Note
It is possible that Borg ships may "grow" through assimilation, so
each individual ship may look different and there would be no or fewer specific
classes than listed here. On the other hand, we have seen countless cubes in
Voyager which looked the same and were of the same size, thereby establishing
a class of vessels.
An Earth transport was assimilated by the Borg in 2153.
The original top speed of the Earth ship of Warp 1.4 was boosted by
the Borg to Warp 3.9 when leaving Earth, then to Warp 4.8 and finally to Warp
4.98, using
technology from their crashed ship. The Borg also incorporated a proton burst
weapon. Gallery:
Borg
Starships
Known ships
No name given
Annotations
The ship is also listed here.
The Borgified version appeared in two stages, one still showing
portions of the original hull, and the final one incorporating parts
of the Tarkalean vessel. Our side
view depicts this final stage.
The class-4 tactical cube is about the size of a cube (variant 2),
but more heavily armed. Gallery:
Borg
Starships
Known ships
Tactical Cube 138
Annotations
The tactical cube was intentionally laid out by Doug Drexler as a
standard cube with additional hull plating as shown in Star Trek:
The Magazine (October 2000). Visual evidence from VOY:
"Unimatrix Zero" supports the assumption that it is of the
same size as a 3km cube variant 2.
It seems unusual that the Borg
would give this ship type, unlike all others, such a specific
designation, which is why I think "Class-4 tactical cube" is
rather a Federation classification.
The Borg cube first encountered in 2365 is a huge vessel with highly
distributed systems. A cube has no specific markers that could allow
to identify individual ships. The fire power of a cube is far superior
to any Federation ship of the time. Gallery:
Borg Starships
Known ships
No name given
Annotations
The cube variant 1 could be
seen in TNG: "Q Who" and "The Best of Both
Worlds". The physical model of the cube was made of whatever material was available, mostly trees left over from
model kits. This is why it appears as a maze of pipes when we look
closely, visually very different from the later Voyager cubes (variant
2). Variant 1 also seems to be larger in most shots.
It is possible that the cubes in the two TNG episodes were
actually the same, as Data could not find any identification markers.
Although it was never mentioned on screen, it has been
suggested that a cube may grow as new technology and new drones are
assimilated. This would ultimately explain all the size differences.
In particular, it would explain why the cube (variant 1), after a
longer journey through the Beta and Alpha Quadrants, may be so much
larger than variant 2 that we see in the Delta Quadrant. On the other
hand, this would render any attempt to classify Borg ships futile as
they would be extended and modified in a chaotic fashion.
In TNG: "Q Who", when
the first Borg cube appeared, the vessel's external structure could
regenerate after much of it had been destroyed by the Enterprise's
weapons. All Borg vessels since "The Best of Both Worlds" seemed to
lack the ability of fast regeneration, but they were much harder to
damage in the first place.
The opening sequence of "Star Trek: First Contact" shows
a flashback of Picard's time as Locutus aboard the Borg cube. The
visuals created for this scene would fit better into a spherical hull
than into a cube. The scene was reused for the interior of the sphere
in VOY: "Drone", suggesting that the two are identical. We
may speculate that the big cube in "Best of Both Worlds" had
a sphere just like the smaller one in "First Contact". This
would also explain how the Queen and some drones (as mentioned in VOY:
"Unity") could escape, although sensors on Earth and on the
Enterprise should have picked up the sphere's departure. The larger
size of the sphere seen in "Drone", compared to most other
spheres seen on Voyager, goes along nicely with the fact that the
shown interior would require a larger sphere anyway.
The standard Borg cube variant 2 appears to exist in much larger
numbers than variant 1. These cubes don't have specific configurations
either, and there may be many variants that only share their size.
Known ships
Cube 461
Cube 630
Cube 1184
Annotations
In contrast to variant 1, the cubes seen since "First Contact"
and Voyager are chunkier and less "transparent", as they
have a hull plating with 45-degree angles. This could
point to an upgrade or a new class of cubes. However, in VOY:
"Dark Frontier", the Hansens ran into a Voyager-style cube
already a decade prior to TNG. Since the TNG cubes may be considerably
larger, while the differences between the "First Contact"
(physical) and Voyager (CGI) cubes are less obvious, it may be useful
to distinguish only two types. Actually, on a diagram in VOY:
"Scorpion, Part I" it looks indeed like there are supposed
to exist exactly two different sizes of cubes.
Only the cube in "First Contact" was ever seen or
mentioned to release a sphere. Considering how many cubes were blown
up without survivors in Voyager, for instance by Species 8472, it is possible
that only few cubes are actually equipped with the
"lifeboat" sphere.
The size results from the internal volume of 28 cubic
kilometers mentioned in VOY: "Dark Frontier", yielding a
length of 3040m. The size chart
for "First Contact" in Star Trek:
The Magazine (March 2001) shows the cube at 9000ft = 2743m. The
difference is small enough to postulate that there is actually only
one size of variant 2.
The crew size of 129,000 is stated for the cube encountered by
the Raven (VOY: "Dark Frontier"), while the visually
identical Cube 630 (VOY: "Unimatrix Zero") has a drone complement
of 64,000. It is possible that the first number includes newly assimilated
drones.
Class
specifications
Length: approx. 3000m
Crew complement: 64,000 to 129,000
Cube variant 3
General description
This type of Borg cube resembles variant 2 and was encountered by the Romulans in the early 2380s.
Known ships
No name given
Annotations
The main difference to previously seen Borg cubes is that variant 3 features big channels in its outer hull. It looks like these were part of the original design and not carved into the ship after it was captured by the Romulans. Other than that, the surface is very much like that of a variant-2 cube. The size may be the same as well.
The Borg cube repairs itself a bit like the one first encountered by the Enterprise in TNG: "Q Who". We may argue that the "old" Borg cube too had something like repair drones, rather than being made of self-bending metal.
This Borg cube is equipped with a sphere, like the one in "First Contact".
This diamond-shaped vessel carries the Borg Queen. It is
significantly smaller than a standard cube and may be integrated into
the Unicomplex. Gallery:
Borg
Starships
Known ships
No name given
Annotations
The Queen's ship was destroyed in
VOY: "Dark Frontier". We may assume that the Borg built a
new one (as well as a new Queen), since we see the Queen's chamber
again in "Unimatrix Zero" and in "Endgame" where
the Unicomplex is apparently ultimately destroyed.
The vessel used by the Borg renegades in 2369 is irregularly
shaped, significantly
larger and more heavily armed than a Federation Galaxy-class starship. Gallery:
Borg
Starships
Known ships
No name given
Annotations
As suggested below, the
Renegade Borg vessel, as seen in TNG: "Descent", may originate from a mine layer, but this is only
speculation. It could be just as well a starship of an unknown alien species
that has been "Borgified". The designation "Vessel Borg
Type 03" comes from a display in the episode.
Sphere variant 1 is considerably larger than variant 2, yet smaller
than a cube. Variant 1 may serve as a long-range tactical vessel. Gallery:
Borg
Starships
Known ships
Sphere 634
Sphere 878
Annotations
The larger type of spheres
appeared in VOY: "Drone", identified as "long-range
tactical vessel" by Seven. Sphere 634 that followed Voyager into
the transwarp channel may have been that large too. Sphere 878,
ordered to self-destruct by the Queen in "Unimatrix Zero",
had a crew complement of 11,000, which points to quite a large size as
well.
As suggested above, a sphere similar in size and structure to the
long-range tactical vessel may have been aboard the cube variant 1 as
a lifeboat in TNG: "The Best of Both Worlds".
The smaller sphere variant 2 is about 450m across. It serves as an
independent vessel or as a lifeboat for cubes of variant 2. Gallery:
Borg
Starships
Known ships
No name given
Annotations
The smaller sphere first
appeared in "First Contact". Most spheres seen on Voyager
seem to be of this smaller type too, in particular the ones in VOY: "Survival Instinct" and "Unimatrix Zero". Although
the models are visually identical, the size difference to variant 1 is
considerable.
Most visual evidence would support a diameter of 1500ft (=457m), as
depicted in Star
Trek: The Magazine (March 2001), which also goes along with the
size chart for "First Contact". In ENT:
"Regeneration" the diameter was estimated to be 600m, based
on the radius of the wreckage.
Class
specifications
Diameter: approx. 450m
Sphere variant 3
General description
Sphere variant 3 looks like it serves as an independent vessel or as a lifeboat for cubes of variant 3.
Known ships
No name given
Annotations
The sphere is visible inside the cube in PIC: "Broken Pieces" and "Et in Arcadia Ego I".
We can't see the sphere in its entirety. It is well possible that there is no difference between variants 2 and 3. The relative scaling is much like in "First Contact". If Borg cube variant 3 measures 3 kilometers (just like variant 2), then the sphere is 450 meters across (just like variant 2).
The multikinetic mine is a powerful weapon that was considered as
a defense against Species 8472 in 2374.
Known probes
No name given
Annotations
The multikinetic mine appeared on
a display in VOY: "Scorpion" where it was clearly the same
design as the Renegade Borg ship. We may either ignore the similarity,
or the mine is really that large and is manned with countless drones. It is
also possible that the display actually depicted the mine layer.
Class specifications
None available
Repair drone
General description
The Borg cube variant 3 is equipped with a large number of these drones that repair hull damage and ship systems.
Known drones
No name given
Annotations
The drones kick into action in PIC: "Broken Pieces". Perhaps all Borg cubes are equipped with such drones and we only couldn't see them up close until now.
The scout vessel is a small ship of the size of a shuttle, manned
with five drones.
Known shuttles
No name given
Annotations
The
scout ship, basically only a box with some affixed details (the image
on the upper left is derived from a concept sketch), could be
seen as a full-size mock-up in the episode TNG: "I, Borg". The
episode mentioned another, "similar" Borg vessel, but this
one was supposed to have a mass of 2.5 million metric tons. Not really
credible...
The Unicomplex, the center of all Borg activities, is a vast
spaceborne installation including the Central Nexus of the Queen. Gallery:
Borg
Starships
Known stations
No name given
Annotations
The
Unicomplex was shown in VOY: "Dark Frontier" and eventually
destroyed in "Endgame". Even if most of the Borg
population is concentrated there, "Trillions of drones", as
much as the population of thousands of planets, inside the Unicomplex
seems to be vastly exaggerated. If the Borg really don't reproduce
themselves, it would be almost impossible to ever gather so many
drones in one place - unless the life span of a drone were unlimited.
Personally, I suggest to reduce the figure to
"billions".