Analagous to the Constitution-Miranda design comparison, starships of the Nebula-class were designed and constructed to compliment and utlize components of the larger Galaxy-class explorers; particularly the primary & secondary hulls and warp nacelles in a more compact arrangement than the Galaxy-class. Entering into service in the 2350's to perform a variety of missions for Starfleet and the Federation, Nebula-class ships were built with a superstructure anchored to the aft end of the secondary hull. The purpose of this superstructure was to support an assortment of swappable external hardware modules. Among these modules were an oval-shaped, high energy scanner; which extended the scanning range of any Nebula-class equipped with it. Another module was a weapons platform which included four torpedo/probe launchers (two forward, two aft). This particular module was virtually standard on Nebula-class starships from the mid-2360's through the 2370's. Furthermore ships of this class were armed with (at least) five Type 10 phaser emitter arrays, torpedo/probe launchers and graviton-based defensive shields.
During the service life of the Nebula-class, USS Bellerophon (NCC-62048) was one of 40 Federation starships present at Wolf 359 in early 2367 during Starfleet's failed attempt to prevent a Borg cube from entering the Sol system. Ultimately, 39 ships and nearly 11,000 lives were lost. However, the Borg cube was destroyed in Earth orbit by the crew of the Galaxy-class Enterprise-D.
About a year later in early 2368 during the Klingon Civil War, at least one Nebula-class ship, the Sutherland (NCC-72015), would be assigned to the Enterprise-D's tachyon detection blockade fleet. During this mission, the Sutherland was commanded by Enterprise's android Second Officer, Lt. Commander Data. With Data in command, USS Sutherland would use modified photon torpedoes to detect a squadron of Romulan ships attempting to supply one of the factions in the civil war. Their detection forced the Romulans to withdraw and brought the conflict amongst the Klingons to a swift conclusion.
Following the Klingon Civil War, Nebula-class ships served with distinction during the Federation-Klingon War of 2372-73, the Battle of Sector 001 against the Borg in 2373, and the Dominion War of 2373-75. It is expected that the Nebula-class will continue to serve Starfleet and the Federation through the end of the 24th Century and well into the 25th Century.
Ships of the Class
| BELLEROPHON | NCC-62048 |
| BONCHUNE | NCC-70915 |
| ENDEAVOUR | NCC-71805 |
| FARRAGUT | NCC-60597 |
| HERA | NCC-62006 |
| HONSHU | NCC-60205 |
| LEEDS | NCC-70352 |
| LEXINGTON | NCC-61832 |
| MERRIMACK | NCC-61827 |
| MONITOR | NCC-61826 |
| NEBULA | NX/NCC-60147 |
| PHOENIX | NCC-65420 |
| PROMETHEUS | NCC-71201 |
| PROXIMA | NCC-61952 |
| SUTHERLAND | NCC-72015 |
| T'KUMBRA | NCC-62100 |
| ULYSSES | NCC-66808 |
NOTES
USS Nebula — The registry number of this ship is not depicted in canon. Memory Beta indicates that multiple non-canon sources have provided different numbers for this class prototype. Two of these sources use the 60147 number for the Nebula and the InfoBarn is choosing to use this number despite the non-canon status of the sources.
USS T'Kumbra — The registry number of this ship is not shown on screen during the Star Trek: Deep Space Nine seventh season episode “Take Me Out to the Holosuite”, but the vessel is in the non-canon on-line game Star Trek Online, which is where the registry number appears.