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USS Defiant firing phaser cannons

USS Defiant

In starship classification, a warship, war vessel, combat ship, or combat vessel was a general term for any armed starship designed for the purposes of combat or warfare. These vessels included battleships, battle cruisers, various sized cruisers, escorts, destroyers, and frigates.

History[]

"I thought Starfleet didn't believe in warships."
"Desperate times, Major."

Captain Jonathan Archer once said that he didn't want to be in command of a warship in response to Captain Jefferies' desire to install powerful weapons on Enterprise NX-01. (ENT: "Home") Similarly, when Lieutenant Malcolm Reed proposed his tactical alert protocol, Archer responded that the Enterprise was not a warship. Reed said that this was obvious, noting several instances where the ship had proven unprepared for the reality of a hostile alien force. (ENT: "Singularity")

In 2155 in the mirror universe, when the Gorn known as Slar requested a shuttlecraft in exchange for the plasma regulators he had sabotaged from the USS Defiant, T'Pol suggested that Jonathan Archer accept, saying that the offer was reasonable. Archer, however, felt that Slar had no intention of returning the regulators and, if given a shuttlecraft, would simply contact his people and return with a warship. (ENT: "In a Mirror, Darkly, Part II")

In November of 2256, when Lieutenant Paul Stamets, of the USS Discovery, argued to Captain Gabriel Lorca that good science took time, Lorca told him that the Discovery was no longer a science vessel, but rather a warship. (DIS: "The Butcher's Knife Cares Not for the Lamb's Cry")

Given its philosophy of peaceful exploration of space, Starfleet typically avoided using the warship classification; never the less, Starfleet was responsible for defense of Federation citizens and territory as well as execution of defense policy if necessary. Starfleet instead applied terms such as "escort" and "tactical cruiser" for vessels dedicated to combative efforts such as the Defiant-class and Prometheus-class, respectively. Despite this custom, Chief Petty Officer Dorian Collins referred to the USS Valiant as a "state of the art warship." (DS9: "Valiant")

Kasidy Yates once asked Chief Petty Officer Miles O'Brien if her presence on board the USS Defiant bothered him, noting "I'm a civilian. Isn't it awkward having me aboard a warship?" (DS9: "The Sound of Her Voice")

The Klingons and Jem'Hadar almost exclusively employed warships, which was a reflection of their warrior culture. However, the Negh'Var warship, D7-class, Jem'Hadar fighter, and Jem'Hadar battle cruiser were specifically referred to as warships by Starfleet. (TOS: "Friday's Child"; VOY: "Drone"; DS9: "The Ship")

The Douwd who assumed the form of Kevin Uxbridge created a warship in order to drive the USS Enterprise-D away from Rana IV. (TNG: "The Survivors")

In an alternate timeline in 2366 created by the temporal incursion of the USS Enterprise-C, the Enterprise-D was the first Galaxy-class warship created by the Federation, with forty-two decks and capable of transporting over six thousand troops. (TNG: "Yesterday's Enterprise")

The Enterprise-D engaged an unidentified smuggler's combat vessel at the Qualor II depot in 2368. (TNG: "Unification I")

Two classes of warships, or war vessels, were utilized by the Cardassian Union during the 24th century: the Galor-class cruiser and the Keldon-class cruiser. (TNG: "The Chase", "Ensign Ro"; DS9: "Emissary", "Past Prologue", "The Homecoming", "Profit and Loss", "Second Skin", "Defiant", "Broken Link"; VOY: "The Voyager Conspiracy")

After pirating the main computer processor of the USS Voyager, Tau commented to Captain Kathryn Janeway that "I could sell it to you, but I could hardly let it go for anything less than a warship." (VOY: "Concerning Flight")

The warship Voyager was part of The Voyager Encounter holographic simulation in the Kyrian Museum of Heritage. (VOY: "Living Witness")

Warships by species[]

Appendices[]

Background information[]

Ronald D. Moore commented "This also is a legacy of Gene's. He felt very strongly that the Federation would not build warships per se, but rather a fleet of scientific exploration vessels with weapons designed for defense rather than offense. It was quite a fight just to get the Defiant designated as a pure warship around here, much less trying to go for an entire fleet of ships like it." (AOL chat, 1997)

External links[]

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