The Better Battleship? The Saber Class 

Still love the idea that Federation ships are always technically not warships. It’s an aggressive policing ship. A defensively armed science explorer ship A hospital ship with long range canons to clear a path to the emergency

I love the Saber Class. It’s exactly what Starfleet needed for the Dominion War.

The Sabre always felt to me like the frigate partner to the Steamrunner’s Torpedo Boat. The Steamrunner could bombard enemies with a bazillion photons and quantum’s, while the Sabre wore out the shields, blocked hits, and ran interference. So, rather than relegating a heavy cruiser to something like patrol: you can have three or four Sabres and one or two Steamrunners hold an entire area and support one another.

I have always remembered the Saber class for its participation in the liberation of Betazed in the novels. A small fleet consisting of the Enterprise-E and I believe 3-4 Sabers undertook the mission.

I love the Defiant class, but to be honest, I like the Sabre class even more. The Sabre is a nice, compact design that is still identifiable as a Federation Starfleet vessel at first glance.

Basicly the equivalent of a Jem'hadar strike craft or a smaller bird of prey. A small attack ship that is easyer to produce in large numbers. Perfect wolf pack unit.

The crew compliment on these ships is always my biggest gripe. A crew of 40 means each 8-hour duty shift has just 13-14 people, and only 23-24 people on the ship are awake at any given time. 13-14 people divided across six decks means only 2 people per deck per shift. The bridge crew would need at least a commanding officer, a tactical/security officer, a pilot on conn and an operations officer on ops (I imagine communications etc. would be combined into that station on a small ship). The bridge would have an engineering station and maybe a science station, although on a Saber they probably weren't manned on a standard shift. 4 people, at least, on the bridge. Engineering must have at least 2-3 people per shift, and you'd assume sickbay would have at least one person working in it per shift (my guess is one nurse per shift, with a doctor on-call 24/7, although I suppose there could just be one doctor and one nurse who are always on call with sickbay being closed and on standby when there aren't any emergencies). That doesn't leave many people per shift to work security, maintenance, the shuttle and cargo bays, deflector control, life support systems etc. What would the officer:NCO ratio be? Would there even be NCOs? Everyone would be glued to a duty station or otherwise on down time in their quarters or maybe the galley if they weren't at work. It's unlikely all six decks would even have someone working on duty per shift, with some having no one on them at times. The ship would be a ghost town. A good post for introverts, I guess. The only way I can see that crew compliment work is if the Saber class is used kind of like the Defiant on DS9: docked at a station >90% of the time, and when needed for a mission crew pile on and away it goes, with the expectation it will be back to port within a few days' time. If the Saber is out there patrolling borders for weeks or months at a time it would need more crew to take care of long-term needs of the ship, as well as more space for amenities (holodeck etc.). I'm going to assume the ship is just a standby response craft with no long-term missions, otherwise it's a stretch of the imagination to think it has 40 crew.

The Saber class definitely looks like a refinement of the Defiant concept. It features just about everything the Defiant pioneered, but more integrated into an actual service vessel instead of a specialized test frame. That's even apparent in the design itself: It still features the side-mounted nacelles and had an overall more compact build - but it marries those aspects with the classic federation layout by going back to longer nacelles and a distinction between saucer section and secondary hull. Where the Defiant sticks out like a sore thumb among all other federation ship designs, the Saber looks like something that feels at home next to the other classes - so to me at least it feels like the natural progression from the barely functional prototype to a proper ship.

the Sabre class is a example of how Starfleet was held back by the Federation council on military matters. from the first Borg contact to the Dominion war the rapid development of far superior combat capable ships compared to the more battle orientated Klingons or Romulans to counter threats. the speed these ships were designed and built shows just because Starfleet doesn't LIKE to fight, it doesn't mean they CAN'T!

I always thought 2 sabers and an akira would make a nifty patrol group. Pirates would just slink away in fear.

I've always believed that Starfleet built the Saber, liked it, and simply made a bigger version with the exact same exterior design and called it Sabre. It explains why the ship is sometimes a destroyer analogue and other days a light cruiser analogue, and allows size discrepancies to be handwaved away.

If I were to design a refit of the Sabre Class, I'd remove the phaser strip running along the top of her deflector and replace it with two omnidirectional phaser cannon's on either side of the deflector to take advantage of her maneuverability. I'd also place a short phaser strip behind the impulse reactors as there appears to be no weapons coverage of this area.

I loved the danger zone labels for the phaser bank coverage, hahahaha!

The Saber-class is one of my favourite Starfleet escorts. More economical than the Defiant-class, but still packing a decent punch. I love flying the 25th-century updated version, the Da Vinci-class.

Although the Akira is my favourite Federation ship, I love the Sabre too. A beautiful design. I never noticed the stern either, a nice touch.

One of the weirdest quirks of the Saber is that it has more escape pods on it's dorsal hull (74) than it has people in it's standard compliment. (40)

Interesting point on the Sailing Galleon. Makes the TOS Enterprise seem like a futuristic interpretation of that.

One of my absolute favorite little ships of starfleets, she doesn't get enough love but the books/comics with her are just great.

According to the Starfleet Corps of Engineers books, the Sabre was a favourite of the SCE.

Hands down my Favorite Federation Ship. 💙 Does not need stupid amounts of people to be manned (looking at you Galaxy) Large enough to get the job done without making it a suicide run. (or living in a sardine like the defiant) Small enough to not be a burden if lost or crippled in the line of duty Very cost-efficient, while having others ships might be more imposing, I rather have 5-10 Sabre flying around for the same work and crew. Also, it just Looks Cool. Giving the Federation vibe while also being different.

The Sabre was always immensely cool. Gives F-117/YF-23 vibes, which I love.

Saber is a great little ship and really serves an important role in the Federation battleline. Not as expensive to make as a Defiant, lots of ablative armor, and perfectly in time to act as a screening ship against Jem'hadar attack ships, or to exploit weakness in an enemy line. After the war they made great patrol and security ships.

I’ve been waiting for this one! The Sabre is one of my favourite ‘Dominion War’ era ships!

Saber class is one of my favorites among the Anti-Borg designs.

I want a series based on this as a hero ship. Done in old trek style.

The Fleet T6-X version a really fun ship to play with. With 13 console slots and an experimental weapon slot, there's a lot of room to try different builds.

I do love the Sabre/Saber class. It being a Jack of All was loved by the Starfleet core of Engineers. It's one glaring tactical faux pas I would say is the design of forward shuttle bay area. In an easy redesign one would place a reinforcing rib from the underside of the projecting command bridge in an arc forward to the hulls outer edge. This would form the base for two sets of "Clam Shell" outer doors and structure to be covered in ablative Armour/armor. this would give the craft twice the hangar space as well as contour the front to match the hull thus increasing both defense and the all-important Cool Factor. ^~^

Hands down my favourite Starfleet ship...ever! I was never a fan of the saucer style ships but this ship was so different. I loved its compact design and the lovely rectangular shape. Just such a unique ship and one of my top 3 in the Star Trek universe.

Cool ship, always thought it had a vaguely Cardassian look to it.

Before I even started watching this video I let loose a "HELL YEAH!". I've been waiting for this breakdown since the norway, akira, steamrunner, defiant etc. Second favourite ship in the fleet, only to the Defiant herself. Absolute badass.

I’ve really grown to like the Saber. I also noticed the similarities to an old sailing ship in the rear. The Saber is featured as the USS da Vinci in the Starfleet Corps of Engineers book series. Beta canon discusses how the SCE were given many new Saber ships.

I like this little bastard. I like how STO gives it to you as one of a Starfleet character's low level ships. Looks great with raised nacelles.

I do love these ship breakdowns! The little Sabre became a favourite of mine with my latest STO captain. However, my favourite escort is a STO only ship: The Hermes Escort class and I would love to see that one in one of these videos one day, provided there's enough specs for it of course.

The one problem I had with the Sabre class when I first saw it in the DS9 Technical Manual, I just couldn't figure out which end was the front.

Named after bladed weapons... I hoped they named one "Stiletto" just to cause a little confusion.

I forget who mentioned it in lore videos or where it came from, but I always liked the notion these were equipped with serious little lance-phasers that maybe weren't the most reliable after a few shots in a given engagement, but this always just seemed to make their whole tactical concept really gel for me, so they could essentially lead the charge like the cavalry sabers they were named after, (presumably during/after torpedo exchanges) then either keep going at speed or start cutting-and-thrusting around while the heavier ships bore down. If they can do that, then a few of those can also be great to keep around yer more-settled starbases/worlds for patrols and countering any big threats that might otherwise need a full starship, but with pretty darn low crew demands and prolly routine maintenance if no one's pushing the envelope. I mean, you might have pretty significant populations at early colonies and you can have em pretty well-defended in a pinch that way without undue resource drains. (A little llike DS9 used the Defiant but say you had more than a crucial space station.) Kinda working them into a story/rpg setting I'm dreaming up that way.

Loved the weapon arc designations!

These “4 Musketeers” have always been my favs!

I also always liked this design, but it definitely needs a couple of phaser cannons from the Defiant class adding to its armament, given how effective they proved against other ships during the Dominion War. Perhaps they could be retrofitted in a refit or added in a later revision.

i'm not a fan of the forward facing shuttlebays. the Akira is the only ship where i think it works, as a thru-ship flight deck for fighters. otherwise i really do like this either as a production version of what the Defiant tested out, or as a competing design (a more traditional approach to the same role) and initially Starfleet went with this, mothballing the Defiant, as they could see more utility out of it (which makes sense. the Defiant is better than the Saber for the mission "go to place, shoot things until they are dead" but the Saber would be better for literally any other mission. I would want some Defiants around in the fleet, but i'd want more Sabers)

Wasn’t the class adopted by the star fleet corps of engineers /sce due to its underdog underrated capabilities?

This has long been my favorite of the FC ships. I like the smaller scale of it. There exist renderings of an alternative larger scale vessel, but while I find them more visually appealing, the smaller scale is almost certainly correct, like you have it

6:12 - I love the weapon arc descriptions! :)

I love this ship so much, it was the first Eaglemoss model I bought.

"How do well? Ne'er". Great ship design that does a great job showing how it should work--it's sort of obvious that it's designed with a "point towards enemy" design.

I have an idea for a startrek show. It wouldnt focus on a single ship, rather it would talk about multiple ships dedicating three or four episodes to each, and working up to a finale that encompasses all of these ships. We will call it startrek: Starfleet.

For fans of the Sabre class, the Mk 1 variant modelled by DM Phoenix is incredible and worth digging out, it was included in CBS Ships of the line calendar 2014. AFAIK it started as an exercise to explain why the Sabre registry starts 61xxx when the USS Galaxy starts 70xxx. He also composed the USS Allegiance [Phalanx Class] for the Calendar of 2012, which afaik, was also when Tobias Richter brought the original Ambassador class sketch to life with the help of Andrew Probert for the world to admire. Time flies!

I've always liked the Saber because it was the ship used in the Starfleet Corp of Engineers books which were awesome. My favorite star trek books

After all these years I'm still learning new things. I always thought that the saber was a tiny little piss any compared to the Defiant but now I hear that it's actually well maybe not as tough but comparable and easier to manufacture? Awesome. Thanks.

This is a great ship and something very fun - Post Bort/Dominion war era is my favorite time for SF ships.

It occurs to me, with how good Federation sensors are, powers like the Klingons and Romulans need cloaking technology... just to even the odds. Otherwise they couldn't make a move without Starfleet knowing.

The Saber is one of my favourite designs. I build "starship" models, and I love how the Saber's nacelles come from the saucer - and I've done a number of designs with that feature. Once such design is an updated (future) version of the "Oberth" design, that has easily swappable mission pods/secondary hulls (that can be detached and replaced in the same fashion as a Galaxy Class "saucer sep" manoeuvre) - the nacelles are attached to the "saucer", making the idea of swappable secondary hulls a lot more practical. This means that the one base design of ship could be used for a number of different mission profiles.

Saber Class is also one of my favorites ... it has the look like it would fit well into star fleet but at the same time is very sturdy .... Also just now noticed something if you change the warp nacel positioning slightly or turn them around so that they stick out the back the profile from top could be down right Klingon or Romulan

Always liked the Saber class along with all 4 of the original FC ships, it's a close 2nd behind the Akira for me. Seems like Starfleets version of a Jem'Hadar fighter only bigger and better. A great choice to draw attacks away from the larger ships and the atypical angular design is really nice.

Probably my favorite combat/newer Federation ship design.

I loved the design so much I chose it to be the ship I use in my Episodic, Fan Fiction stories: Federation Installation Nine or D'Sefet's Cat House The U.S.S. Bastet, NCC-61456 is permanently assigned to FI9 to patrol the Federation/Kzinti Border. I have mentioned two other Sabre Class ships in the stories, both with only Caitian crews, the Sekmet and the Menhet.

I have always been curious to see what a true federation warship would look like. One truly dedicated solely for warfare defensive or offensive.

The U.S.S N64 Controller. Still a great looking ship

While understandable, I am somewhat surprised there are not many if any uses of "Dumb Rockets" in space battles. Naturally if you miss, you miss, but an equivalent size rocket can pack much more payload than a guided torpedo, since you don't have the guidance equipment in the way. In fact, you don't even need a warhead. I'm imagining something like a steel (Or duranium) telephone pole, something very dense. Glue a compact, overloaded warp core on the back, with a little pair of nacelles. It would only need enough fuel for a few seconds of propulsion at some absurd warp factor, to literally shear through any target. My inspiration is the US Military's LOSAT system. While that was technically a guided munition, it wasn't very maneuverable, and reached mach 4 by the time it impacted a target a few km away. It was a kinetic energy transfer weapon, also known as "Hit to Kill". You dump so much energy into your target that they are pulverized. A variation of this in universe could be a guided unit with a lower impact speed, but better hit rate. The system as a whole would require unique launch tubes, both for the shape, and to shield the launching vessel from the radiation being dumped out by the overkill warp core.

This has been one of my favorite classes since first contact.

I hadn't noticed that detail about the back of the secondary hull. Thanks for pointing that out.

In my head canon, Starfleet put out a request for a new escort vessel when they encountered the Borg. Two shipyard responded, one with the Defiant and the other with the Saber class. The Defiant had documented issues and Starfleet selected the Saber class for mass production.

It always struck me as the evolution of the defiant class. Defiant its its sister ships were made to test a host of new concpets and theories. The Saber is the Mass production line of ship, built more practically while still embracing a major amount of those ideas. You can always chalk up variations on dimensions and decks to different production runs of ships, or changes made in the yard after they got data back from the first few off the line. Its common to say make three ships, and make changes while making the next 5 based on feedback from the crews. Sure they have a SPEC on file, but every say 5 ships they prob have minor differences between every few runs of the ships being made. This applies to all trek ships, and can account for a lot of the differences between specs you run across in guides, or even in show.

I like to think of the Defiant-class was proof of concept of a Starfleet warship. The Saber-class is a mass produced outcome of combining the Defiant's best traits and technology with Starfleet's mastery of ship building at a mass scale. It even corrects some of the issues that plagued the Defiant escorts while being slightly larger means it could be used for long ranged ops. It also means it used more practical off the shelf systems to be easier to make at record speeds. I like to the compare the Defiants and the Sabers to the Klingon's Bird-Of-Preys and the older Raptors. They're small, fast, very deadly, and woe to anyone seeing a wolf pack of very angry Defiants and Sabers.

On Spacedock's channel breakdown of the Saber class, Utopia Planisha turned these ships out regularly during the and The Starfleet core of engineers heavily favored the Saber because of its modularity.

This is one of those classes that I think would have been a great basis for a different kind of Star Trek show. I mean that it would work well as a member of something like an anti-Borg task force sent out to assess that particular threat or it could have been another viewpoint in the events of the Dominion war. While we got to know about some of the battles through DS9 you don't have a war comprising of half a dozen skirmishes and a few fleet engagements, there are entire campaigns involved with stories to be told covering naval engagements, ground assaults and logistical struggles just to name a few factors. Such a show could well have highlighted the struggles of a force that had spent too much time at peace in getting their entire force featuring various ship types with specialised roles working together effectively. What could have been...

Barely looked at this closely till this video. The bit I notice about that up-swept rear is that it could easily be the front of a secondary hull and the point at which a saucer could be placed, if a kitbash was made using parts of this.

A lot of love went into this video and it shows, it would be nice to see something a little unusual next time, lots of STO/dominion war era or simple cruisers but would like to see something different

Awesome video. I laughed when you showed the diagram of it saying stuff like, "We're Safe!", "Watch out!", "Seriously!", "Oh F**k!" lol. I always found the Saber class to be unique in its own accord. I wouldn't have minded serving on one of these. Yeah it's no Galaxy or Sovereign but hey it's still a cool ship. Also I didn't realize how the hull was matched to mirror the Galaxy class, especially underneath where the deflector dish is. The way how it looks like Deck 2 on the Galaxy Class.

I could go for some stories with a Sabre as the hero ship.

Thank you Rick. For yet another infirmitive video.

But what about the Light Saber Class?

It's a shame we never got a show set after the Dominion War. With the Big 3 rebuilding their empires it would naturally be a time for independent enterprising individuals and smaller powers that didn't take part in the war to take advantage. The Alpha and Beta quad would of been in a similar state to the TOS era. Smaller combat ships like the Saber and Akira that could be built quick and cheap would be on the front line of these rough times.

I am surprised you didn't mention the fact that a Sabre class ship was the hero ship for the SCE ebook series the USS daVinci and her crew were awesome even if they were only beta cannon.

This was the first ship I chose on STO. The USS Sparrowhawk. Miss that tough little ship.

Wait, only two shuttles? She's got a separate hanger for each shuttle? That seems excessive. I guess it would help with redundancy but still, now you're maintaining two whole sets of doors, pressure curtains, shuttle upkeep and repair systems, and all for one extra shuttle and a few worker bees. And they're up front to boot, real estate that this design really seems to want to use for weapons.

If futuristic flying sailing ships is your jam, then Guns of Icarus must surely be on your radar. It's an older game, but it checks out.

If there was a stripped down version would that make it a ‘light’ saber class? I’ll get me coat.

I've always loved the Saber, it and the Nova are my top two favorite Federation ships. The two ships that would have been great replacements for the (giant shuttle design) Defiant. I love small ships that keep the federation design principles of a saucer, a secondary hull with a deflector, and external nacelles.

Thanks for this, one of my favorites too. Perfect counter to Jem bug ships.

LOVE THE SABRE! Spamming them ST: Armada was so good 😂

looking at it from behind, it has a very ferengi marauder vibe - looks great!

That rear taper is also slightly apparent on the Connie, but the Sabre is a full celebration as opposed to the Enterprise hint.

It's one of my favorite designs. Very elegant

I love the Sabre class ships. In my experience with Bridge Commander, the Sabre is a good pack hunting ship, fast and very manoeuvrable. I usually have anything from 3 to 5 sabres take down a Galaxy class ship. In lore, the sabre I would think (though could be wrong) would be more of a fleet support vessel run by the core of engineers. Taking its tactical emphasis of the class, I would think it would come under the destroyer or frigate umbrella.

Quite like the spin off Da Vinci class online fast agile and packs a punch. Great class of ships

If I was a Starfleet Captain, I chose this class to command..

amaizing as always sir congratulations !

I like the saber more than the defiant ngl. It always gave me a light cruiser vibe that you’d get from the Miranda comparing it to its contemporaries. Not the biggest or even super big guns, more of a workhorse. I expect the saber to replace the Starfleet Miranda’s for patrol and escort while Miranda’s are relegated to just survey vessels like the Oberths.

I like how Rick says it's not as fast as the Sovereign class, as if many ship classes of the time were.

Saber is probably my favorite true background ship (is miranda really a background ship when it featured heavily in a movie?) it has that beautiful galaxy trim, but still has its own sexy lines. And it's a defiant style ship that looks like it came from star trek instead of star wars.

Since the Saber was introduced, she has been my favorite ship in Starfleet! I still love the versatility of the Intrepid class (Voyager) as it can land on a planet if necessary, has holodecks, and can hold its own in a fight as well. But for shear looks and coolness, the Saber wins out! In my FanFic, Starfleet crosses dimensions to gift Federation technology to Stargate Command to save both universes from the Goa'uld. And Stargate Command uses Sabers and Defiants in Wolfpack fleets to hunt down and destroy larger ships.

Definitely one of my favorite ships

It's hard to escape the feeling that Starfleet was looking hard at the Klingon Bird of Prey for inspiration as they moved onto a war footing. I'm not sure if the Klingons were flattered or insulted.

The Sabre was the first ship I got in Star Trel online. Love it

It'd be cool to see a refit concept of the Sabre were it gets a true secondary hull with additional nacelles. Maybe it'd be horrifying. Or maybe seeing it's "faceted" gem-shaped saucer design appear on other ships-of-the-line all-rounders. That's be less horrifying.

I have quite the love of this little ship.

I love the onscreen joke level editing :D

I do love the Sabre, I was so hapy when STO released the t6 version

I like the Sabre. It seems like a ship you'd just build en mass. Everything is built into one structure really. No pylons (goodness know why they bother with them...), simple engineering hull (it's a triangle, you can't get much simpler), which covers the entire deflector dish and then nothing particularly complicated up back. Few phasers (I mean who really cares about the numbers of phaser banks? It's the ROF and arc they cover that matters) and then torpedos to throw in the direction the threat'll be. Plus with a crew of only 40 on something the size of a football field (and with that large built in engineer hull) and with that kind of speed, you could use them for all sorts of small scale logistics and even courier needs, zipping supplies into less than secure areas (which will be useful for their significant amounts of time between battles) or even for shipping diplomats to places. I mean sure the California and Miranda class can do that on a larger scale and the Centaur class exists in a similar class too but the Centaur was just a kitbash of old tech, it wasn't a new ship it just filled a gap in capability until this mass production thing came along and could just be churned out. I do question putting the shuttle bays forward, if they're out back then there's more coverage for deploying ships and directions they can join the battle from. But it kind of defeats the keep it simple design and tbh the federation didn't really use shuttles as fighters, so it's unlikely to be an issue really.