You should have mentioned a lot of Galaxy classes were given an armament upgrade to fight in the dominion war. Before that they were powerful and could take care of themselves, but not quite as tough as a dedicated battleship.
They were known as the 'Galaxy Phase III' ships, I believe. Starfleet had a number of Galaxy spaceframes in states of partial completion, and when the dominion War kicked off, they hastily completed the ships. About 60% of their internal volume was empty, because they were not launched with the extensive ambassadorial suites, science facilities and research labs, and recreational facilities. They WERE, however, loaded with extra power generators, phaser stripes, and shield generators. They weren't on the level of the Galaxy-X dreadnought refit, but they were sufficient to serve as the core of the Federation fleets (Called 'Galaxy Wings') for the duration of the conflict. The problem with the Galaxy class is that it's just too damn big to dedicate to any one mission profile, so some of it's capabilities are always wasted no matter what mission you assign it to (e.g. all those ambassadorial facilities aren't doing you much good when you're charting gaseous anomalies). For all it's power, the Galaxy Phase III's only used 40% of their internal volume. If you DID seriously convert all that size into a warship, you get the Galaxy X Dreadnaught, which is FAR more aggressive than the Federation is willing to get in the Prime Timeline. Until the Federation got its wakeup call by the Borg, the Galaxy-class WAS the most tactically powerful ship the Federation had, even though they toned it down because they didn't want other powers to see it as a battleship. The Defiant-class showed exactly how MUCH the Federation was pulling its punches.
Star Trek Top 7 Most powerful Federation Starships: 1.The Inquiry Class 2.The Defiant Class 3.The Akira Class 4.The Galaxy Class 5.The Prometheus Class 6.The Sovereign Class 7.The Dreadnought Class/The Vengeance Class
Captain Picard did not pilot the Enterprise he captained it. Helm control, aka the pilot, was a post taken by many individuals, notably Lt Worf and Ensign Crusher
Yes your correct but I remember in one account Captain Picard piloting the Enterprise D out of a dangerous trap area the episode is Booby Trap, 6th episode of 3rd season of TNG, however if your referring to Enterprise E well ok I’m not sure if he actually piloted the ship.
The ships shown were powerful in their own eras but basically all of them would either be bested of have a tough time with the Inquiry. Why is it 7th. A list including the Sovereign, Defiant, Prometheus, Inquiry, Gagarin, and Odyssey would have been better considering they are the "Combat Ships". Replace the Galaxy with a Ross and the Akira with an Alita (Which still looks weird btw) Also the Dredaought is a Kelvin ship but still VERY powerful.
Of course you have to judge these ships in the time they were built. The Enterprise D would outclass the original and the original would out class the NX01. You can’t compare them.
Two ships that wasn’t mentioned or thought of both was the Megiddo Class and Federation Class battleship. It only exists like the Federation Class Dreadnaught. During the late-22nd to 23rd century, the Federation Class was a response to the Four Years War with the Klingon Empire. The Megiddo Class was part of Section 31’s “Command and Control” fleet, because of the growing migration of human colonies with threats of attack from Marauder’s the “Silent Fleet” was needed. The Megiddo Class was in theory built like the small Prometheus Class ship, yet twice the size, length and width. Section 31, used both the Defiant and Prometheus Class ships as a “quick fix”. In theory the Megiddo Class ship was designed by Section 31, and is currently being hidden, by the mid 24th century, Starfleet Intelligence and Section 31, found a remote star system to construct the 4 prototypes. Admiral Pressman was beta testing the “Phase Cloak” system which resulted in the loss of the USS Pegasus.. Despite Captain Picard’s efforts to preserve the Romulan treaty, Section 31 quickly handled the situation. CLASSIFIED. 🖖🖖