Starfleet Ship Classes A-K

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1. The Akira class was designed by Alex Jaeger of ILM for "First Contact" and exists only as a CGI model. It also appeared in DS9 and VOY episodes and made it to Picard in "The Star Gazer" and "Farewell" (here reusing the names and correct registries of three established ships of the class). 18 ships of this class appeared in the ill-fated fleet in PIC: "Vox" and "The Last Generation". Two ships are on display at the Fleet Museum in PIC: "The Bounty".
2. The size of the ship is discussed on a separate page.
3. There is confusion about the Akira registries. The named ships in the above list appear in the Star Trek Fact Files where the registry of the USS Thunderchild diagram is NCC-65549 instead of NCC-63549, while the latter number is assigned to the USS Spector. This is also the case on the ILM size chart, where the information for the Fact Files seems to come from, although here the Thunderchild is NCC-63898. The diagrams in Star Trek: The Magazine and the Official Starships Collection are directly derived from the Akira CGI. They confirm NCC-63549 for the USS Thunderchild on the hull. I have decided to ignore the NCC-65549 from the Fact Files, and assign NCC-63898 to the Spector.
4. I won't make up an in-universe reason for the striking similarities between the NX class and the 200 years younger Akira class.
5. According to Alex Jaeger, the Akira class is a military minded ship. The weapons pod is a swap-out component, much like the pod of the Nebula class. The ship is supposed to have as many as 15 torpedo launchers, as stated in Star Trek: The Magazine. These are placed as follows: 2 port side saucer, 2 starboard, 1 forward facing under the deflector dish in the main hull, plus 4 forward, 3 port rear, 3 starboard rear in the weapons pod.
6. The Akira class has never been shown in its role as a carrier with a fly-through hangar deck, and fighters of the presumed Peregrine class probably wouldn't fit through the doors (but Danube runabouts would, also on non-military missions).

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1. 14 ships of this class appeared in the doomed fleet in PIC: "Vox" and "The Last Generation".
2. The Alita was designed for Star Trek Online, as one of many variations of the Akira class.
3. Length of the ship according to the official Picard season 3 scale chart posted by Dave Blass.

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1. The Ambassador design is based on an early TNG concept by Andrew Probert. It was then built by Greg Jein with considerable simplifications as the Enterprise-C for TNG: "Yesterday's Enterprise". For further appearances of the class, as the Zhukov (TNG: "Data's Day", the Excalibur (TNG: "Redemption II") and the Yamaguchi (DS9: "Emissary"), a still different second studio model was used. In-universe, there may exist two sub-classes with several differences that are shown in detail on my Ambassador class variants page. A final variant had shortened nacelle pylons, but was probably never visible on screen.
2. In the original concept, Andrew Probert laid out his Galaxy predecessor or TNG guest vessel to be 1721ft long, equaling 524.56m. The plans Rick Sternbach drew for the Enterprise-C miniature to be built by Greg Jein indicate a length of 35.75'', which translates to merely 478.52m, under the assumption it is the same scale as the 4ft (48'') long Galaxy-class model. The length of 478m is supported by Rick Sternbach. Yet, the actual sizes of the two models are different. The 4ft Galaxy model measures more like 49.25'', rather than 48''. Jein's finished Enterprise-C model is 41.19'', rather than 35.75''. This would give us 537.35m for the Ambassador, still under the assumption they are the same scale. The origin of the 526m figure used in almost all official publications is uncertain. It either (mistakenly) takes into account Probert's original size chart, or it uses still somewhat different estimates for the actual lengths of the two models. The deck structure with somewhere between 32 and 38 decks would allow any size around 500m. EAS will stick with the established 526m until further notice.
3. Ambassador-class ships never showed up after the fifth season of TNG. It seems dubious that this newer ship class would be entirely retired within only a few years, while much older designs like the Excelsior and Miranda stay in service. My personal interpretation is that there are rather few ships of the Ambassador class altogether - although this may indeed have been a reason to retire them for economic reasons. An Ambassador model can be seen in Guinan's bar in PIC: "No Win Scenario".
4. The hull labels of the Zhukov as visible in TNG: "Data's Day" read "USS Zuhkov [sic!] NCC-62136". The high NCC-62136 registry is an oddity for an old ship class. Since there is hardly any way that the spelling of the name could be "Zuhkov", I have decided that the number is wrong likewise and should be NCC-26136. The registry was accordingly corrected on an Okudagram around TNG's season 4.
5. In the deployment status display in TNG: "The Measure of a Man" we can barely make out an Excalibur NCC-21534. This registry is overruled by the ship from "Redemption II".

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1. No ship of this class was ever visible. The class name Andromeda is from the Star Trek Encyclopedia.
2. The Andromeda-class Drake was probably commissioned just after the Wambundu-class Drake had been destroyed by the automated defense system (TNG: "Arsenal of Freedom") in 2364. Given that the registry perfectly corresponds with this date, this is one more sign that ships are chronologically numbered.

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1. The USS Hermes NCC-10376, Antares class, appeared on displays in TNG. It is highly unlikely that this Starfleet Antares class is the same as the numerous civilian/alien designs of the same name, since Starfleet wouldn't share their technology with possible threat forces. And if the design were as obsolete as the various alien freighters in 2368, the Hermes would be inadequate for Starfleet.
2. Adam Buckner built a Miranda-class variant with a triangular pod instead of the rollbar for DS9, which he labeled "USS Antares NCC-9844" and of which four ships showed up in DS9: "Favor the Bold". While there is no definite evidence that this is the class ship of the Antares class (and it probably wasn't meant that way), it is a very good suggestion to bring order to the Antares chaos.
3. The Star Trek Encyclopedia says that the USS Antares NCC-501 (TOS: "Charlie X") could be the class ship of the civilian/alien Antares class - a suggestion which is both doubtful and outdated. There is nothing that would link the TOS ship to the USS Hermes, so the USS Antares from TOS (below) causes the least trouble if it is of any other class.
4. Jeri Taylor's novels were (allegedly) considered canonical, but Chakotay's raider is no candidate for the Antares-class design any longer, although it was mentioned in the novel Pathways.

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1. The USS Antares is the ship that was destroyed by young Charlie in TOS: "Charlie X". Her crew was wearing Starfleet uniforms, so it was always clear that the Antares belonged to Starfleet. The registry NCC-501 was made up by Mike Okuda, however, and was disputable until TOS-R. While the civilian Antares class and the above Starfleet Antares class, if they both exist, should be two distinct designs, there is no reason why the individual ship USS Antares should be the class ship of either of them.
2. The previously unseen Antares was finally shown in the remastered version of the TOS episode of 2007. Its design was laid out to be reminiscent of the freighter Woden according to startrek.com. However, it is evidently derived from the TAS cargo drone.
3. Another vessel of the same class briefly appears in orbit around Starbase 11, behind the Enterprise and the Intrepid, in TOS-R: "Court Martial". Mike Okuda tells us that it is the Yorkshire NCC-330: "We're using the red script names (similar to the original shuttles) on the sides of these ships, with no 'USS' prefix, so it's ambiguous as to whether these are Starfleet or merely of Federation registry."

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1. The class name and individual ship name USS Ajax come from a TNG Okudagram labeled "Starfleet Operations". Actually, there are two contradictory versions of this display, of which the one with the mention of the Apollo class was later confirmed as "authentic" in the Star Trek Encyclopedia II.
2. The Vulcan ship T'Pau NSP-17938 from TNG: "Unification II" is listed as Apollo class in the Star Trek Encyclopedia II, but the class is neither confirmed in the Star Trek Fact Files T'Pau issue nor anywhere else. Considering the T'Pau does not look like a Starfleet ship at all, the Apollo class is arguably a still unknown design.
3. The Apollo-class USS Gage is the only unidentified among the six ships from DS9: "Emissary". I'm inclined to say that there is probably no model of it, and the name is only mentioned in a previous version of the script.

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1. The USS Centaur appeared in the DS9 episode "A Time to Stand" and barely visible in "Behind the Lines". In the somewhat inaccurate official schematic, as depicted in the DS9 Technical Manual, the weapons pod is missing, and the warp grille is too wide. I have retouched the image to match the studio model much better. Among numerous details, I have also included the shuttlebay which is in front of the bridge, facing the opposite direction, while the bridge itself is taken from a Miranda or Constitution model. The nacelles are two bottom halves of Excelsior nacelles glued together, the former bottom now facing outward and inward.
2. The ship was built by Adam Buckner and was really intended to be that small.
3. The registry is clearly readable on the hull of the model and is confirmed as the Centaur's number in the Star Trek Fact Files. Although the name Centaur was mentioned on screen, the model is actually named "Buckner", which is printed on it in very small letters. This is because Buckner originally built the model as a background ship, until it was decided to use it as the more prominent Centaur in "A Time to Stand".

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1. The Cheyenne class (built by Ed Miarecki) is a kitbashed design. The saucer bottom from the small AMT/Ertl Enterprise-D kit including the neck is used as saucer top, and many windows and lifeboats have been either removed or extended to suggest a smaller ship. The bridge module is comparatively large and is obviously taken from the large 1/1400 Enterprise-D. The warp nacelles are actually highlighters! Read everything about my Cheyenne class reconstruction on a separate page.
2. For many years, we only had a single depiction of the studio model with the above number from the Behind the Scenes Card Game. But we can confirm that the USS Ahwahnee NCC-73260 was one of the ships at Wolf 359 in TNG: "The Best of Both Worlds II"; it can be identified in the graveyard scene in the remastered version of the episode. An Ahwahnee NCC-71620 served in the tachyon web fleet in TNG: "Redemption II". Mike Okuda confirms that this is supposed to be they very same ship that was at Wolf 359, was salvaged and put into service again. Unfortunately the display was mislabeled, so NCC-73620 as on the model is correct.

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1. Andrew Probert and Rick Sternbach built the yellow model labeled NCC-7100 in Picard's office using two ERTL Enterprise(-A) kits and several parts from anime kits, most notably the VF-1 Valkyrie from Macross. This miniature of the Constellation class first appeared in TNG: "Encounter at Farpoint" and was intended to represent the Stargazer indeed. The real-world reason for the number "NCC-7100" is that it may be easily created from the numerals "NCC-1701" in the ERTL Enterprise kit.
2. Greg Jein later reconstructed the look of the desktop model for a 4ft Stargazer studio miniature, using parts built from scratch and from a larger scale Macross kit. This model also appeared as the USS Hathaway.
3. A model of Picard's Stargazer also appeared in his quantum archive in PIC: "Remembrance" and in the ready room of the new USS Stargazer in PIC: "The Star Gazer".
4. Regardless of the existing NCC-7100 model, the USS Stargazer in TNG: "The Battle" was initially intended to be a Constitution-class vessel. But it was then deemed easier to build a larger version of the model seen in Picard's ready room than to prepare and shoot the complex Constitution miniature. The class name was chosen so that in the already finished scene Geordi's mention of "Constitution", that for some reason made it into the final dialogue, could simply be dubbed with "Constellation".
5. Unlike the inaccurate drawing in the Star Trek Encyclopedias I and II the Constellation image shown here (scanned from the Star Trek Fact Files) takes into account the fact that the warp engines are nearly the same as of the Constitution and Miranda classes, slightly modified at their rear ends, but unquestionably not of a smaller type. Consequently, the Constellation has to be much longer than specified in the Encyclopedia. This is also consistent with the studio model, recently lettered as USS Valkyrie, which was shown in various Star Trek exhibitions across Europe and with a drawing that Rick Sternbach made himself.
6. The USS Gihlan is not strictly canonical, but from an article by Rick Sternbach in Star Trek: The Magazine. With the precedence of ships and registries only mentioned in his TNG Technical Manual (and high esteem of Rick's work), I include this ship to the list. The specs are from this article too.
7. The USS Stargazer now resides in the Fleet Museum, as seen in PIC: "The Bounty".
8. Class and registry of the USS Constance (mentioned by Shaw in PIC: "No Win Scenario") according to PIC season 3 end credits.

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1. The Constitution-class starship was designed by Matt Jefferies. Its original version lacks any discernable thrusters or docking ports although we can take for granted the ship has them too. There were several slight modifications to the Enterprise filming miniature after the first pilot and again after the second pilot. Most notably, the model originally had a somewhat taller bridge dome. The nacelle end caps changed from a flat surface in "The Cage" over a hole pattern in "Where No Man Has Gone Before" to the most familiar "white ball" in the series version. These modifications may be taken as hints that the ship was slightly refitted a couple of times even before 2270.
2. A new miniature of the Constitution was built by Greg Jein for DS9: "Trials and Tribble-ations", and a CG model for ENT: "In a Mirror, Darkly". Both of them faithfully reconstruct the look of the old TOS Enterprise and Defiant, respectively, in the series version. In the latter episode we see that the double beam of the aft phaser array fires from either side of the dome above the hangar deck of the Defiant, and aft torpedoes are available too. Moreover, the port, starboard and aft thrusters of the ship are mentioned.
3. The Constitution refit was designed by Andrew Probert, based on a preliminary concept model by Matt Jefferies. The Enterprise and Enterprise-A are the only reconstructed Constitution-class ships that were shown. Gene Roddenberry proposed that the latter was first designated as USS Yorktown and later recommissioned as Enterprise 1701-A, which is just an offhand mention and not really canonical. It is a reasonable assumption that most of the remaining ships were refurbished likewise in the 2270s.
4. Although the actual number of Constitution starships may be 18 or higher, Kirk's statement that there are 12 of them as of 2267 (TOS: "Tomorrow is Yesterday") can be maintained taking into account that some of them (namely Constellation, Defiant, Excalibur, Intrepid) were lost, while more ships might have been commissioned in the 2260's.
5. The "Starship Class" plaque of the original Enterprise and a note in The Making of Star Trek suggest that "starship" was no generic term at that time, but was specifically used for ships akin to the Enterprise. The tradition to name a ship class for the prototype ship might have been established later, although this is questionable considering that Star Trek Enterprise has been using letter-style as well as "real" class names.
6. A sign in "Star Trek II" unmistakably says "Mark IV Simulator - Enterprise Class". The (sub-) class name "Enterprise class" makes sense, considering that the refit has little still in common with the original Constitution.
7. The engineering hull at Wolf 359 in TNG: "The Best of Both Worlds II", which definitely stems from a Constitution refit, suggests that these ships may have been still in service or at least acted as reserve ships in 2366. Read more about the decommissioning date of the Constitution class.
8. Some of the names and registries never appeared on screen together. Many of the registries were listed on a wall chart on Starbase 11 in TOS: "Court Martial", but without names. Names from the episodes and from The Making of Star Trek were correlated with the registries by Greg Jein for the first Encyclopedia, but strictly speaking they are conjecture. The USS Eagle NCC-956 is from Col. West's flip chart in "Star Trek VI" and was only identified as Constitution class in the Encyclopedia. The NCC-1707 is from a spacedock status chart in "Star Trek III".
9. Like the 3D model from ENT: "In a Mirror, Darkly", the CGI used in TOS Remastered is an authentic reproduction of the original Enterprise miniature. It is noteworthy that the color of the phaser beams, which used to be sometimes blue and sometimes red in TOS, was redone to be consistently blue. The Constellation, which looked somewhat different in TOS: "The Doomsday Machine" due to its nature as a coarse polystyrene model, is a standard Constitution in the remastered episode, not a slightly different ship type as some fans used to conjecture. In TOS-R: "Court Martial" we can see damage on the Enterprise's starboard hull beneath the hangar deck. This is where the ion pod is located (that Kirk allegedly ejected with Finney still inside).
10. Also in TOS-R: "Court Martial", we can see the Intrepid for the first time, with the registry NCC-1631. Although it would not have been mandatory, this registry cannot be found on the wall chart in Stone's office that lists an "NCC-1831". But the latter could be any other ship, also taking into consideration that the bar shows 100% completion, whereas Stone verbally states that work on the Intrepid would be postponed in favor of the Enterprise.
11. One original Constitution class, the USS New Jersey NCC-1975, and one refit, the USS Enterprise NCC-1701-A, can be seen on display at the Fleet Museum in PIC: "The Bounty".
12. It stands to reason that in classic Star Trek the very different Discovery/SNW version of the Enterprise has never existed. The crazy idea that the ship could have been completely rebuilt (and considerably enlarged?) some time after "The Cage", only to be reverted to the old look between SNW and TOS, is ultimately refuted by the appearance of the reboot ship as early as in SHO: "Q&A". It is still possible that we are supposed to ignore the Short Treks and that the final episode of SNW will come up with a rationale for the ship to be "de-embellished", but the size issue remains irreconcilable.

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1. We see the Titan-A, which belongs to this class, throughout the third season of Star Trek Picard, beginning in PIC: "The Next Generation". The design of the Constitution III class (or "Neo-Constitution" as Riker says) is derived from the Shangri-La by Bill Krause, a 23rd century fan creation at the same technology level as the Constitution refit, using many of the same components. Actually, this original Shangri-La design can be seen in the observation lounge of the Titan-A as an earlier starship of that name and hence is canon as well.
2. Doug Drexler and Bill Krause redesigned the Shangri-La for Star Trek Picard. Although the class is brand new as of 2401, the saucer of the Titan-A looks much like that of the Constitution refit. Even details such as the window shapes, sizes and placements and the phaser turrets are identical and therefore anachronistic. The nacelles, on the other hand, are appropriately new and are the same as on the recent Sagan class.
3. An additional credibility problem is that the saucer of the Constitution refit was scaled up by almost a factor of 2 for the Constitution III. The former is firmly established as being 138m across, whereas the latter measures as much as 254m. Therefore the window placements make even less sense because why in the world would Starfleet keep them the same on a saucer that is a lot bigger and whose internal structure has to be completely different (such as with more decks) to be useful at all? The docking ports grow from 2.8m height to 5.1m, thus losing the attribute "standard" (which also raises the question how the small travel pod could dock on the Titan-A in "The Next Generation"). What's more, the scale issue precludes the possible rationale that the saucer was recycled from an older ship class (such as a Miranda, of which many should still be around). We are supposed to believe that Starfleet designed a new starship class in a way to imitate the mere aesthetics of the old Constitution, for a "retro look" without a sensible technical justification. The real-world reason for the dubious design choice is the re-enactment of the "escape from Spacedock" from "Star Trek III" in PIC: "The Next Generation", after which the alleged lineage has no significance any longer.
4. It has become customary in modern and reboot Star Trek to re-use class names in defiance of naval traditions. In many of these cases, the in-universe rationale is that the new class not only continues a lineage but somehow "returns to the roots" of the design family. But this applies to the Constitution III only in a superficial way, for all the reasons already mentioned. What's more, the Titan-A appears to be just an average vessel in size, range and capabilities, unlike the Constitution, which was the capital ship of her time. With the Constitution II being a direct refit of the original class and the Constitution III being an unrelated design, the numbering of the class is additionally misleading. Finally, considering the uncanny similarity to the old Shangri-La class (as obscure as the model in the lounge is), the link to the Constitution appears as even more contrived.
5. In PIC: "The Next Generation", Picard calls the Titan-A "your [Riker's] old command" and Riker speaks of it being a "refit". At this point, we could dismiss Picard's casual statement and argue that this ship is actually as old as the saucer looks (which would make some sense, if it were not for the size issue) and that it was retrofitted with new nacelles. Yet, in all seriousness, the official explanation is that the USS Titan NCC-80102-A is a refit of the completely differently shaped and smaller Luna-class USS Titan NCC-80102! The story corroborates this notion when Shaw mentions the jazz files that he had to purge from the system and by him being the person most familiar with the old nacelle covers in PIC: "No Win Scenario". Dave Blass posted concept art of the "refit" in order to justify the idea. But the drawing shows an old Titan, which is still not disassembled, whereas the new one is pretty much finished. Only the warp coils are apparently recycled, despite the fact that the nacelles are different in size and shape and also despite the tear and wear to these components that would usually have to be swapped before the end-of-life of the rest of the ship. The concept art precludes that key parts of one ship could have been incorporated into the other one and contests, rather than supports, the "refit" idea. As much as we read into the story and as much as we twist the meaning of "refit", it is impossible for the Titan-A to be the same ship as Riker's old Titan in more than only its name. The case was different with the USS Enterprise, whose redesign in "Star Trek: The Motion Picture" may have retained the core of the old ship and which may be rightfully called a "refit".
6. PIC: "The Next Generation" makes a big deal of the Titan-A being essentially the same design (a "refit") as Riker's old Titan. The ship even has the commemorative registry NCC-80102-A for that matter (which was originally reserved for the Enterprises but which has seen inflationary use in recent Trek). However, the Titan legacy that was so awfully important at the beginning of the season goes out of the window in PIC: "The Last Generation" when the ship is renamed USS Enterprise 1701-G, a name which apparently matters still more. After all the fuss about this being *the* Titan "refit" and after all the ship has been going through under this name, it is self-defeating that it is now supposed to be *the* Enterprise - as if Starfleet couldn't have found a better candidate to bestow that honor on. Also, if Starfleet wanted to pay tribute to the admiral, wouldn't they name the ship (or preferably another one) USS Picard? And wouldn't a USS Ro Laren have been a much more fitting homage?
7. Size of the ship according to the official scale chart for Picard season 3.

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1. We can see a dorsal view of the ibn Majid on Cristóbal Rios's case in PIC: "Broken Pieces".
2. We don't know what the ship looks like from other angles and how many nacelles it has. However, it shares some design elements with the USS Emmett Till, created for the DS9 documentary "What We Left Behind" by John Eaves.
3. Michael Chabon confirmed that this design is the Curiosity class.

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1. This odd ship could be seen at the beginning of DS9: "A Time to Stand", named USS Curry NCC-42254 (for Dan Curry, DS9 VFX staff). Its class is unknown, the fandom nickname is "Shelley" class (for Mary Shelley, author of Frankenstein) - an obvious choice. The name and registry information comes from the Art Department. The model seems to have been built by Dan Curry himself.
2. There exist photos of a kitbash model showing a somewhat different configuration labeled as "Raging Queen NCC-42284". This ship is also depicted in the DS9 Technical Manual, where official photos or drawings of the Curry configuration are missing. These are most two distinct models.
3. In my schematic I have tried to replicate the actual look of the Curry. The model is obviously created from an Excelsior and a (larger scale) Constitution kit, so the nacelles are almost bigger than the whole rest of the ship, which looks incredibly silly. I deliberately decreased the Constitution nacelles to the correct size relative to an Excelsior. Otherwise it would look like this monster.
4. Please ask Dan Curry what the ship's strange structure could be useful for. My best guess: It looks like the saucer and warp nacelles form a fully operational starship, whereas the bottom hull possibly serves as a large cargo- or shuttlebay and is supposed to be abandoned in emergency situations.
5. The previously reported registry NCC-45617 is not correct. NCC-42254 has been confirmed by Curry.

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1. A model labeled as USS Horizon, which could have been the vessel mentioned in TOS: "A Piece of the Action", was built by Greg Jein and can be seen in Sisko's ready room. It is based on an early design for the original USS Enterprise by Matt Jefferies, which is depicted in The Art of Star Trek. Although we have never seen a close-up that would allow us to identify it as Daedalus class, I think the design qualifies as authentic and 100% canon, although the model may be an inaccurate representation of the real ship.
2. The length is just 105m in the Star Trek Encyclopedia I, but the ship would be very small for a crew of 229.
3. The Essex is confirmed to be a Daedalus-class ship (TNG: "Power Play"). The Archon, on the other hand, was mentioned in TOS: "Return of the Archons", but was not meant to be a specific class and had no registry assigned until the Encyclopedia I.
4. Since the Daedalus class was retired before 2196, it is unlikely that the USS Carolina (TOS: "Friday's Child") belongs to this class, although this is stated in the Star Trek Encyclopedia II.

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1. The runabout was designed by Rick Sternbach and Jim Martin for DS9. Though probably not more than three runabouts are assigned to Deep Space 9 at a time, at least ten of them were lost. Most of the ship names were not mentioned. The Rio Grande, Rubicon and Volga have the distinction of surviving to the end of DS9, and the Rio Grande since the very beginning.
2. Besides in DS9, runabouts also appeared in TNG: "Timescape" and in VOY: "Non Sequitur" (the latter being a Yellowstone variant). Both were destroyed.
3. The speed of Warp 4.7 is taken from the DS9 Writer's Bible. As with the shuttles too, there is the problem that the runabout would need months for a distance that starships could bridge in a few days. Traveling from DS9 to Earth in a runabout, as shown several times, would be very impractical, even though the distance is only about 50ly. At least one on-screen reference supports the maximum speed of Warp 4.7, though. In DS9: "Dax", Kira searches for ships that could outrun a runabout, and specifically mentions a lower limit of Warp 5.
4. Runabouts may be modified with an additional weapons pod (DS9: "The Maquis", "The Jem'Hadar"). But even without the pod, microtorpedoes belong to the standard armament, as seen in DS9: "One Little Ship".

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1. Starfleet's first warship was designed by Jim Martin and Gary Hutzel and first appeared in DS9: "The Search". It can be surmised that the Dominion threat was the incentive to continue production of the Defiant class, although the prototype ship does not meet Starfleet standards.
2. Most visual evidence points to a length of 120m. Read here.
3. The Defiant has a landing gear, but it has never been shown. The real-world reason for that is that the producers were not aware that there were landing struts visible in the MSD. Ron D. Moore said in an interview with LCARScom.net: "The Defiant has landing gear? You have to remember that things like CD-ROMs and the various "official" manuals put out by Paramount are not done in conjunction with the writing/producing staffs and that the authors are usually simply extrapolating information based on what's actually been seen on screen." In-universe it may be debatable if the ship is capable of atmospheric flight and landing on planets, since this would have been an option in a few episodes, so why was it never considered? Still, it seems possible that the fairly small Defiant was designed to use the shuttlebays in starbases.
4. The USS São Paulo was renamed in honor of the destroyed Defiant (DS9: "The Dogs of War") and should have kept the registry NCC-75633. Unfortunately the ship was only seen as NX-74205 in "What You Leave Behind". Aside from the extensive stock footage, all new takes showed NX-74205 too.
5. There were two Defiant-class ships in VOY: "Message in a Bottle". Fortunately we couldn't have a closer look because they were both labeled "USS Defiant NX-74205".
6. 18 ships of this class appeared in the ill-fated fleet in PIC: "Vox" and "The Last Generation".
7. USS Defiant now resides in the Fleet Museum, as seen in PIC: "The Bounty".

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1. Ships of this class can be seen in PIC: "Imposters" (USS Intrepid) and briefly in PIC: "Vox" (USS Trumbull).
2. The class name honors Dorothy Duder, the late wife of Doug Drexler. I won't make up an explanation why the in-universe name refers to a small town in Germany.
3. Size of the ship according to the official scale chart for Picard season 3.

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1. Echelon class-ships appear on two occasions in PIC: "The Bounty". Two ships are patrolling Daystrom Station, one more arrives at the decoy. 13 ships of the class can be seen in the ill-fated fleet in PIC: "Vox" and "The Last Generation".
2. Length of the ship according the official Picard season 3 size chart.

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1. 22 ships of the Edison class can be seen in the fleet formation in PIC: "Vox" and "The Last Generation".
2. The design was originally created for Star Trek Online with the rationale of it being an "upgrade" of the Discoverse Hoover class. In canon Trek, we should disregard the similarity and back story. The Edison is an all-new design.
3. Size and name of the ship according to a season 3 publicity image. It is possible that either all or none of the many Edison-class vessels are actually labeled as USS Harlan NCC-52277.

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1. The Excelsior was designed by Bill George of ILM for "Star Trek III". The studio miniature was then was modified from its first appearance as NX-2000 to the NCC-2000 for "Star Trek VI". The NCC-2000 has a smaller bridge module, two small impulse deflection crystals instead of one large, and a new, angular section with three decks sticking out forward from the aft shuttlebay, instead of a round hull part with probably two decks.
2. The Excelsior refit was conceived by John Eaves for "Star Trek Generations". The Enterprise-B is a modification of the NCC-2000 model, which was accomplished with several add-ons (deflector area, new impulse engines, nacelle fins). There is only one other known refitted Excelsior-class ship, the USS Lakota (see also starship class inconsistencies).
3. The ILM size chart by Nilo Rodis for "Star Trek III" has the Excelsior at 1,531ft = 467m. Although the ship does appear larger in some shots (especially in early TNG compared to the Galaxy), this is the generally accepted size. Only the DS9TM claims that the ship is larger (511.25m). This calculation error is by no means intentional though. Read more about the size of the Excelsior.
4. There is no clear-cut evidence that the transwarp experiment really failed - only the TNGTM says so. Read more thoughts about the Excelsior transwarp issue.
5. The registry of the USS Melbourne is NCC-62043, since at the time TNG: "The Best of Both Worlds II" was produced it was supposed to be a Nebula-class ship. In the battle scene of DS9: "The Emissary", this number can briefly be seen on the saucer hull before it is blown up, although it seems to be way too high for the aged Excelsior-class design.
6. According to the Star Trek Encyclopedia, the Lexington is an Excelsior-class ship and has the registry NCC-14427. At least the latter is overruled by the registry NCC-30405 (barely) visible in "The Measure of a Man".
7. USS Hood NCC-42296 served in the Dominion War (DS9: "Favor The Bold" and "Sacrifice Of Angels") and is still in service as part of the Battle Fleet Omega in "Star Trek Nemesis" as of 2379.
8. The USS Excelsior now resides in the Fleet Museum, as seen in PIC: "The Bounty".

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1. Ships of this class appeared in PIC: "The Star Gazer" and "Farewell". The Mestral could be seen in PIC: "Vox". As many as 16 vessels were part of the doomed fleet in PIC: "Vox" and "The Last Generation", including the Excelsior that was destroyed by assimilated ships.
2. The Excelsior II class was newly created for PIC season 2 by John Eaves and Doug Drexler. The hull design is clearly inspired by the old Excelsior class. However, unlike the Obena class as it appeared in LOW: "First First Contact", the Excelsior II class does not use any scaled up Excelsior-class components.
3. The class name includes the Roman numeral "II" to distinguish it from the older Excelsior class. The class ship, on the other hand, is named USS Excelsior, without the "II".
4. The registries of all ships of the class are unexpectedly low and insinuate that the Excelsior II may have been around for decades already. It almost seems the registries were chosen on purpose in the same range as some of the Excelsior-class ships of TNG and DS9. Also, it is an oddity that the hull number of the Eureka is lower than that of the class ship.

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1. This is one of five study models for the Excelsior, built in the course of the pre-production of "Star Trek III". The model briefly appeared on screen in TNG: "Unification I+II" and possibly in "Best of Both Worlds II" too. The real starship most likely isn't related to the Excelsior class. It is named "Excelsior study" in this list only due to the lack of a proper name.
2. The studio miniature is labeled "USS Alka-Selsior NCC-1404". We may agree with the registry, but would want to disregard the name.

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1. This is one of five study models for the Excelsior, built in the course of the pre-production of "Star Trek III". The model briefly appeared on screen in TNG: "The Best of Both Worlds II" and "Unification I". The real starship probably isn't related to the Excelsior class. It is named "Excelsior study" in this list only due to the lack of a proper name.
2. The model has a saucer resembling a Constitution refit and four nacelles which are connected by what looks like an extendable neck. The nacelle pylons appear to be retractable too. Since this would make no sense technically, it is a better suggestion that, unlike it was the original intention, this may be a cargo ship, and containers can be mounted to the underside of the connecting spine.

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1. The "Frying-pan" class by Greg Jein is the only strictly canon ship with a single warp nacelle known by now. The Firebrand was among the ships in the Wolf 359 graveyard, and is depicted in the Star Trek Fact Files.
2. It has been argued that the ship wouldn't violate Roddenberry design rule #2 (nacelles must be in pairs) because the Galaxy-class nacelle has warp coils in pairs. But since the coils are vertically staggered inside the nacelle, they would act more like a single coil than if one were beside the other. Thus, if the usually paired warp engines are co-dependent across the ship's symmetry axis, it is a very inefficient arrangement.
3. It is uncertain whether it is the "Concord" (after the capital of New Hampshire) or the "Concorde" (the French spelling and also the name of the supersonic passenger plane). It is listed here as "Concorde" because of my European solidarity.

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1. Ships of this class appeared in PIC: "The Star Gazer" and "Farewell". The USS Cunningham and USS Resnik could be spotted in PIC: "The Next Generation". As many as 24 were part of the doomed fleet in PIC: "Vox" and "The Last Generation".
2. The Gagarin class was designed by Hector Ortiz and modeled by former Cryptic Studios' 3D artist Donny Versiga for Star Trek Online.
3. In-universe in canon Trek, this is not an update to, or a "re-imagination" of, the old Shepard class from Star Trek: Discovery, but rather an all-new design.

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1. The Galaxy was designed by Andrew Probert. The original design length of exactly 2000ft = 610m increased to 2108ft = 642.5m due to Roddenberry's wish to extend the nacelles to the aft.
2. As the region around the saucer rim was redesigned to fit in Ten Forward, the rim was heightened on the later 4ft studio model.
3. Apart from the three-nacelle version in TNG "All Good Things", the Venture from DS9: "The Way of the Warrior" is a Galaxy variant with additional engine top pieces, probably phaser strips. The 4ft miniature was used, from which the various "All Good Things" add-ons had been removed. The superstructures on the nacelles were retained but their orientation reversed.
4. Two Galaxy-class ships shown in DS9: "Favor the Bold" seem to have a darker neck, possibly constituting yet another variant. This may be a rendering error though.
5. The weapons of the Galaxy class are well-defined. There was one blatant error when the Enterprise fired a phaser from the forward torpedo launcher in TNG: "Darmok", which was fixed for TNG-R.
6. According to the STTNG Technical Manual, six Galaxy-class starships have been completed, and six additional spaceframes prepared. Actually, twelve Galaxy starships altogether are the minimum possible number, taking into account that at least three have already been destroyed, and several others are involved in the Dominion War.
7. The erroneous registry NCC-1305-E of the Yamato in TNG: "Where Silence Has Lease" can be simply explained by the fact that the ship was only an illusion created by Nagilum (Star Trek Fact Files). Actually, the production designer was just not aware of the 24th century numbering scheme. The number was corrected by Mike Okuda some episodes later, when the Yamato exploded in TNG: "Contagion". However, while Picard's monitor states it is NCC-71807, the number visible in HD looks rather like NCC-71806. To further complicate things, a USS Yamato ist listed on the starship deployment status in TNG: "The Measure of a Man", only two episodes before "Contagion", here apparently with the registry NCC-24383.
8. It is odd that the USS Challenger has a lower registry than the USS Yamato, although the Yamato was supposed to be one of the first three ships (after the Galaxy and before the Enterprise), at least according to the TNGTM.
9. After salvaging the saucer from Veridian III, Geordi La Forge restored the Enterprise-D using the stardrive of the USS Syracuse. After successfully fighting the Borg, the ship was placed in the Fleet Museum in PIC: "The Last Generation".
10. The stardrive is still labeled "USS Syracuse" when the ship leaves the spacedock in PIC: "VOX". The registry NCC-17744 is way off, probably because of an in-joke.

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1. Over 200(!) of this one ship class appear in orbit of Coppelius in PIC: "Et in Arcadia Ego II". Five ships of the class can be seen in the fleet in PIC: "The Star Gazer" and "Farewell". The Varian Fry reappears in PIC: "The Next Generation". 22 ships are part of the huge fleet in PIC: "Vox" and "The Last Generation".
2. While the hulls of all vessels are identical, there are two nacelle variations (in season 1): shorter, more angular and arranged as a "V", or longer, more rounded and arranged as an inverted "V". A second difference is nearly imperceptible but was incorporated on purpose. Both nacelle variants come with yellow or with red lighting of the Bussard collector. This is more like an artistic choice than another in-universe variation.
3. All ships in season 2 and 3 have the short nacelles, as per the publicity images. The model was modified for these later appearances. Most notably the ships now have a deflector dish instead of the "grille".
4. The copy-and-paste fleet in "Et in Arcadia Ego II" doesn't only look very boring and cheap (as CG budget was apparently cut in a field where it is least tolerable). It also raises the question what happened to all the other ship classes. The people in charge addressed this by showing much more diversity of designs in seasons 2 and 3.
5. Michael Chabon confirmed that this design is the Inquiry class.
6. According to Michael Chabon, the fleet was originally supposed to be more diverse: "There were three new classes of Starfleet ships approved for the climactic sequence. Whether all three can ultimately be seen or distinguished in the final screen version is unclear.
   • A heavy cruiser: the Inquiry-class. That's the Zheng He.
   • A carrier cruiser, similar to the Inquiry but with two distinctive forward 'prongs' or 'horns' off the elongated 'saucer': the Equity-class.
   • An explorer, with a distinctive 'open' or ring-style saucer: the Seeker-class."
7. Ship names and registries from "Et in Arcadia Ego II" and ship specs according to the Official Starships Collection. The size chart for PIC season 2 lists the Inquiry class as 640.1m long (although this is the variant with short nacelles).

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1. Whilst the ship's overall structure is unusually consistent (Voyager is "Rick Sternbach's Pride" ;-)), there are several questions why the angle of the alleged variable warp geometry nacelles is always the same at warp, why the only shuttlebay is called "shuttlebay two" and, last but not least, where all those shuttles come from. Also, some special effects shots are flawed, like the ship firing phasers from the nacelles in VOY: "Unimatrix Zero".
2. The Intrepid class has an auxiliary craft, the aeroshuttle, docked to the saucer bottom. We may make up several explanations why it never showed up in Voyager. In a Star Trek: The Magazine article and in the Official Starships Collection, Rick Sternbach tells us that the aeroshuttle may not yet have been installed when Voyager departed for the Badlands.
3. Rick Sternbach once said that the Intrepid's registry is NCC-74600. This became official on a tactical display in "Star Trek Nemesis" (made by Sternbach himself).
4. In VOY: "Endgame" the ship is equipped with ablative hull armor that Admiral Janeway brings from the future. This apparently didn't become standard issue.
5. USS Voyager now resides in the Fleet Museum, as seen in PIC: "The Bounty".

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1. No ship of this class was ever visible.
2. The class name Istanbul is from the Star Trek Encyclopedia. The known ships are named for cities on Earth. It is an oddity that there are two ships of the same class using different names of the same city. Maybe there is also a USS Byzantium. ;-)
3. The registry NCC-43622 for the Constantinople comes from the deployment status chart in TNG: "The Measure of a Man", as opposed to the NCC-34852 as listed in the Encyclopedia.

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1. John Eaves designed this ship in honor of model maker Greg Jein (1945-2022). Dave Blass posted a screen cap of where the USS Gregory Jein can be found right after the final battle in PIC: "The Last Generation" but it is not identifiable. There may have been no fully developed CGI of the ship at the time the episode was produced.
2. The top view of the Jein looks much like that of the ibn Majid (that was established as Curiosity class behind the scenes).
3. Although the design shares many traits with the Sovereign, it is reportedly only 381m long.

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