Star Trek: 10 Most Unique Starfleet Ships

The Oberth-class uniquely connects the primary hull to the secondary hull with two curved pylons coming out from under the nacelles. This odd design leaves a large gap in the middle of the ship, similar to a Romulan D'deridex-class.

These ships were primarily used for science missions. During emergencies like Borg invasion in Star Trek: First Contact, Oberth-class ships would be deployed for combat, but they were not designed with fighting in mind. One Oberth-class starship, the USS Pegasus experimented with several new advanced technologies, including an illegal Federation cloaking device that was kept secret until the Enterprise-D crew exposed the coverup.

As the nacelle designs may suggest, these ships were pretty old by the time we saw them in Next Gen. The earliest we've seen an Oberth-class was in The Search For Spock, which takes place close to a century earlier. However, their interior designs and much of their technology have been upgraded over time.