"We know the
D'deridex was intended to be larger, and was occasionally photographed as being larger, but this isn't all that clear-cut."
Galaxy class
Length - 642.51 meters
Beam - 463.73 meters
Height - 195.26 meters
Mass - 4.5 million metric tons
D'deridex class
Length - 1,041.65 meters
Beam - 772.43 meters
Height - 285.47 meters
Mass - 4.3 million metric tons
The D'deridex class warbird may have been longer, wider, and taller than the Galaxy class but it was not "larger".
Case
for D'deridex Class warbird: 1) cloaking device technology
case
against D'deridex Class warbird:1)Federation can use Tachyon detection Grids to detect cloaked ship.(TNG:redemption part 2)
2)Even with perfected cloaking technology the romulan cloaked vessel can still be detected by the federation using telepathic races such as the Betazoids to detect their thoughts.( Star trek :Nemesis)
3)D'deridex Class warbird is powered by quantum singularity.Quantum singularity disappears unless continually fed matter.
Case for Galaxy Class: 1)saucer separation . The secondary hull/battle section diversifies the immediate danger in that non essential personnel can be evacuated in primary hull while secondary hull tackles threat.
2)Galaxy class ships use Matter/anti matter in their warp core.This can be jury rigged into a weapon.Contrast this with the romulan method to achieve warp flight.
3)Navigational deflector dish can also be improvised into a weapon(TNG:Best of both worlds part 2)
Case
against galaxy class: 1) smaller size.But is smaller size a weakness? as was mentioned in an earlier in the thread,USS Voyager,an intrepid class vessel, could take out much larger kazon vessels on its its own(VOY: Caretaker)
So on the basis of these factors i would say that while a warbird may look threatening 'its bark is worse than its bite'. The little evidence that exists suggests the galaxy class can easily match a D'deridex class warbird.
Andrew Probert designed the
D'deridex-class warbird to be 4400 feet long, or 1341 metres... which is larger than either illustrated comparison. "1041 metres" looks like a typo. In terms of
volume, it is more than 4 times bigger than a
Galaxy-class starship. That's a lot more room. I'm sure that a lot of it is oversized equipment for a quantum singularity, but there should be enough left over for more weapons and shield generators.
As for the quantum singularity disappearing eventually when not fed matter, that's a good thing. A warbird struck in its power generation system loses power, but could survive on batteries for a little while. A starship struck in its warp core suffers destruction.
In "The Enemy", Picard was not the least bit worried about saber-rattling against Tomalak. Likewise, Tomalak was not the least bit intimidated by Picard.
Neither ship directly engaged in battle against each other (although in "Tin Man', a warbird severely weakened the
Enterprise-D's aft shields while Picard chose not to fire back), but they have fought common enemies during the Dominion War. Pre-Dominion War, no Alpha Quadrant vessel stood a chance against the Jem'Hadar ("The Jem'Hadar", "The Die is Cast"). By the last episode of DS9, Federation, Klingon, Romulan, and Cardassian starships were destroying Jem'Hadar attack ships with single shots.
During the First Battle of Chin'toka, the orbital weapons platforms outright destroyed medium-sized ships that were hit (
Excelsior-class and
Akira-class ships come to mind). Smaller ships that could evade fire survived (the
Defiant). Larger ships that could take a beating also survived when hit, but took notable damage (the USS
Galaxy herself). A
D'deridex-class warbird was also under fire, but I can't remember whether it survived or not.
Now, it really is up in the air which starship is better in combat (given the same crew effectiveness), but in terms of sheer strength, the ship that's more than 4 times bigger probably isn't going to be the underdog.
