Like its big sis­ter, the Avenger, the Pred­at­or was the product of an ASDB pro­ject to pro­duce ves­sels cap­able of com­bat­ing the fast, man­oeuv­rable raid­ers oper­ated by the Klin­gons. A smal­ler ves­sel, the Pred­at­or was very fast at sub­light speeds and cap­able of chas­ing fight­ing “Birds-of-Prey” on their own terms. They first arrived at the out­break of the Fed­er­a­tion-Klin­gon War and were primar­ily assigned to con­voy escort duties, oper­at­ing in pairs to defend against both Klin­gon com­merce raid­ers and Ori­on pri­vat­eers. Although their com­bat record was second to none, they were nev­er a pop­u­lar assign­ment; crew quar­ters were cramped and recre­ation­al facil­it­ies non-existent.

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).