Klingon Ship Classes

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1. Kor mentions the Klingon D5 ship in DS9: "Once More Unto the Breach". Even though The Animated Series was not considered canon by TPTB until recently, the D5 was previously suggested to be a D7 variant seen in TAS: "The Time Trap", as stated by Ronald D. Moore. This ship is only slight different from the D7 in that it has a protruding sensor tube or rather a torpedo tube. This notion has to be dropped, since we have actually seen a quite different ship verbally identified as D5 in ENT: "Judgment" and once again in ENT: "The Augments". More on the TAS battlecruiser can be found on my page about TAS Alien Ship Classes and at the Guide to Animated Trek.
2. The tanker was the first variant to appear in Star Trek Enterprise. It could be seen as Korok's ship in ENT: "Marauders". The CGI model is similar as that of the later D5 cruiser (ENT: "Judgment"). It has eight underslung deuterium tanks that would later be replaced with two disruptor cannons. But there are more differences. The tanker has roughly triangular wings or nacelle pylons, whereas there are additional corners in the wings of the D5 cruiser. Owing to the new wing shape, the nacelles are further backward on the D5. This makes the ship longer. If we take the identical nacelles of the two ships as a size reference, they were decreased in size relative to the head and neck sections, so the D5 is overall bigger. In addition, many details were changed. The "piping" looks somewhat different, and the cruiser has no windows any more.
3. The (presumably smaller) tanker has a crew of only 12. We do not know the complement of the standard D5, but cruisers always have crews in the hundreds.
4. There is a tactical display in ENT: "Judgment" that gives us a length of just 75m for the D5. However, at such a small size the ship could have just one deck, although there are multiple rows of windows on the model. The interior of the bridge as depicted in "Judgment" would occupy most of the bow section, the rest may be mostly uninhabitable. Finally, in "Divergence" the Klingon ship has to be about the same size as Enterprise, perhaps just a bit shorter. According to the Official Starships Collection, the cruiser variant is approx. 155m long

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1. The early Bird-of-Prey was mentioned in ENT: "Sleeping Dogs" and appeared for the first time in ENT: "The Expanse". If Duras has been demoted due to his previous failure, it makes sense that he now commands a smaller ship like the Bird-of-Prey.
2. The 22nd century BoP is a new design, although it follows the basic lines of the 23rd century version. There is a bridge module on the bow section which sports a more pronounced bulge than the cloaking generator on the 23rd century BoP. Two large angular structures are flanking the engineering hull. It is obvious that these are supposed to be the warp engines (like on the later BoP), rather than serving the same unknown purpose as the similar structures on the D5 battlecruiser. There is also a pod on the center of the engineering hull that looks much like the pod on the Raptor class. Although we have never seen an early BoP do it, it is almost certain that the wings can be moved up like on the later BoP, looking at the structure of the "baffles" with what looks like a pivot in their front and aft end. But the wings can be moved up no farther than to a horizontal orientation. The wing tips hold what appears too small to be warp engines. Since the disruptor cannons are located at their front tips, these pods most likely belong to the weapons systems. The port cannon is considerably larger than the starboard one. There is an additional weapon turret underneath the engineering hull. Finally, an additional strut connects the bow section with the engineering hull. It is unknown whether the early BoP can land.
3. A rough size estimation is possible in ENT: "Borderland". Here the Klingon vessel looks a tad shorter than the saucer section of Enterprise, maybe some 115m. The structure of the ship with its dedicated bridge and the window rows points to a rather larger size than the 23rd century version though.
4. Ambassador Soval's assistant mentioned "Klingon Warbirds" in ENT: "Broken Bow". Even Brannon Braga conceded that this was a clear error, so we shouldn't assume that a so called class actually existed. Even Vulcans may make embarrassing errors. He definitely meant to say "Birds-of-Prey".

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1. The ship appeared in ENT: "Bounty". In contrast to T'Pol's statement from ENT: "Sleeping Dogs" that Klingon ships don't have escape pods, this one is equipped with them (see below). In spite of this inconsistency it has to be a Klingon design, as indicated by the typical shapes and colors on the inside. There is also a Klingon emblem on the hull, even though it was accidentally mirrored.
2. The design by John Eaves started its life as the Klingon shuttlepod for "Broken Bow" (see below), where it was not clearly visible though. When the script of "Bounty" called for a somewhat different Klingon vessel, the shuttlepod design was modified, with according changes to the details and proportions to reflect the now larger size, and built into a CGI by Eden FX.

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1. The Raptor, as seen in ENT: "Sleeping Dogs", comes nine episodes too late to save the Klingon design lineage that has been ruined by the appearance of the K't'inga in "Unexpected" (see above entry "battlecruiser type"). It is pleasant that, unlike some other ships we have seen in the series, the Raptor by John Eaves has a distinctive design we may accept as older. Only the Dominion-like pointed nacelles are a bit out of place.
2. Until "Sleeping Dogs" the name "Raptor" was unknown, so do the Klingons give their ships Latin names? Silly authors. Moreover, it is rather a Romulan and not a Klingon tradition to use the name of birds (or bird-like dinosaurs).
3. The Raptor is some 145m long according to Rob Bonchune's CGI size chart.

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1. The ship was designed by Nilo Rodis for "Star Trek III". The issue whether there are different sizes of Birds-of-Prey is exhaustively discussed here, the general trouble of scaling here. The bottom line is that, if there are actually different sizes, the starships couldn't technically be the same. Based on the various visual evidence the size range would be from 50m to 350m length. Even the very same ship "HMS Bounty" from "Star Trek IV" appears at sizes from 50m to 100m. For the sake of simplicity, I assume that all these vessels which exactly look the same are actually the same. The equipment and technology may vary, but not the size.
2. The known (sub-) classes of Birds-of-Prey don't help to identify different sizes. On the contrary, the suggestion that the B'rel class should be smaller than the K'Vort class is complete bogus. As a matter of fact, the only time the B'rel was ever verbally identified in TNG: "Rascals", it was mostly represented by stock footage of the K'Vort from TNG: "Yesterday's Enterprise"! The D-12 in "Generations" could be the Federation designation for any type or size of BoP. So it's mere speculation if and which other ships belong to these three (sub-) classes. At least, it seems that B'rel ships are supposed to be scouts with a crew of only 12 (like Kruge's BoP), while the K'Vort is a cruiser with a crew of typically over 30. It is well possible that at identical sizes the K'Vort has more crew quarters instead of the large cargo bay of the B'rel.
3. Not only the starships in the parallel timeline in "Yesterday's Enterprise", but nearly all BoPs that appeared in TNG are supposed to be cruisers of the "bigger" K'Vort class. The only ship verbally identified as K'Vort class in "our" timeline is the IKS Koraga, the lost ship with Worf on board that Ezri went searching in DS9: "Penumbra". The class name was readable on a display aboard the USS Gander. Like the Koraga, all BoPs might be equipped with escape pods. A generic BoP labeled as K'Vort was visible on a display in VOY: "Drone".
4. The suggestion that the Bird-of-Prey (which is an originally Romulan designation after all) is a Romulan design comes from an early draft of "Star Trek III" where Kruge steals the BoP from the Romulans. It is commonly accepted, yet not strictly canon, that Klingons acquired Romulan technology (including the cloaking device) during a brief alliance in exchange for Klingon ships for the Romulans, as seen in TOS: "The Enterprise Incident". The BoP design itself need not necessarily be brand new as of 2285 when it was first encountered. Sulu identified it as "Bird-of-Prey", which suggests that Starfleet had knowledge of this class. Since ENT: "The Expanse" we know that the familiar BoP is definitely not a Romulan design or a design inspired by Romulans, but a 23rd century version of a similar, yet much older genuine Klingon ship of the 22nd century.
5. In "Star Trek IV" the highest mentioned speed of the BoP "Bounty" was Warp 9.8 (old scale), immediately before reaching the threshold speed for time travel. This threshold was very likely supposed to be exactly at Warp 10 (old scale), although there is no reason why it should be there.
6. I assume that General Chang's prototype in "Star Trek VI", the only BoP capable of firing while cloaked, turned out a failure because it nevertheless could be detected, and the project was not further pursued. It is even possible that the engineers were killed and important data was destroyed together with the prototype, so the Klingons couldn't build another one. I don't think the ship should be considered as a distinct (sub-)class.
7. A wing of a Bird-of-Prey can be seen among the wreckage inside the graviton ellipse in VOY: "One Small Step" (only in the 24th century, not in the 21st century flashbacks).

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1. The ship appeared in the course of a battle, and Worf allegedly destroyed it in DS9: "Rules of Engagement". It is yet another re-use of the versatile Merchantman from "Star Trek III" in the very same configuration as the Vidiian ship 1. Obviously the two can't be in any way related.
2. The actual color of the miniature may have still been the beige of the Vidiian version, but since it could be only glimpsed anyway, I'm assuming it is in the usual Klingon green.
3. The complement of 441 is taken from the dialogue. It may have been forged like the whole trial, but was meant to be a believable figure.

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1. It may surprise that the Klingon battlecruiser designed by Matt Jefferies appeared as a Klingon ship in just two TOS episodes, namely in "Elaan of Troyius" and "Day of the Dove".
2. Greg Jein reconstructed the original Klingon battlecruiser for DS9: "Trials and Tribble-ations". He stuck to the old plans, therefore making the ship different from the K't'inga and overall little detailed. The only alterations: He added a "feather pattern" to the wings and painted it green, like all other (later) Klingon starship types. We might assume that the TOS ships had the pattern too, so this is not a sub-type. Still the green color is definite difference.
3. The K't'inga model (see below) was used to represent the ship verbally identified as D7 in VOY: "Prophecy". It is possible that D7 is the common Federation designation for both the Klingon cruiser from TOS and the K't'inga and that it only refers to the ship's size. The question is, if this is so, why Tom states that the class was decommissioned decades ago. This is obviously not the case with the K't'inga. Perhaps Tom was wrong in "Prophecy" and what he called "D7" was actually an early K't'inga of which many are obviously still in service towards the end of the Dominion War. But maybe we should ignore the visual evidence. Mike Sussman, co-author of VOY: "Prophecy" along with Phyllis Strong, tells EAS that the model to appear in the episode was actually meant to be Greg Jein's reconstruction of the D7, so there is no misconception from the writers' part. But it was decided to use the existing K't'inga CGI for the visuals. Had he been aware of that, he would have changed the line about the D7 and also the one about them being retired decades ago, Mike Sussman says.
4. The Gr'oth, which had already appeared in DS9: "Trials and Tribble-ations", was retroactively digitally inserted into the remastered version of TOS: "The Trouble with Tribbles". Most likely the new model, seen only from a distance, is a reproduction of the original D7, rather than including Greg Jein's revisions. But this would be clearly overruled by the definite visual evidence from the DS9 episode. Other episodes with digital D7s include TOS-R: "Errand of Mercy", "Friday's Child" and "A Private Little War".

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1. The K't'inga may have been intended to be an upgraded version of the D7, just like the Enterprise in TMP was still supposed to be the very same ship that Kirk commanded until 2270. The differences are considerable in both cases. Not only were many more details added, but also the proportions of several hull parts were changed. Read about the Enterprise refit here. While the legacy "forbids" us to doubt that the TMP Enterprise is still Kirk's Enterprise, the K't'inga should be a different class than the D7.
2. There are variants of the K't'inga with different colors of the plasma in the nacelles, but this isn't necessarily a sign of their age, as we have seen dim nacelles, cyan nacelles and green nacelles over the decades almost at random.
3. Although the ship in ENT: "Unexpected" was clearly represented by the K't'inga model, credibility dictates that it must be of a yet unknown, much older class. This is why I have listed it as "battlecruiser type".
4. For different reasons, we might assume the same for the ship in VOY: "Prophecy" which was another re-use of the K't'inga, but actually supposed to be an older D7. On the other hand, Tom may simply have been mistaken, and it was actually a K't'inga (see above). This way, we wouldn't have to ignore the appearance of a K't'inga even twice.
5. Since it would be very unusual to translate ship names, I have listed the "Kronos One" from "Star Trek VI" under its presumed Klingon name. The model from TMP was renovated to represent the Kronos One, but the modifications seem to be rather cosmetic.

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1. In real life, the Negh'Var that first appeared in DS9: "The Way of the Warrior" is a modification of the voDleH (Voodieh) model from TNG: "All Good Things". The ship was modified adding weapons pods (which could be auxiliary nacelles too according to the Fact Files) to both wings, removing the fins at the bottom of the bow section, and removing the spikes in the bow and on both nacelle front tips. In the Klingon Empire, it is probably the other way round, and the voDleH is the series version of the prototype ship Negh'Var.
2. The voDleH and therefore the Negh'Var too were created using the central portion of the Vor'cha model, as the comparison of the dorsal and ventral views demonstrates. Whether the real starships may be using common parts too is not easy to answer. In that case the Negh'Var (usually listed as being 682m) would be almost the same length as the Vor'cha (481m).
3. The Negh'Var model was also used for Regent Worf's huge ship in DS9: "Shattered Mirror", where it was about 2km long, compared to the BoP, Galor and Defiant. Like many things in the silly Mirror Universe, the similarity to "our" Negh'Var should be disregarded for the sake of plausibility. The many rows of lights (10 in the main plane) in the close-up support the idea of such a massive ship, but don't alleviate the general scaling problem.
4. The name voDleH (Klingon for "emperor") is background information, presumably from a script draft, where it was spelled "Voodieh". The voDleH, although it appears only in a parallel timeline in TNG: "All Good Things", does or will exist as a real Klingon ship around 2395 because of its similarity to the Negh'Var. On the other hand, in this case I would have to acknowledge the existence of the dreadful three-nacelled Galaxy-class ships too...
5. The Klingon starships in "Endgame" are still other variants. Obviously the voDleH spikes and fins were added to the model again (now CGI), and the Negh'Var weapons pod was retained too. Like with the "All Good Things" variant, I assume that it is the actual appearance of a Klingon ship in the year 2404.

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1. It is essentially just a yellow light in TOS: "Friday's Child". But if we look closely, we may make out something inside this light, a flat shape with some sort of "handle" affixed to it. As for the type of the ship, Chekov identifies it as a "warship". Kras, the Klingon on the planet Capella IV, refers to his vessel as a scout ship. But it is not necessarily the same that the Enterprise encounters in space, and he may have been lying. On the other hand, as the "warship" prefers to run away instead of fighting with the Enterprise, it may have been a small scout indeed.
2. The unique vessel was completely eliminated from the enhanced episode and replaced with a standard D7, probably because of the dialogue that says it is a "warship". If we should go with TOS-R as the only canon, the scout ship would be non-existent.

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1. The obviously Klingon vessel appeared in DS9: "Sons of Mogh". It is the same model as the Promellian battlecruiser from TNG: "Booby Trap", only painted or illuminated green. The neck and the head section are most likely no additional parts but were present already on the original Promellian ship. Actually the take with the ship in "Sons of Mogh" is not new but stock footage of a less prominent vessel from DS9: "Sanctuary". There is no reason that the ship from "Sanctuary" couldn't be Klingon as well.
2. The ship was shown just prior to Noggra's arrival at the station, but there is no evidence that it is his ship. Actually, Noggra himself tells Kurn (whose memory has been erased and who is going to be adopted by Noggra) that they have come with a shuttle.

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