The Star Trek franchise features many spacecraft. Various space vessels make up the primary settings of the Star Trek television series, films, and expanded universe; others help advance the franchise's stories.Throughout the franchise's production, spacecraft have been depicted by numerous physical and computer-generated models. Producers worked to balance often tight budgets with the need to.
Star Trek Fighter Craft Classes
The Vulcan Science Academy's Interdimensional Threat Assessment was founded in 2268 after the discovery of the 'Mirror Universe' by the crew of the USS Enterprise. Its purpose was to monitor parallel dimensional planes and alternative universes for possible threats to the continued existence of Vulcan and the Federation. It achieved mixed results at first until use of a specialised transdimensional communications scanner revealed the existence of a parallel timeline in which Vulcan had been destroyed by a massive Romulan ship from the future decades ago. While the exact nature and origin of the Romulan ship remained unclear, it became clear to the Vulcan science academy that there needed to be other lines of defence besides Starfleet to ensure the safety of Vulcan and its people. Despite the Vulcans' distaste for war, this was seen as a logical conclusion.Starfleet does not, as a general rule, approve of large local military fleets on Federation planets that act independently of Starfleet due to the higher risk of military escalation outside their control. As a result, procuring a large number of armed cruisers for Vulcan was not a realistic option, while purely ground- and orbit-based defensive batteries were not seen as sufficient on their own.
Star Trek Destroyer Class Ships
Thus, Vulcan opted for the construction of large numbers of small one-man fighter craft, which, due to the limited effective range of their warp drives, were seen as purely defensive weapons unless combined with a carrier. At the same time, their heavy armament (a micro-torpedo launcher, two powerful phasic disruptors and a light Type IV phaser for precision attacks) and small frame that made them difficult to hit meant that a swarm of K'spir fighters was an effective deterrent against most foes. Vulcan agreed to limit their carrier fleet to only two ships, ensuring that most fighters would always remain on Vulcan itself, not appearing as a threat to nearby systems but ready to swarm any enemy should they choose to attack the planet. Pictured here is a single K'spir class craft on a rare visit to Earth aboard the carrier Shovak in 2369, shortly after the fourth full flight of K'spir fighters had become fully operational.