The Avenger and its smal­ler sis­ter-class, the Pred­at­or, were designed to counter the increas­ing threat as the Klin­gon Empire turned its atten­tion towards the Fed­er­a­tion in the 2240s. Star­fleet’s exist­ing ves­sels were unable to effect­ively com­bat smal­ler raid­ers, such as the “Birds-of-Prey” favoured by many Klin­gon Houses, and Star­fleet Com­mand were wor­ried as to how they would per­form in fleet oper­a­tion. The Avenger was built to be fast, man­oeuv­rable and heav­ily-armed, with a large phaser can­non moun­ted at the front of the sec­ond­ary hull. While only a few examples were avail­able at the out­break of the Fed­er­a­tion-Klin­gon War of 2256–57, they proved their worth, and they were put into ser­vice along the bor­der once hos­til­it­ies ceased.

Design: Okaza­ki, Masao. “The Star­fleet Museum: Avenger- and Pred­at­or-Class Des­troy­ers”. The Star­fleet Museum. http://www.starfleet-museum.org/avenger-predator.htm (accessed 29/07/2014).