Corvette

A Corvette can be a type of Starship.  
==Historical Note==
The term Corvette itself is from Earth naval history / A corvette (sometimes corvet) is a small, maneuverable, lightly armed warship. During the Age of Sail, corvettes were smaller than frigates and larger than sloops-of-war, usually with a single gun deck.
During World War 2. The term was used by the British Royal Navy, the Americans called the type a Destroyer Escort or Patrol Gunboats. These were small ships, some built from trawler hulls. They carried only the tools of anti-submarine warfare as their only job was protecting convoys from submarines. For anything else they were trawlers with a harsh opinion. The type was discontinued at the end of that conflict, it was too small and too specialized.
Yes the car was named after them.
==The Starship Type==
In the 23rd century a corvette was a small, lightly armed but fast warship intended to do commerce raiding and to counter enemy privateers and pirates.  It can be hard to tell a frigate from a corvette, usually a frigate would be slightly larger, but have similar armament and be designed for longer patrols. 
One might call a Corvette a Light Destroyer, and sometimes they were. The Perimeter Action Ship is indistinguishable from the Corvette 
As the build up for war progressed, these types were relegated to rear echelons.
In the 24th century, the Corvette type was subsumed into the escort.  23rd century examples were used up doing sector patrols of known space, where they often became the remote eyes and ears of starbase commanders, filling the role of the scout.
The name is inexact much like the term "battlecruiser"Category:Treknical
Category:ST-OM
Category:Ships
Category:Epiphany Trek