Changes

Construction of the ''Yeager'' began in the early 2370s in the prelude to the [[Dominion War]]; with the breakdown of the [[Khitomer Accords]], Star Fleet needed new combat-capable ships, and fast. With shipyards already constructing ships at a increased rate, primary hull construction for the Intrepid-class vessel soon outstripped supply of secondary hulls. As war loomed, the [[Star Fleet Corps of Engineers]] decided to utilise the surplus primary hulls to cobble together a class of ship designed to bolster the fleet quickly. As one of the original members of the "Frankenstein Fleet", the ''Yeager'' was constructed from the primary hull of an Intrepid-class Explorer and the scaled-up hull of a Ju'Day class Courier. This design gave the '''Yeager''' substantial forward firepowerwhen combining the Ju'Day's phaser cannons with the Intrepid's own phaser arrays; the lack of aft-firing phasers was more than compensated for by the inclusion of the Ju'Day's own aft torpedo launchers, but at a cost bringing the number of zero rear phaser coverageaft-firing launchers to four. The unorthodox design also caused did, however, cause problems with warp field stability, and meshing the Bio-Neural systems of the Intrepid with the Isolinear systems of the Ju'Day made for some "interesting" quirks that were never truly worked out.

With a deadline to meet, the ''Yeager'' was rushed through testing and acceptance trials to be commissioned in 23742373, assigned to [[Deep Space Nine]] as a guard ship. The ''Yeager'' served honorably during the war, taking part in several key engagements as an outrider or scout, and survived until the end of hostilities. Though the remaining ships of similar construction were either cannibalised for parts to repair main-line vessels or scrapped outright and despite its quirky and unpredictable systems, the SCE kept the ''Yeager'' in commission for their own purposes. The ''Yeager'' was used to test several new tactical and propulsion systems, and was one of the first ships to be armed with the experimental Type-G Phaser. When not testing experimental weapons systems, it served as a guard ship for several key outposts during the 2380s, especially as the fleet was reshuffled following the synth attack on Mars.