Breen Frigate

Universe :	Prime Timeline
Affiliation :	Dominion
Class Name :	Breen Frigate
Type :	Light combat / scout ship
Unit Run :	Unknown, but thought to be 6,200 in service. Some 600 were destroyed during the war. 6,200 built in total. 600 have been lost in all.
Commissioned :	2367 - present
Dimensions :	Length : 300 m Beam : 245 m Height : 40 m Decks : 10
Mass :	818,000 metric tons
Crew :	Unknown, but approximately 30 - 50
Armament :	1 x torpedo tube equivalent to Starfleet standard photon torpedo tube with 150 rounds
Defence Systems :	Standard shield system, total capacity 594,000 TeraJoules Standard Biomolecular Single hull. Standard level Structural Integrity Field
Warp Speeds (TNG scale) :	Normal Cruise : 7 Maximum Cruise : 9.4 Maximum Rated : 9.88 for 10 hours.
Strength Indices : (Galaxy class = 1,000)	Beam Firepower : - Torpedo Firepower : 125 Weapon Range and Accuracy : 270 Shield Strength : 220 Hull Armour : 40 Speed : 1,475 Combat Manoeuvrability : 4,730
Overall Strength Index :	227
Diplomatic Capability :	Approximately equivalent to Starfleet grade 2
Expected Hull Life :	Unknown

Notes

As with almost every aspect of the Breen, relatively little is known about these ships. In size they are slightly larger than the Miranda class, and appear to be slightly stronger than those vessels. The ship is of an unusual design, with nothing visible which is obviously a warp nacelle. The presence of small winglets on the ship hints at some atmospheric ability, although these ships have never been known to land on the surface of a planet.

The Breen use organic vessels, and these vessels are presumably organic in nature. [1] Again, Starfleet can only speculate on what form the manufacturing/growing process might take. The hulls of the Frigates seem to be capable of withstanding approximately the same level of damage as a normal hull of this size ship.

The offensive armament appears to be limited to torpedoes, but the vessel is generously endowed with four tubes. One tube is located in the ships nose, with three smaller weapons around the amidships area. The main weapon appears to be equivalent to a standard Starfleet photon torpedo tube, and although nothing is known about the others their smaller size indicates that they are less capable. It may be that the Breen favour the redundancy which comes with multiple smaller weapons.

Their small size does make these ships quite manoeuvrable, and at Warp 9.88 they are also fast. This does help to make them a more formidable foe, but high speed is of more use when avoiding the enemy than when engaging it. Overall then, the Breen frigate is not a serious competitor to the likes of an Excelsior class, let alone a Defiant, but their small size has allowed them to be constructed in large numbers and the fleet as a whole is a formidable force. So far as is known this is the only warship class they employ.

The decisive advantage which the frigate did have was its energy damping weapon. Located in the ships bow, one shot from this device was able to completely paralyse virtually any opponent. The Breen would then close and use their conventional weapon to finish off their helpless prey. The weapon was first used against the allied fleet sent to reinforce the Chin'Toka system in the latter stages of the war, where it allowed the Dominion forces to annihilate the allies. [2]

It was several weeks before the allies were able to neutralize this advantage. [3] Once they had, the tide of the war quickly turned against the Breen and their ships deficiencies made them relatively easy targets.

Colour key

References

#	Series	Season	Source	Comment
1			Generic canonical information
2	DS9	7	The Changing Face of Evil
3			Various Deep Space Nine episodes

Comments

The data on the Breen ship is largely speculative, and as is usually the case with alien ships I've been fairly frequent in the use of "unknowns" as Starfleet could be expected to be in the dark about enemy ships. My original take on the Breen ships was that they are very poor in combat, but Alexander Marteby and Stephen Barath have convinced me that they are rather better than I had thought, and as a result I have boosted the ship's overall strength by about 50%.

CGI images of the ship show four weapon emplacements. One is a larger weapon on the nose, which has been seen to fire both torpedoes and the energy dampening weapon. From this Alexander suggests that the weapon is a modified torpedo, and I agree. The other three weapons are virtually identical but slightly smaller, so I have guessed them to be torpedo tubes also. This leaves the Frigate with no known energy weapon; rather than invent some I've chosen to make the frigate a dedicated torpedo warship.

Stephen points out that the Breen have been mentioned to use living ships, yet these don't look organic either inside or outside. I've left it open-ended in the text, but my guess would be that the ship itself is a standard design, with a living hull grown over the outside of it.

The size of the ships is hard to judge - most of the scenes I've seen them in with other ships makes them look about 20% longer than the Defiant, but there is at least one scene in the episode of the Defiant flying past background wreckage which makes the Breen ship look huge, in the 500 metre plus range at least. I've arbitrarily gone with 300 metres. A nice CGI ventral view of the ship sent to me means that the length/beam ratio on the specs page is correct, at least!

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Last updated : 3 Oct 2004

Series :	DS9 Season 7
Episode :	The Changing Face of Evil

Series :	DS9 Season
Episode :	Various Deep Space Nine episodes