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For the ship seen in Star Trek: The Original Series' "The Tholian Web" and Star Trek: Enterprise's "In a Mirror, Darkly", see USS Defiant (NCC-1764).
The USS Defiants are fictional starships in the television series Star Trek: Deep Space 9 and the feature film Star Trek: First Contact. The ship first appears in the Star Trek: Deep Space Nine episode "The Search, Part I", after which it continues to play a significant role throughout the series. When the first Defiant is destroyed, its replacement is quickly renamed Defiant when Benjamin Sisko receives special dispensation from Starfleet Operations to rename the ship.
This ship carries the same name as the ''Constitution''-class USS ''Defiant'' (NCC-1764) from the original Star Trek series.
Officially designated as an escort, the Defiant is a prototype vessel for the ''Defiant'' class of warships, originally developed to counter the Borg threat. Following the Borg invasion of stardate 44002, the United Federation of Planets approved a project committed to enhancing Starfleet's offensive and defensive military capabilities; the Defiant was the prototype for a new Federation warship. Benjamin Sisko worked on the project while assigned to the Utopia Planitia Fleet Yards.
Designed to be fast and highly maneuverable with powerful weaponry, the ship's warp engines were too powerful and needed extensive modifications to keep them from tearing the ship apart. The ship was designed specifically for battle, featuring innovative pulse phaser and quantum torpedo armaments, in addition to photon torpedoes, standard phasers and a high-capacity deflector shield system. Another asset is its ablative armor, enabling the ship to stay in a fight even with the shields inoperable. Inside, the Defiant is relatively spartan by Starfleet standards of the time: the ship is not designed to carry family members, has no science labs, and has a limited infirmary. Crew quarters consist of two bunk beds and a general computer interface. Few quarters have food replicators, so the mess hall is the main means for the crew to eat on missions.
The subsiding Borg threat and failed systems tests (particularly in regard to the ship's overpowered engines) led the development project to be stalled and the prototype to be mothballed. However, first contact with the Jem'Hadar in 2370 convinced Sisko to ask Starfleet for a permanent starship presence at the station. As a result, Starfleet ordered the Defiant to Deep Space Nine under Sisko's command. The Defiant allows for the station's crew to travel faster and further with far more firepower than the station's ''Danube'' class runabouts can provide.
The Defiant is the first Starfleet ship to legally carry a Romulan cloaking device. Supplied by the Romulan Empire, the cloak is initially operated by a Romulan officer serving aboard the Defiant. An agreement between Starfleet and the Romulans limits the use of the cloak to intelligence-gathering missions in the Gamma Quadrant in exchange for all of Starfleet's intelligence on the Dominion. On several occasions, such as the rescue of the Detapa Council (DS9: "The Way of the Warrior"), the cloaking device is used illegally in the Alpha Quadrant.
In 2373, the Defiant fights in the Battle of Sector 001 and is on the verge of destruction by the Borg before the USS ''Enterprise''-E arrives and leads the remaining Starfleet vessels in destroying the invading Borg cube. During the battle, the Defiant is under the command of Lieutenant Commander Worf and suffers severe – but repairable – damage.
In late 2375, the Breen destroy the Defiant during the invasion of the Chin'toka system. The battle marks the first time the Breen use their energy-depleting weapon. During the planning of the invasion of Cardassia Prime some months later, a new Defiant class starship, the USS São Paulo (NCC-75633), is assigned to Deep Space Nine. The Starfleet Chief of Operations granted special dispensation to rename the ship Defiant.
Although this new ship's commissioning plaque gives a registry of "NCC-75633", in subsequent exterior battle shots the ship has the "NX-74205" registry. This is because special effects shots of the old vessel were reused to show the new one.
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USS Defiant
Design notes
| | Name | USS Defiants | | image |  | | Caption | The Defiant (NX-74205) in orbit | | First | NX-74205: "The Search (DS9 episode) | | Last | NX-74205: "The Changing Face of Evil (DS... | | Status | NX-74205: Destroyed (2375)
NCC-75633: Op... | | Affiliation | Starfleet | | Launched | NX-74205: 2370
NCC-75633: 2375 | | Class | Defiant class starship (Star Trek) | | Registry | NX-74205
NCC-75633 | | Armaments | Pulsed and beam phaser (Star Trek) | | Defense | Shields (Star Trek) | | Propulsion | Impulse drive
Warp drive |
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Design notes
The Defiant was initially designed by Star Trek: Deep Space Nine art illustrator Jim Martin with contributions from visual effects supervisor Gary Hutzel and modelmaker Tony Meininger. The Defiants addition to DS9 was intended to open up storytelling by making the show more mobile. Original designs called for a "beefed-up" runabout-type ship, but this gave way to a full-fledged starship design, initially called Valiant. This name was dropped out of fear that it would conflict with Star Trek: Voyager and its titular starship, also beginning with a "V". The name Valiant would later be given to another Defiant class ship in the DS9 episode "Valiant". Although not an actual initial design in the real-world, one of the in-universe designs for the Defiant appears, somewhat modified, in as the ''Nova'' class USS ''Equinox'' in the Star Trek: Voyager episode "Equinox".
There is controversy on the internet regarding the size of the Defiant, since Star Trek canon, semi-canon (e.g. reference manuals), and fanon speculation sometimes provide conflicting specifications.
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