The USS Yeager: Deep Space Nine's "Other" Assigned Starship?

[Cyfa]

The Miranda-class's circular saucer semingly fits in Defiant's dock (or one of the three, anyway) as seen when USS Trial docks in "The Way of the Warrior", so surely an Intrepid-class saucer will fit pointing in? Well, depending on if DS9 is having a BIG day or not

 

[evilchumlee]

The Miranda-class's circular saucer semingly fits in Defiant's dock (or one of the three, anyway) as seen when USS Trial docks in "The Way of the Warrior", so surely an Intrepid-class saucer will fit pointing in? Well, depending on if DS9 is having a BIG day or not

In all fairness, the angle doesn't show like, the saucer actually inside. It might just be "bumping" it so to speak, and a gangway extends out.

 

[Dukhat]

Does the habitat ring actually have docking ports? I know they have runabout pads, but docking ports inside a larger ring specifically made for docking doesn’t really make a lot of sense.

 

[Praetor]

I don't think the habitat ring has any docking ports; I don't recall any mention or reference to them. That said, I assume that all the docking ports we do see have extensible tunnels, even though those aren't mentioned, to accommodate various ships.

Speaking of squinting and pretending, I tend to do that with the Yeager's secondary hull. Having put together both model kits that they built it out of, I get why they did what they did. It just makes no sense in-universe. Even if the Klingons build birds-of-prey to different scales, it just doesn't make any sense to me.

 

[UssGlenn]

Speaking of squinting and pretending, I tend to do that with the Yeager's secondary hull. Having put together both model kits that they built it out of, I get why they did what they did. It just makes no sense in-universe. Even if the Klingons build birds-of-prey to different scales, it just doesn't make any sense to me.

I agree, if we ever saw it close up the overall shape is there, but all the details are different. Sort of like how both the 33 incher and the 11 footer are both the TOS Enterprise, even though the saucers are different shapes.

 

[Tim Walker]

i tend to assume that the ship was a technology test bed, perhaps testing some variation of the adaptable warp field system that the Intrepids used with their moving nacelle pylons. that they used the Intrepid base hull (thus the saucer) and modified the design from there to fit various experimental systems they were testing aboard. resulting in the resemblance to the marquis raider for the lower hull. (which had to be coincidental or the result of a designer liking the look, as the actual maquis raider was tiny, not much bigger than an Intrepid's or yeager's nacelles.)

presumably the result would have been a very fast starship, since that enlarged lower hull would have been able to fit a bigger warpcore, a

Yes, if the ship was constructed as a test bed, rather than random parts being thrown together, it makes sense. Removes the objection that aft and forward sections are from wildly different sized ships.

An important goal could have been to test the utility of a shovel shaped saucer, as well as other systems.

 

[Data Holmes]

I like the minelayer idea, that’s a beer idea.


I always figured the frame started life as a planned intrepid class hull, but before work on the secondary hull has started they hastily decided to make it more combat focus as a destroyer. They went with a simpler but heavier secondary hull design, wether it was copied from the raider type craft or not in universe is personal choice, but it is mostly dedicated to engineering, defensive and weapons systems.

She has one fore and two aft firing photon torpedo launchers from a galaxy class capable of burst fire, she retains the twin rear rapid fire launchers of the intrepid class giving her a massive rear torpedo fire capability leading to her successful use in hit and run tactics. She was also armed with twin forward mounted pulse phaser cannons like those on the defiant class, which adds to her hit and run style. She has a complement of 750 torpedos.

Her double redundant oversized impulse drives give her a high sunlight speed and maneuverability.

She has a crew compliment of 80. She carries no shuttles outside of the aerowing runabout at the base of the primary hull.

 

[Tim Walker]

I always figured the frame started life as a planned intrepid class hull, but before work on the secondary hull has started they hastily decided to make it more combat focus as a destroyer. They went with a simpler but heavier secondary hull design, wether it was copied from the raider type craft or not in universe is personal choice, but it is mostly dedicated to engineering, defensive and weapons systems.

Perhaps the Yeager was a proto-type for an anti-Borg ship. Using components from the Intrepid class.

Didn't go into production, but had promise as a picket ship.

 

[Data Holmes]

Perhaps the Yeager was a proto-type for an anti-Borg ship. Using components from the Intrepid class.

Didn't go into production, but had promise as a picket ship.

Perhaps the USS Elkins (one of the other “Frankenstein” fleet, with an intrepid saucer and a F14 derived secondary hull) was part of the same program… kinda like the twin design for the US’s littoral combat ship freedom class and independence class prototypes. Two teams each building one prototype to test and determine which design (or neither) to go with.

 

[somebuddyX]

I quite like the Yeager-type for some reason and it's one of my four Eaglemoss models. I always like Trek having families of ships, like the Galaxy/Nebula or Constitution/Miranda, so there being more Intrepid-types is kind of fun. I've found it fascinating that there was another Yeager around at a similar time in First Contact and I've wanted to see the two Yeagers or at least a Yeager-type and a Saber-class in battle alongside one another in fanart, and now that I think about it, it might be fun to see fanart of the DS9 Yeager and Voyager alongside one another.

 

[Tim Walker]

I always figured the frame started life as a planned intrepid class hull, but before work on the secondary hull has started they hastily decided to make it more combat focus as a destroyer. They went with a simpler but heavier secondary hull design, wether it was copied from the raider type craft or not in universe is personal choice, but it is mostly dedicated to engineering, defensive and weapons systems.

Perhaps such a design was chosen because it was faster to build than the First Contact designs?

 

[publiusr]

I can see that as well.
With the name—one can imagine the Chief Designer thought a lot of Chuck, and decided to scale up a winged design—maybe the Federation version of what the Victory class Star Destroyer was supposed to be.

 

[David cgc]

Yeah, I just checked with a couple of CG models I have. The claws around the docking ring come out a lot further than I remembered. If they can hinge or slide open (and that makes sense, it’s hard to imagine what they're for if not grabbing on to docking ships) then it could work, easily, but if they're fixed in place, an Intrepid/Yeager wouldn't fit even with the giant DS9 from shots where a Galaxy or Nebula was docked.

Following up on this thought, Chris Kuhn, who made the DS9 CG model I compared the Intrepid model against, is working on a new version and posted a WIP shot with a close-up photo of the large port on the docking ring for reference, and it turns out the claws do have a detail that looks like a flexible covering for a hinge or other joint, suggesting they can open (or close) to let wider or narrower ships fit in. They also seem to be very slightly flared in their "default" position.

 

[JoseNoodles]

Following up on this thought, Chris Kuhn, who made the DS9 CG model I compared the Intrepid model against, is working on a new version and posted a WIP shot with a close-up photo of the large port on the docking ring for reference, and it turns out the claws do have a detail that looks like a flexible covering for a hinge or other joint, suggesting they can open (or close) to let wider or narrower ships fit in. They also seem to be very slightly flared in their "default" position.

View attachment 42776

I always assumed the clamps moved, otherwise how could non-Cardassian ships like the Defiant and Klingon Bird-of-Prey dock? I assume the Cardassians would have some forethought to accommodate alien vessels.

 

[Tomalak]

Even if the Cardassians didn’t, O’Brien mentions “retrofitting the airlocks” in Emissary, which I’ve always taken to mean Starfleet installing universal docking ports to allow Federation and other alien ships to dock at the station. I don’t recall any ships being unable to dock, no matter where they came from.

As for the Yeager, I always liked that it was a ship with a distinctive silhouette. I agree it was likely assigned to the Sector, not DS9 itself, explaining its absence at key moments such as For the Uniform.

Another possibility is that it’s a supply ship that makes regular runs to the station. I don’t get the impression it’s a particularly fast ship, but the Intrepid is pretty voluminous and has those three main cargo bays in the primary hull. It wouldn’t take much to rip out the crew quarters, holodecks and science labs to devote even more space for cargo, and the revised secondary hull suggests to me that it could be useful for transporting various dangerous matériels. The Defiant’s quantum torpedoes have to get there somehow.

 

[DEWLine]

I expect that the torpedoes would be for both the station and the Defiant.