valiant to be Template:ShipClass, based upon a ship list first published in The Making of Star Trek. Some years later, in the Star Fleet Technical Manual, Franz Joseph lists the Valiant as a first-generation Constitution-class starship with registry NCC-1709. Decades later, both role-playing games from Last Unicorn and Decipher list the Valiant as a member of the Ranger-class, a design based on a rejected NCC-1701 design by Matt Jefferies in the pre-production of TOS. However, these licensed sources are not canonical.