Contributed by Al Spader
In all of Star Trek, the Yeager-type starship probably gets the most memes of the entire fleet. Whether it’s because the ship is in the background of every single space battle in DS9 or its clearly ramshackle model construction, these ships are still talked about to this day.
Interestingly, the Starfleet explanation for the Yeager was in line with the modeling explanation. Necessity. Starfleet needed as many ships as they could get on the front lines, so they started fusing surplus ship parts into these “frankenstein” ships. This explanation seemingly came after the modeler created the ship, but it totally makes sense.
It would also stand to reason that the systems and weapons wouldn’t be as powerful as the battleships already on the front lines.
In fact, fusing together two ships from different factions caused some challenging engineering and computer issues that were never fully worked through.
In the end, Starfleet had a rugged ship that could take a beating while screening its heavy-hitting battleships.
While the modelers had a blast creating this ship, the lore supported the design but it was clear why these ships didn’t see production once the Dominion War ended.