DANUBE CLASS

In 2363, the Advanced Starship Design Bureau began a vehicle study that would become the Danube class runabout. This vehicle study led to the construction of a prototype at Utopia Planitia Fleet Yards two years later. Registered as NX-72003, flight trials began for the prototype off the Martian surface in 2368. The modular construction gives the Danube class the capability of performing a wide range of missions from scientific experiment drop-off & pick-up to intelligence gathering. The first three production models; commissioned as Ganges, Rio Grande and Yangtzee Kiang, were delivered by the Galaxy class USS Enterprise to space station Deep Space 9 in the Bajoran Sector as support vessels in 2369. Of the first three runabouts, only the Rio Grande would still be Starfleet service at Deep Space 9 at the end of the Dominion War in 2375.