Swarm ship Swarm ships were small , two - person craft left in large numbers on Altamid by the planet ' s original inhabitants sometime prior to the 2160s . History . Following the crash of the in the 22nd century , these craft were employed by Krall to waylay orbiting starship s . Jaylah likened Krall ' s swarm ships to bee s . In the year 2263 , Krall used his swarm to attack the Federation starship under the command of Captain . Approaching the " Enterprise " in orbit of Altamid , these ships initially appeared to be one large vessel , emitting an unidentifiable signal , but quickly separated and attacked in a coordinated effort to disable the ship . Surrounding and ramming it repeatedly , these ships inflicted serious damage on the " Enterprise " , first severing its warp nacelle s before finally separating its primary hull from its secondary hull . Following the destruction of the " Enterprise " , Commander and Doctor commandeered one of these ships and crash landed on the surface of Altamid . Krall later used his ships to attack the Federation Starbase Yorktown in a massive assault . Utilizing antique equipment aboard the century - old USS " Franklin " , the " Enterprise " crew was able to identify the swarm ships ' signals as closed networked cyberpathic communications that allowed them to coordinate their maneuvers . Emitting VHF radio signals in the form of " classical " music by the Beastie Boys , the " Franklin " flew very near to Krall ' s ships , causing a chain reaction that destroyed the swarm . Once again flying a commandeered swarm ship , Spock and McCoy assisted James Kirk in defeating Krall within the Starbase Yorktown before Krall could unleash a super weapon and kill the base ' s inhabitants . ( ) Technical data . Swarm ships were capable of space and atmospheric flight , and were equipped with warp drive . They were piloted by two drones and , when not in use , docked in tree - like formations at towers on the surface of Altamid . The ship is accessible through a circular hatch in the rear . Though apparently lacking weaponry , Swarm ships were durable enough to inflict heavy damage on other ships by ramming them . When colliding with another ship , a Swarm ship could elect to penetrate only partway and deploy its lateral prongs to anchor itself ; the nose of the ship could then split open to release drones inside the target vessel . Swarm ships were susceptible to phaser s , but operate in such large numbers that phaser fire was overall ineffective against them . They were too small and nimble to be effectively targeted by photon torpedo es . ( ) Appendices . Background information . The ships were named " Krall swarm ships " in a " Popular Mechanics " cutaway diagram of the " Enterprise " . The idea of relatively very small ships that swarm to engage their enemies was thought up by Justin Lin and considered over a long time by him . When he suggested that concept as the director of , the other filmmakers who were working on the movie liked his idea . " " The swarm was always in play , " " stated " Star Trek Beyond " Co - Writer Doug Jung . " " I think that was again something that Justin always wanted to do [ . . . ] He ' s like , ' Why would you have that big ship going around ? Why not just get a bunch of little ones ? ' And I was like , ' Yeah . Guess it makes sense ! " " The idea of using small vessels also helped the team achieve a goal they were aiming for , as they wanted to make the space battle sequences in the movie less like the submarine warfare genre of films than was usual for such scenes in " Star Trek " . In the first trailer for " Star Trek Beyond " ( which was released on ) , Krall ' s swarm ships appear maroon in color . However , in the film ' s second trailer ( which was released on ) , they appear dark gray or black in color , as they do in the finished film . Apocrypha . In the of IDW Publishing ' s new " " series , these ships were used by Krall and Manas to attack Jaylah ' s and her family ' s ship .