Jem ' Hadar battleship The Jem ' Hadar or Dominion battleship was a type of warship introduced in the Alpha Quadrant midway through the Dominion War , in 2374 . History . On stardate 51825 , the Federation starship conducted a mission to collect technical data on a new battleship operating in their sector . After spending three hours collecting data on the vessel , they determined that it was a direct threat to every Federation outpost and colony within fifty light year s and that it had to be destroyed . Believing they found a weakness in the design of the ship , they engaged the Jem ' Hadar vessel and were subsequently destroyed with ease by the battleship leaving only Jake Sisko , Nog , and a Red Squad cadet , Dorian Collins left to escape . ( ) A Jem ' Hadar battleship was used to destroy a Cardassian Rebellion base in late 2375 . ( ) Several of these ships participated in the Battle of Cardassia . Afterward , they and the other Dominion forces retreated to the orbit of Cardassia Prime to join the defense of that planet . ( ) Design . Initial observations of the vessel , conducted by the " Valiant " using sensor probes , indicated that the battleship was twice the size of a starship and three times as powerful . The crew of the USS " Valiant " determined that the primary support braces for the antimatter storage system of the battleship were constructed from viterium , prone to destabilization when exposed to delta radiation . The " Valiant " crew attempted to exploit this possible design flaw using modified torpedo es , but discovered that the ship was not as susceptible as they thought ; destroying the braces caused little to no meaningful damage to the ship . ( ) Appendices . Background information . The actual size of this vessel is uncertain . Based on Jake Sisko ' s statement , which Nog confirmed as " accurate , " the vessel is 1 , 284 meters long if taken literally . This is supported by the close - range engagements in " Valiant " , which establish a size several times larger than that of the " Defiant " - class . The same approximate scale is maintained for the battleships during the Battle of Cardassia . However , in the final shot of the Dominion fleet around Cardassia , the battleship was scaled several times larger than previous . Although this was likely done to enhance the ominous effect of the fleet , it may suggest visually similar classes of varying sizes , much like the K ' vort - class and B ' rel - class Klingon Bird - of - Prey . Studio model . The script for the episode called for shots of the making strafing runs on the Jem ' Hadar battleship , taking it extremely close to the surface of the enemy vessel . " " If possible we would have used the physical model for both the cruiser and the Battleship , with the scale of the model being the only difference . ( . . . ) Since the story called for close up attacks , the camera would have to be flying an inch or so off of the physical model . This was pretty much impossible with the motion control camera / rig and more importantly , the physical model was never constructed to tolerate that kind of close up scrutiny . It just did not have the detail to hold up , " " David Stipes remembers on his blog . The only other available model at the time , VisionArt ' s CGI model , was not up to the task either for the same reasons . It was therefore decided to have a new model built in CGI , the second new studio model for DS9 with no physical counterpart . The Dominion battleship was designed by John Eaves , along the same lineage lines of the Jem ' Hadar battle cruiser , its close resemblance later causing the two models to be sometimes confused with each other . After the design got its final approval in March 1998 , the task of building the CG model was contracted out to Digital Muse . The extra added detail , texture and surfacing needed for this episode , would work to its disadvantage in later appearances , betraying the model as being CG when used in medium to long range shots .