Notes : The Galor is the mainstay of the Cardassian fleet, making up over half of their total Naval forces. When it first entered service in the 2340's the Galor was intended to oppose smaller and older vessels such as the Miranda, Excelsior, Norway and New Orleans classes. Initially the Cardassians wanted to also develop a much larger, more powerful design to oppose the Ambassador and Akira and the upcoming Nebula design, but this proved to beyond their resources and the project was dropped in its early stages. Instead it was decided to build a very large number of Galor class ships and operate 'hunter packs' of two or three together against the more powerful Starfleet ships.

The Galor is a rugged, sensible design. The engineering section is mounted at the forward end of the single hull structure, a move which puts the drive systems well forward of the centre of gravity. This makes the design inherently stable in all flight regimes, greatly simplifying many of the control systems - although it does reduce the vessels maneuverability somewhat. The single high power phaser bank is located directly ahead of the engineering area, reducing the length of conduit between the warp core and the weapon which increases the system's resilience to battle damage. The control spaces are directly above the blades on the vessels centerline, while the long narrow hull projecting aft from them holds the fuel tanks, habitation areas and other less essential systems.

The use of a powerful phaser bank was intended to allow the Galor to blast through the shields of an enemy vessel in just a few bursts, a philosophy which has proved somewhat optimistic over the years. The phaser is roughly equal to a Starfleet Type IX model, which is very powerful for a ship the size of the Galor. But the single installation gives the Galor a relatively poor firing arc for this weapon, something not improved by the ship's low maneuverability. The medium power disrupter banks are roughly equal to a Type VII phaser, which is more in line with the Galor's size.

Originally it was planned to use burst fire torpedo systems but as with the Romulans, the Cardassians have had great difficulty developing this technology to the point where it can be used safely and effectively. The Galor thus has three standard torpedo tubes, two forward and one aft. The extra room this left over allowed the torpedo complement to be increased from a planned 160 to 200.

The Galor has generally proved a useful enough vessel for the Cardassian military, but it is not really a serious competitor with the Federation Nebula class or Klingon Vor'Cha. The planned run of three thousand or more ships never materialized, and only eighteen hundred have been built, less than a thousand of them of the better Type 3 model. When the Klingons invaded Cardassia in 2372 the the Cardassian fleet's inferiority was shown; some three hundred Galor class ships were destroyed within less than a week at the hands of the Klingon fleet. The chaos caused by that invasion has severely disrupted the resources of the Cardassian military, already stretched thin during the revolution on Cardassia. Although Cardassia itself is now a Dominion member, their own fleet is not thought to be receiving a great deal of support from the Dominion and its ability to conduct operations, especially beyond the Cardassian border, is thought to be seriously compromised. The Galors have suffered heavily at the hands of the allies during the war.

Comments:
The Galor seems to be the mainstay of the Cardassian fleet, so I've written it up as a pretty solid design. The fact that the Galor is weaker than the big Federation and Klingon ships comes from "The Wounded", when the Enterprise-D dealt with a Galor without any serious effort, and "Sacrifice of Angels", when a pair of Galaxys blew the hell out of a Galor in about five seconds flat. The Maquis have also been seen to give a Galor a half-decent fight in Peregrines, which are about equal to a Starfleet Runabout.

The fact that the Galors use phaser-type weapons comes from "Chain of Command, II" in which Captain Jellico orders the Cardassian fleet to dump their main phaser coils as they leave the nebula they're hiding in. The spiral disrupters are from the DS9 TM - and actually on screen the ship's weapon beams do sometimes seem to have a spiral (or more accurately, helical) pattern within them. I don't think I've ever seen a Galor fire a torpedo, but I guess they must have them so I put a couple on.

The dimensions, mass, and Medium Cruiser designation are all from the DS9 Tech Manual. The usual care should be applied using this source, but there are no obvious errors here. The TM does suggest a top speed of Warp 9.6 but it suggests that speed for virtually every design in the book, which seems a little unlikely, so I have gone with a lower speed. Comments are by the creator of DITL, David Kennedy.
 

HIDEKI

Notes : The Hideki class is one of the most important ships in the Cardassian fleet, if only due to their high numbers. The Cardassians have always sought to produce simple, easy-to-build ships which pack a heavy punch for their size and in the Hideki they have accomplished just that. Although these ships are generally compared - unfavorably - to the Klingon B'Rel class Bird of Prey, in some ways this is unfair. Cardassian policy emphasizes that these ships are intended for largely border patrol or system defense duties, keeping Cardassian space defended in order to free up the larger ships for offensive duties. The B'Rel, on the other hand, is intended to be a fully capable attack vessel in its own right, albeit a light one. While the Hideki is not as capable as the Klingon vessel, it is thought to take almost one third of the resources to build and run - and three Hidekis would certainly be a match for a single B'Rel class.

The Hideki is thought to have a long term cruise speed of Warp 5, about right for a ship which will not be expected to cover large distances unsupported. The Armament is capable of dealing with pirate and mercenary type vessels that the Hideki might encounter on patrols and is sufficient to allow the Hideki to act in support of major fleet actions or operate as a light scout unit - although the relatively low speed is a limiting factor in this role.

The Hideki has been built in very large numbers, and as is inevitable with a class this size several variations have been fielded. The Type 1 is the basic Hideki class described above; the Type 2 is four meters longer; it has extra fuel and a greater degree of automation to reduce the crew to 32, giving a higher accommodation standard and allowing this variant to undertake longer patrols. The Type 3 has a more advanced sensor suite than previous models and is equipped with a new model of warp core which increases efficiency. The Type 4 is a new model which has added high density armour and a third phaser bank, although this is accomplished at the cost of lower maximum speeds and reduced range.

In service the Hideki has proved a solid, reliable design which is popular with its crews. In combat the type is well tested against lightly armed conversions of civilian ships common to pirates and other such bandits; the Hideki's major debut in a fleet action came when thirty four of these ships fought with the Dominion fleet which captured Deep Space Nine. Against a modern heavily armed defense system the Hideki did not fare so well; fourteen of the ships were destroyed and nine heavily damaged. During the Dominion war the Hideki has not taken part in offensive actions, but is instead operating in its old border patrol mission. Although Klingon B'Rel class ships took something of a heavy toll on these ships in the early days of the war, the Hideki's have begun to operate in packs of three or more, sometimes with a Jem'Hadar fighter craft in attendance, since which time they are holding their own.

Comments
This is another of those classes that I've just had to guess at. I've made the Hideki a kind of equivalent to the World War II torpedo boats; the kind of ship that would patrol borders, and in big battles might try to swamp an enemy with numbers. Other than that I've just tried to give them a history roughly in line with their size and role.

Comments are by the creator of DITL, David Kennedy.

Notes : The Cardassians use these useful craft as general purpose cargo carriers. It is a modular design, with a power system and warp and impulse engines in a stern section and the crew quarters, computer systems and bridge in the bow section. Between the two is anything from one to five cargo sections, each of which carries six storage pods. The standard pod is capable of carrying normal cargo items, but pods designed for bulk ores, liquids, and frozen items are also available.

Although most cargo vessels are unarmed, the Cardassians chose to equip this ship with a light disrupter cannon in order to defend against low intensity threats such as mercenaries and raiders. The ship has only light shielding and no armour of any kind.

To date the most notable achievement of the cargo ship has been the capture of a Klingon bird of prey by the Groumall, under the command of Gul Dukat. Dukat, with the assistant of Major Kira of the Bajoran militia, mounted a system five disrupter cannon on his ship and waited for the Klingons to attempt to steal his cargo before firing on them. He beamed on board the Klingon ship while its shields where down, and used its own transporters to beam the Klingons onto his own ship, which he subsequently destroyed.

The cargo ship is now out of production, and although many were destroyed during the war over two hundred remain in service and it is likely to be a common sight until well into the next century.

Comments
With only one or two appearances there isn't much to say about this ship. The sizes come from the scale diagram on page 581 of the Encyclopedia (2nd edition), the background info is invented by me, and the story about Dukat naturally comes from "Return to Grace". The idea that the cargo containers are modular in nature is my own - the cargo units occupying the centre of the ship form a repeating pattern, and it just seemed like an obvious possibility. I doubt the front and rear sections of the ship are entirely separate - instead I imagine them being connected by some sort of relatively thin central spine, perhaps something that can telescope to a longer length to accommodate more cargo pods, but more likely something that each cargo pod has built in so they can just plug together. I would guess that this process would take a couple of hours. Comments are by the creator of DITL, David Kennedy.

DREADNOUGHT

Notes : Prior to becoming a member of the Dominion the Cardassian military had never really been capable of projecting forces well beyond its own borders in sufficient numbers to seriously threaten the core worlds of the Federation or Klingon Empire. The Dreadnought project was an attempt to rectify this situation by fielding a heavy-duty automated drone weapon. This craft was to employ advanced computer technology in order to operate completely autonomously under all situations. It was to have advanced tactical analysis and response systems and would be fitted with heavy duty shielding and defensive weaponry in order to enable it to penetrate almost  any standard level of defenses.

Once at the programmed target Dreadnought would detonate its main warhead - a two thousand kilogram matter/antimatter device with a 45,000 Megaton yield. This would be used against 'high value' targets such as shipyards, starbases and planets - although Dreadnought was also technically capable of engaging ship sized targets if required.

The Dreadnought project was approved in 2364, and from the first suffered many problems. The Cardassians had intended to have the first missile ready by 2367, but a combination of technical difficulties caused many delays. These problems centered around the computer core and the warhead; the former was always going to be a highly ambitious effort for the Cardassians, who have little experience with self programmable computer systems. The warhead was also the largest the Cardassians have ever fielded, and many problems were experienced in its development. Eventually the Cardassians decided to use a kinetic detonator unit in order to overcome these problems.

The first prototype Dreadnought was finally ready in 2370. After several months of tests with a dummy warhead - nearly half of them unsuccessful - the Cardassians decided to expend the prototype in a live fire test. It was launched against a Maquis munitions facility at Alpha 441 in the Badlands in order to give it a combat workout while not subjecting it to a high threat environment. Unfortunately for the Cardassians, the Dreadnought vanished without trace. Assuming that it had failed in even this relatively simple mission, the Central Command ordered the project cancelled.

Had the Cardassians known the truth they would have been more than alarmed; the Dreadnought had in fact penetrated the Maquis defenses but then failed to detonate. The Maquis recovered the missile and re-programmed it to attack a Cardassian shipyard on Aschelan V, but after launch the missile was swept into the Delta quadrant by the Caretaker. Dreadnought, now suffering malfunctions to several systems, subsequently locked onto Rakosa V, an inhabited system in that quadrant. USS Voyager made several attempts to stop the missile, but this time Dreadnought performed exactly up to specifications. Eventually Voyagers chief engineer managed to phaser a hole in the warp core, destroying the missile just short of its target.

Comments
Something of an oddity, Dreadnought (seen in the episode of the same name) is a rare example of the Cardassians producing a weapon that out-performs anybody else. It's repeatedly called a missile in the episode, but really it's more an automated starship in its own right. I've had to guess at a lot of the specifications since we're not told a great deal of definitive information in the episode - In keeping with the statement made by B'Elanna about Cardassian designers, I've tried to depict it as a mixture of the ingenious and the primitive. Basically, a good idea strangled by the political system back home. Comments are by the creator of DITL, David Kennedy.
 

Notes : The Keldon class is the most powerful vessel in the Cardassian fleet. Essentially an upgraded Galor class vessel with an additional hull section added to the dorsal surface, the Keldon class is an improvement on its predecessor in almost every respect. The secondary armament has been boosted from twelve to fourteen disrupter banks, while the primary phaser has been upgraded to put it on a par with a Type X phaser array. The photon tubes are capable of firing at more than twice the rate of the Galor class tubes, and the Keldon includes a great deal of new sensor and computer equipment designed to increase its ability to target vessels under cloak or capable of a high level of maneuverability. The shield system has been heavily upgraded, while the hull beneath has received a layer of high density armour plate.

While these measures put the Keldon class significantly above the Galor, they still do not rank with the larger, more sophisticated ships that the larger alpha quadrant forces can field. The Cardassians planned to produce the Keldon in huge numbers to compensate for this - over three hundred were planned, but the difficulties suffered by Cardassia in the last few years have made this more a fond hope than a realistic plan.

Comments
The Keldon is known to be the most powerful ship class in the Cardassian fleet, and appears to be a Galor with an extra hull section added to it. Like most Cardassian designs I've made it a sort of solid, reliable and not very sophisticated ship that isn't really up to the likes of the Nebula, Vor'Cha and Galaxy but is probably still better than the average alpha quadrant warship.

The Heavy Cruiser designation, mass, dimensions and speed are from the DS9 (c).  Comments are by the creator of DITL, David Kennedy.

NOR CLASS SPACE STATION

Notes : One of the most unique installations under Federation administration, Deep Space Nine started life as a Cardassian space station in orbit of the planet Bajor. Built in place by Bajoran slave labor during the Cardassian occupation of that planet, Terok Nor - as it was then known - served as a major administrative center for the Cardassian forces as well as housing a large ore processing facility manned by Bajoran workers. The station has no Warp or Impulse drive and is not suited to towing; it was therefore considered essentially a fixed orbital base with a very limited ability to maneuver in space. When the Cardassian occupation ended, they therefore had to abandon Terok Nor and its sister station Empok Nor in place.

WEBMASTER NOTE: Information in table reduced to original state as built under the Cardassians.  Defense of the station was accomplished with battleships, rather than the armament the Federation later installed on Terok Nor.

Comments are by the creator of DITL, David Kennedy.

SHIPYARD

Many structures are linked together to form a shipyard. At the bottom is the skeleton of a Galor-Class vessel.

REPAIR STATION

MOONBASE
with orbiting weapons platforms and power generator (in blue)

TRANSPORT

80 meters in length
Warp 8 max.
Comparable to transports of other species

LIFE POD