Star Trek: 10 Secrets Of The USS Cerritos You Need To Know

The exact age of the Cerritos and the commission date of the California-class has yet to be revealed on Lower Decks, but a big plot point in the episode "Cupid's Errant Arrow" establishes that the Cerritos is kind of a junky, old ship in constant need of repair.

Mike McMahan told Trekyards that that ability to take damage and be repaired or refitted is a key feature of the Cerritos:

The name of the game on the Cerritos is functionality, they have to be able to open it up and change it and it's not being used for diplomacy or speed or for battles... What the ship is good at is being taken apart and being utilized, it's kind of like a trusty toolbox, it looks good when it's doing it because it's Starfleet, but that's the mentality behind it.

While the ship definitely fits the TNG-era aesthetic, the producers intended the ship to have gone through several refits over the course of its service:

I think's actually gone through couple nacelle shapes, I think the saucer section has been around and has been mildly kind of tweaked, but... I think at some point, I wanted it to look like they got an upgrade on the nacelles.

This sentiment actually ties in nicely with the events of Lower Decks’ first season finale in which the Cerritos is nearly destroyed by the Pakleds, then rebuilt. But not rebuilt to look “all Sovereign-class.”