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I was just thinking, after reading the Nova-class's stats, it could have been easily modified into a Destroyer or Corvette and continued production into the Dominion War as replacements for Miranda-class ships. Why didn't that happen?

Good question. My guess as to an IU explanation is that such a refit would be comparable to a new design, as far as resource-intensiveness.

That's the most likely reason, I'd say.

If indeed such a refit were possible. The original Nova was capable of Warp 8 at best (while the Defiant, capable of Warp 9+, is generally considered to be somewhat on the slow side), and was massively outclassed tactically by an Intrepid - itself far from being Starfleet's strongest design. The ship simply couldn't have been refitted sufficiently to be an effective warship.

I'm with the rest of these guys. I just don't think the basic spaceframe, power generation systems, engines, and other systems were designed to support a combat role. You'd have to completely retrofit EVERYTHING, and thus coming up with a new class.

Agreed. Simply purpose-building a warship would be better.

One interesting tidbit is that (according to the DS9 TM at least) the Nova-class was based on the original Defiant pathfinder design.

I think Graham explains that pretty well really. The Nova is roughly the same size as the Defiant and is engineered for Science. Converting it to a Warship would be akin to ripping out the Defiant's Tactical Systems and installing Sensors and Science Labs in place of them. I have got to imagine that a Defiant would cost less than a similarly refitted Nova.

I thought that the Defiant "pathfinder" project was completely unrelated to the extant Defiant warship.

Well the TM is kind of ambiguous on that - whether it was an evolution or a totally new design.

I could never understand that. I see almost NOTHING in common between the two ships.

Design doesn't necessarily lead to convergent evolution, but that is one of the reasons I thought they were two different Defiant projects.

On the OP - we saw a highly-modified Nova in "Endgame" that was able to take on two Negh'vars. At some point, Starfleet must've seen a reason, or had sufficient tech to up-gun at least some of the Novas.

Due to its size wouldt it be a Frigate instead of a Destroyer?

Probably. I'm sure Seafort will be along to clear that up shortly.