First proposals were advanced in 2365, but were criticized as unnecessary due to the relative pacificity of the Klingon Empire and the silence of the Romulans. However, veterans of the costly ground battles of the Cardassian War pushed for the project and new designs were proposed by 2366. Finally, the first vessel of the class, the Omega, was launched in 2369.

The class is equipped with integral warp engines, similar to those first deployed on the Defiant, and has a unique dual-mode that allows the bow-mounted, warp-capable bridge section to separate in an emergency as a lifeboat or to leave the main hull on the planet’s surface to act as a temporary garrison.

Four phaser emitters, a pair each facing forward and astern, are mounted on a roll-bar at the rear of the vessel. The Omegas are relatively lightly armed, and are often accompanied into the landing zones by combat runabouts or tactical fighters or even atmosphere-capable starships. They are, however, equipped with strong shield systems and the revolutionary ablative armor.

Because it will often be asked to enter active war zones, the vessel is designed to disembark the soldiers rapidly through three ventral hatches, one each on the port and starboard sides of Deck 7 and one facing forward on the same deck.

The troop accommodations are not spacious, with barracks-style bunking, but the inclusion of a holodeck, unusual for such a small vessel, allows for in-flight combat training, in addition to crew recreation.

One of the first objections to the new ship type was the small number of soldiers it could deploy. If the Omega class was intended to replace transporters or shuttles for major troop deployments, Starfleet would have to construct thousands of the ships. However, current strategic doctrine plans for the ships to be used for establishing airheads of shock troops who would then prepare landing zones for standard shuttlecraft and transport areas free from enemy scattering interference. The new ship type could also be used to perform commando-style raids that require company-size deployments.

During the Dominion War, the vessels fulfilled their designers’ plans and served with distinction in several major battles, including the pivotal Battle of Chin’Toka. Sixty of the Omega Class Corvettes were built before the War, with just 28 of them surviving the conflict, but the low survival rate was attributed more to the ferocity of the fighting than to any flaws in the design.