Celebrating the Ships of the Line: USS Defiant NX-74205

Launched in 2370, the U.S.S. Defiant NX-74205 was a 24th-century Federation Defiant-class starship. Operated by Starfleet, it served as the class prototype and was the second Federation ship called Defiant. She was created as a warship, specifically to take on the Borg, but unsuccessful trial runs convinced Starfleet to mothball not just the ship, but the entire project. However, later in 2370, Commander Benjamin Sisko – who’d helped design her -- asked that he be allowed to use the Defiant during his dealings with another growing threat, the Dominion. The ship was still far from perfect, with Miles O’Brien working on overhauls even as the Defiant was utilized to transport Jadzia Dax to the Trill homeworld, to rescue a kidnapped Kira Nerys, to bring the Detapa Council to Deep Space 9, and to thwart a plot by Admiral Leyton that would have overthrown the Federation government and established martial law.

The Defiant also was transported to the 23rd century, where it met up with the original USS Enterprise during its visit to Deep Space K-7 in 2268. Later, in the Battle of Sector 001 in mid-2373, the Defiant was utilized for her initial purpose… battling the Borg. She, under the command of Worf, attacked an invading Borg cube from the Typhon sector to Earth, suffering major damage in the process. Worf was on the verge of ramming the cube when the USS Enterprise-E rescued the vessel's survivors. Then, the Defiant and Enterprise crews tracked a Borg sphere to 2063 shortly after the cube's destruction to prevent the Borg from sabotaging Zefram Cochrane's first warp flight.

The Defiant, which was heavily armed and equipped with an ablative armor coating, later became a major player during the Dominion War, mining the entrance to the Bajoran wormhole and fighting as part of the Second Fleet. However, in 2375, the Dominion and Breen retook the Chin'toka system during the Second Battle of Chin'toka, and the Defiant was among the 311 ships destroyed in the fray.

StarTrek.com's look at the USS Defiant NX-74205 concludes our year-long celebration of the Ships of the Line. The latest in the bestselling Ships of the Line calendar series is available now; visit www.Amazon.com to purchase the 2015 Ships of the Line calendar.