Aft phasers as well as seen in Paradise Lost, when it fights the Lakota. And I think a few of the broader battle sequences towards the end of the series. We don't see it often because the Defiant is so front loaded. The quads and quantum torpedoes are up front. The rear stuff is defensive "get away to make another pass" weaponry. As far as the question? Voyager would be shredded by either of the other ships in seconds. The Defiant was a purpose designed weapon. Heavily armored, insanely armed, dangerously overpowered, and specifically designed to blow whatever is in front of it straight to hell. The Sovereigns were post Borg designed Battleships. Abandoning much of the "science and exploration" philosophy of the already scarily militarily competent Galaxy class for greater offensive and defensive roles. The Intrepids were the then new mass produced general purpose fleet vessels. Light multi role cruisers designed for everything from emergency response, to border patrol and policing to science and light exploration. They were well armed, but not purpose built or focused warships. As for Defiant vs Sovereign. The Sovereign would win against a single defiant class, but would no it had been in a fight. Against 2 or 3 it would be overwhelmed.
Yeah, the poll is disingenuous (and pointless) because it offers a third option that isn't in the thread title. And a third option that would wipe the floor with the other two, at that. Edit: I didn't realize until after I posted that this is another necrothread.
On paper the EE certainly seems to have the upper hand in this hypothetical encounter. But battles aren't fought on paper. The E is also a big and slow moving ship. The Defiant might be able to outmaneuver it long enough to get sufficient shots in to disable its weapons or some other critical system. But even so, it would be a very difficult assignment and the odds are still with the E. The USS Voyager certainly seems to be out of its element here and should get its butt handed to it handily. But I always make it a policy to never underestimate Janeway, especially if the odds are stacked against her...and double especially if there's coffee in that nebula
I think that the Intrepid class (Voyager) was likely designed before Picard's first encounter with the Borg.
Size is not a determining factor in maneuverability in Trek, because SF ships apparently use subspace fields to lower their mass (this would essentially make them as maneuverable as fighters). Considering that a Defiant was at a stand-off with an upgraded Excelsior class, I think Voyager would be able to bring the battle to the same conclusion. As for the Enterprise-E... depends if it is more powerful than the others. If all 3 ships are from the same era (say post Nemesis movie), then all would effectively sport same concurrent technologies and then you essentially end up with whomever can either dish out more firepower or exploit a weakness in the other two. The Defiant can only focus on one ship at a time for the most part (and its initial advantage of having more firepower would not really be groundbreaking, considering that SF considered it in the first place because they were able to pack a substantial amount of firepower into a smaller frame that would take less time to build).
I'm sorry but I disagree. We've seen plenty of shots of large space-vessels (such as the Galaxy class) moving much slower than smaller vessels such as the Defiant. Also the Defiant and Ent-E have ablative armour which the Voyager doesn't have. Neither does the Voyager have Quantum Torpedoes which both the Defiant and Ent-E have. Quantum torpedoes are more powerful than the Photon variety. Also Voyager was a space-vessel designed for long-term exploration while the Defiant and Ent-E were both designed to battle the Borg. I'm not doubting that Voyager had an innovative crew and a resilient captain but the ship itself could not match the Defiant or the Ent-E in combat. Much like the Defiant can't match the Voyager in speed, comfort and scientific exploration.
Enterprise-E is obviously the most powerful of the three and could probably beat both Defiant and Voyager at once. Voyager is the weakest, it is really not a combat ship. Does Defiant still have the cloak? Only way I could see it having even a remote chance against Ent-E, is a crippling surprise attack against unshielded E.
So, the Defiant and Enterprise-E got ablative armor, but you think that Starfleet would not upgrade the Intrepid with the same feature in the same time frame as Nemesis movie was set in, or better yet just afterwards? Or are we comparing ships at their 'stock' from the time they were initially launched? As for larger ships moving slow... I don't buy that because the writers were inconsistent. They were applying current day thinking to Trek, which would apply to a degree, but again not really. As I said, we've seen Ds9 for example being moved from the orbit of Bajor to the mouth of the wormhole at the edge of the Bajoran system, and Borg freaking cubes spinning around their own axis at high Warp speeds. The moment they established a subspace field around the station, it became practically as light as a feather and could easily rotate and move very fast - at impulse speeds using nothing but thrusters). SF ships regularly employ subspace fields as part of routine starship operations and generate them around the hull at sublight as well (again as part of standard operation). Also, do you really think a larger ship like the Intrepid would need to move around a small target fast? Let's examine that: Voyager has essentially 360 degrees coverage in terms of phasers, the Defiant does not. Voyager (and the Enterprise) can easily combat the Defiant from nearly all angles pummeling it with phasers on a continuous basis, while the Defiant cannot do the same effectively, resulting in the smaller ship getting more damage as a result (and we've seen that when the targeting scanners are working properly, phasers don't miss). Also, in that battle with an upgraded USS Lakota, even with the Defiant having ablative hull armor, both ships turned out to be equally matched - and neither wanted to use deadly force (meaning quantum torpedoes). Considering that Voyager was actually designed in the 24th century as opposed to being a retrofitted starship from about 80 years ago, I think it stands same/similar chance like the Lakota did against the Defiant (especially when you consider Voyager's combat performance - and even Paris mentioned that the ship was built for combat - though, that might have been proverbial throwaway line to appease Kim and his flute playing... still I don't think so, considering that most SF ships are well defended and have adequate weapons for offense - Voyager was no different, and it wasn't THAT big either).