Yeah the Yeager was seen on screen the most due to it being in stock footage with the station. IIRC it actually appeared in late season five, before the kitbashes in A Time to Stand.
True, it did. Which makes me think that its design was more of an in-joke than someone actually scrambling to build a kitbash in a short time. I remember first seeing it in the background and thinking, "cool, they're using an Intrepid class in DS9." Only later did I notice that something wasn't quite right with the ship (it was very tiny on a small standard-def tv, after all.)
Something I overlooked. Online, I came across a description of the Nebula design as a Work elephant. Revised list: Stars Work Elephants Work horses Gofers
In honour of the Frankenstein Fleet I classed the Orion (and others like her) as the Zombie Fleet, seeing as how they were dragged out of mothballs and brought back to minimal operational status then just shuffled around back and forth carrying out mindless tasks.
I think that the Centaurs would be retained as patrol vessels. And probably be Work horses. Cool ships.
Except the Centaur is only about the size of a Jem’Hadar fighter, while the Shenzhou is far larger. But yes, there are quite a few similarities.
To be fair, we never really see a good size comparison shot in the episode, so the alternate interpretation of the ship being Excelsior-sized can still be visually upheld. Heck, we never see the scale-establishing Miranda bridge in the episode, either! (Is that for a reason?) It's just that plotwise it makes no sense not to consider Reynolds' ship "small". Timo Saloniemi
I sort of think Burt Rutan lent a hand here. "Now what's the absolutely smallest spaceframe we can build to carry the standard torpedo pod we have in abundant stock...?" Timo Saloniemi
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Monitor_(warship) The World War I monitors were described as makeshift, with guns left over from other projects wedded to hulls constructed in "cheap and cheerful" fashion.
Taking a starbase is supposed to be a difficult and exceptional military maneuver, so one may readily compare it to the famous amphibious assaults of late, operations for which entire oceangoing vessels indeed were designed from scratch or converted from the unlikeliest originals. It's just that we have no real reason to think these Starfleet "funnies" actually took part in Operation Return... Timo Saloniemi
Starfleet could've sent its more "modern" ships to retake DS9, leaving the Frankenstein Fleet to hold the front.
But that would go against the Operation Overlord analogy I was speaking about. Starfleet's counterparts to monitors, LSTs and the like wouldn't be cobbled together to "hold the fort" but to fight at the very spearhead of the unconventional force. Not that most of the Frankensteins would actually look unconventional. The Jupp instead is highly conventional, merely a regular starship from the late 23rd century still fighting on. The others mix Miranda and Excelsior elements for an early 24th century look, but they aren't particularly weirdly shaped. It's just that when a late 24th century hull is mated to a late 23rd century engine for the Elkins, it's not the most natural fit imaginable... Timo Saloniemi
It's a shame that the Jupp - easily the most pleasing design - doesn't appear on screen as far as anyone has been able to determine. The Elkins and the tri-nacelle Excelsior don't either, thankfully. The Yeager, the Shelley/Curry/Raging Queen (whichever you like) and the Centaur do show up, as do those Mirandas with odd AWACS style pods, plus the ones with extra impulse exhausts. Aside from the latter 'speedy' Mirandas and the Centaur, the rest appear only behind the lines, or in the aftermath of a battle. They never actually appear in combat.
Except for the Yeagers, these designs could be ships from the early 24th century, brought out of mothballs for the war.
Or then run ragged in the constant wars that the Federation fought right until the start of the Dominion War. That would keep them out of our sights, too - that is, far away from exploration vessels and diplomatic cruises. Timo Saloniemi