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

While in reality, the Defiant's parents were Jim Martin's never-produced Maquis fighter and the Cardassian Hideki-class transport from the episode "Profit and Loss", in-universe, she was an existing space frame reworked to fight against the Borg following Starfleet's losses at Wolf 359.

According to Rick Sternbach and Michael Okuda's Star Trek: Deep Space Nine Technical Manual, the "Defiant Pathfinder" was a more traditional Starfleet starship with the familiar saucer, secondary hull, and dual warp nacelle configuration before it was streamlined into the lean mean warship we know and love.

This design never made it on screen as a forbearer to the USS Defiant, but it was repurposed as the Nova-class USS Equinox in the Star Trek: Voyager episodes "Equinox, Parts I & II".

The design of the Equinox was tweaked from its Defiant Pathfinder roots, but many of the hallmarks of the USS Defiant remained in the final ship that appeared in Voyager, including the sunken bridge module and notch in the saucer where the Defiant's recognizable nose section should be.