Saber class The " Saber " - class was a type of Federation starship operated by Starfleet in the late 24th century . The class featured an angular primary hull with an integrated navigational deflector and secondary hull . The warp nacelle s were attached directly to the saucer . Two " Saber " class starships were under construction at the Utopia Planitia Fleet Yards in 2371 . ( ) A number of " Saber " - class starships participated in the Battle of Sector 001 of 2373 and the Dominion War of 2374 – 2375 . ( ) Appendices . Background information . The and ILM both used the American spelling , " " Saber " " , and the British spelling , " " Sabre " " , in several places . For consistency , Memory Alpha uses the American spelling . During the pre - production phase of , the producers approved alternative backups for ship names and registries . The ship scale sheet showing the back - up names and registries can be found on . Studio model . Design . The " Saber " - class starship was designed by Alex Jaeger at ILM . In 2009 , Jaeger made these detailed observations about his design , " ( . . . ) Yes the notch in the front is a forward launch bay . And yes the name " Yeager " is after Chuck Yeager as is the NCC # 6 - 1947 . . . the year he broke the sound barrier . Also there was another design that was not used in the film that was given the USS " Yeager " name , so I wanted to make sure that at least the name made it through . The unused design was posted on John ' s blog , it was the 1st design in that post . The textures are from the " Enterprise " , it was a quick way to show that even though it was a ' new ' design , it was of the older era ships compared to the then new " Enterprise " - E . The # of new ship designs in was actually only 4 , the " Sabre " , " Steamrunner " , " Norway " and of course the " Akira " . The goal with all of those ships was to make them look completely different from the " Enterprise " as we were introducing the E in that film and they didn ' t want people going , ' wait , which one ' s the " Enterprise " ? ' Therefore the very radical layouts on those 4 ships , but still keeping true to the basics of starship design , such as the deflector dish and Nacelle Bussard collectors must have a clear view to open space in the front view etc . . . " ( . . . ) Actually ILM was using for animation and for the models of these ships back then . I don ' t recall the actual size numbers , I just remember saying it was about the size of the " Enterprise " s Saucer section . Interesting note I just found that there was second version of the " Sabre " with a 3rd Nacelle on top called the U . S . S . " Saratoga " , it also has a wider lower hull for a larger deflector dish and the 3rd nacelle was one from the D " Enterprise " . I had forgotten about that one ! Also in the original sketch I did , the escape pods were lined up along the ' secondary hull ' on either side of the red stripe , but when I modeled it something changed and I put them back on the ' saucer ' section . " ( . . . ) A couple more notes about this ship , as some of you have mentioned it ' s very compact . I basically approached it from the stand point of getting rid of all the struts and necks as possible and still maintain the 2 hull look . So there is still the flat horizontal ' saucer ' section and the vertical ( although more triangular ) secondary hull . The only ' struts ' are the stubs holding the nacelles off the saucer edges . I figured I could get away with this compactness since the " Defiant " had been introduced by the time FC came around . The impulse engines should not be glowing all over , you are correct that they only glow at the opening in the back . And as far as the CG model ' s life , these were VERY low res models , especially the , so it ' s no surprise to me that they ' ve been remodeled several times . Although now that I ' m a better 3D modeler I ' d like to take a crack at a redesign . " CGI model . The model was rendered as a computer - generated visual effect and built by Larry Tan and Paul Theren . A year later ILM was requested by Paramount to hand over their models made for " First Contact " , among them the " Yeager " , to Digital Muse in preparation for use in the upcoming DS9 episode . Due to software differences , the model had to be largely rebuilt in the software , and was remapped at a higher resolution in the process , but it was completed early enough to be already showcased in . A new CGI model was built for use in the " " . This model features higher polygons , along with new hull detailing , and higher resolution textures . This model was then adapted for use in the . Size . Visual Effects Supervisor David Stipes said that an overall length of 625 feet ( 190 . 5 meters ) was generally used on - screen . " Technical Manual " . The following information of specifications and defenses comes exclusively from the " " : The dimensions given here are identical to the dimensions given by the " Deep Space Nine Technical Manual " for the , possibly due to an editing error . Apocrypha . In the " " series , the ship USS " daVinci " is a " Saber " - class starship assigned to the Starfleet Corps of Engineers , under Captain David Gold . The " Saber " appears in both Activision ' s " " and " " . It is the smallest Federation ship available in " " , and one of the smallest in " Star Trek Online " , where it has variants named the " Rapier " - class and the " Ushaan " - class .