Menace of the Jem’Hadar

The massive Dominion Battleship featured in multiple episodes of Star Trek: Deep Space Nine is also known as the Jem’Hadar battleship. Although its exact length is not known, it is estimated have a length of around 1,284m to 1,500m. Such massive battleships, which take considerable amounts of time and resources to produce, probably functioned as flagships for small and medium destroyer craft. A battleship of this size could easily defeat large numbers of smaller, less advanced Klingon and Federation ships. It would take several Alpha and Beta Quadrant capital vessels working together to pose a legitimate challenge to the battleship, and even then the outcome would not be certain.

This hulking battleship was seen in the Cardassia Prime battle in the Deep Space Nine series finale (although did not engage in the battle), which saw the United Federation of the Planets, Romulan Star Empire, and the Klingon Empire allied themselves against the Dominion, composed of mainly of the changeling, Jem’Hadar, and the Vorta. As can be deduced from the alternate name of the Dominion Battleship, the Jem’Hadar were the most technologically advanced, militarily, and supplied most of the weapons and warships of the Dominion. At the time of the Dominion War, they were on a whole more advanced than that of the inhabitants of Alpha Quadrant. Their rifles, for example, utilized powerful polaron beams which also acted as an anticoagulant, which slowed down the natural wound-healing process considerably. Their warships also had more impressive weaponry, but effective countermeasures for the Jem’Hadar weapons were eventually discovered and utilized.

The existence of a prototype Dominion Battleship was first discovered by the Federation starship USS Valiant, which was on a data-collection mission. Rumors of a new Dominion battleship had been thick and fast, but the Valiant was the first one to verify them. After the crew spent three hours collecting data on the ship, they concluded that it was a threat to numerous Federation outposts and had to be destroyed. Although destroying it would mean acting against orders (officials were not contacted), the crew considered its threat a good-enough reason to proceed. Initial observations showed that the battleship was double the size of a Galaxy-class starship and three times as powerful. It was determined by the crew that the primary support braces for the antimatter storage system of the battleship was made from the substance viterium, which was prone to deterioration once bombarded with delta radiation. Confident that they had identified a fatal flaw in its decided, they proceeded to attack it using specially-modified torpedoes. The torpedoes met their target and the crew initially rejoiced, but the Dominion Battleship then suddenly emerged seemingly unscathed. It then proceeded to turn its weapons on the Valiant, which was totally destroyed. Only four of the crew escaped with their lives using escape pods.

Their efforts were not fully in vain however- their torpedoes damaged the Battleship to such an extent that it was probably sent to the shipyards and updated and repaired for the final battle. Celebrate the glory of the Dominion Battleship by downloading this free Star Trek Dominion Battleship wallpaper.