In the wonderful and ever-expanding universe of Star Trek, there are a plethora of amazing technologies, fascinating alien races, and some of the most beloved starship captains in the sci-fi genre. With each iteration into the franchise, the writers add a wider and wider diversity not only in characters and storylines, but also in their starships. Creating new spaceships seems to be a rite of passage each new series or movie has to go through to put their individual stamp into the long-running lore. Of all these ships however, which is the most powerful Federation starship?
While things might get a little skewed, there is an argument to made that the most powerful ship will likely be the one build furthest into the future. Such a ship would naturally include fancier or high-tech weaponry and systems than everything that came before. What’s more interesting, though, is taking a look at which ship statistically out-powers all the others in its own time period. Which ship is the best compared to its contemporaries?
The best example, though one that might not stick out to many fans as it originates from outside the prime timeline (the Kelvin timeline, to be specific), is the USS Vengeance from Star Trek: Into Darkness. This was a Dreadnought-class ship, the only one in its classification, and was miles away from the galaxy style starships seen throughout the franchise up until this point. It was not technically an official Starfleet ship, however, as it was operated by the secretive and often nefarious Section 31. As such, the ethos behind its creation was very different.
Starfleet has always tried to avoid being referred to as the Federation's military. As such, its ships, while still powerful, have never been specifically designed to be warships. There are, of course, exceptions that crop up from time to time, including the USS Defiant captained by the morally ambiguous Benjamin Sisko in Deep Space 9. But for the most part, each main ship throughout the franchise has had multiple purposes, primarily science and exploration with a splattering of military thrown in for good measure.
The USS Vengeance was different, created for the sole purpose of combat. Thus, it was packed full of weaponry and means to destroy anyone or anything that stood in its path, far from the message normal Starfleet maintained. Another interesting thing to note is that the ship was, in part, designed by Khan (yes, that Khan), in order to prepare for a war with the Klingons. His twisted mindset seeped into the combat priority mentality for the design.
Part of the ship being commissioned and used by Section 31 came with a wonderful design, if not a little corny. To emphasize the organization's severity, the ship was painted dark, with no registry number or name to easily track it. It was approximately twice the size of the normal constitution class ships that Starfleet was so keen on at the time, such as the original and iconic USS Enterprise. It was designed to be manned by a skeleton crew, even just one person if deemed necessary. The automation the ship possessed was far beyond anything the Federation had been able to produce at the time, and so was the ship's top speed, fitted with a far advanced warp drive able to outpace most ships three times over. The irony of it being designed to fight Klingons was that it actually shared a lot of similarities with their ships. Its cramped, often dark corridors were packed full of necessities, rather than prioritizing comfort or luxury over utility like other Federation ships. This was no space luxury cruiser; this was a space tank.
The weaponry, however, was what set this ship apart, and rightly crowns it as the most powerful Federation ship in Star Trek. They were far more advanced, consisting of an array of phaser emitters which could even be fired while at warp, something no one had been able to accomplish up until this point. They would also penetrate Constitution class shields with ease. The ship hosted a series of swivel mounted photon torpedo launchers that could be fired in all directions, as well as automated drones that would not only self-destruct upon impact with other ships, but could launch their own torpedoes. This would ensure that whoever fell victim to the ship to be instantly surrounded. As any good Klingon would testify, defense is the most important part of power, and the dreadnought ship was heavily armored. Not only were the shields powerful, but it featured retractable physical armor plating, able to cover all the usual weak spots like the deflector dish. Not only did yhe remain intact after an internal detonation of nearly 100 photon torpedoes, but it stayed relatively strong after a collision at high speed with an entire city.
Many fans wouldn’t agree on the USS Vengeance taking the crown for the most powerful federation ship, as many feel the JJ Abrams Kelvin universe files are separate and should not be counted in the Star Trek universe. However, it’s hard to compete with the raw power found within the Section 31 ship. Not only would it completely obliterate anything during its own time period, it would also fair well against foes in ships designed further along in the timeline.
