The Defiant pathfinder was a Federation Starfleet starship design from the 2360s. It was proposed as a fast torpedo attack ship to penetrate threat defenses at high warp, but never got off the drawingboard.
History
The Defiant project began in 2366 under the jurisdiction of Admiral Batelle Toh of the Advanced Starship Design Bureau.
An existing spacecraft design, NXP-2365WP/T, which had just entered the initial systems-level review stage, was chosen as the basis of the Defiant pathfinder proposal. It would have been a dedicated warship capable of firing photon and quantum torpedoes at speeds of up to warp 9.982.
The threat of another Borg attack after the events of the Battle of Wolf 359 led to the redesign of the pathfinder vessel, which eventually spawned the Defiant-class of starship.
Legacy
Nova-class starship
Although the original pathfinder design was replaced with that of the Defiant-class, the spaceframe, with some amendments, became the basis of the Nova-class science vessel.
It also spawned a specialized four-nacelled, twin-cored high-warp courier ship capable of covering over 50 light-years within six days, equivalent to warp 9.92. This modified vessel successfully surpassed the 1,000 light-year/year efficiency barrier. (DS9 reference: Star Trek: Deep Space Nine Technical Manual)