Cardassian

Cardassians, a spacefaring race in the fictional Star Trek universe, and the Cardassian Union were introduced in the ' episode "The Wounded". Cardassians were one of the main parts of the storyline in '. The Cardassian homeworld is Cardassia Prime in the Alpha Quadrant.

Technology

Known Cardassian starships include the Galor-class warship, a medium-sized cruiser which, throughout The Next Generation, was the most powerful vessel in Cardassian service. The Galor is armed with a two large phaser cannons (or it may be a plasma cannon), one forward and one aft. They are also armed with numerous secondary phaser cannons mounted at other points across the hull, and they may carry a complement of photon torpedoes. Estimates vary, but it is thought a Galor class vessel would be roughly comparable to a Federation Excelsior-class starship in a conflict. According to some Trekkies with an eye for detail, it is unclear how a fleet of such ships would be powerful enough to seriously threaten the Federation; however, it can also be intuited that Cardassian technological deficits could be balanced by superior numbers and/or exceptional tactical cunning. It is believed that Galor-class ships are weaker than later Federation vessels, so that it takes at least two Galors to seriously challenge a large starship like a Galaxy-class vessel.

Related Topics:
''Galor''-class warship - Photon torpedoes - ''Excelsior''-class starship - Trekkies - ''Galaxy''-class vessel

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A more powerful Cardassian ship is the Keldon class starship (which is similar to the Galor-class excepting that it has a few additional protrusions added). This ship class is assumed to be comparable to the Galaxy-class in tactical capability; however, why they have not been seen in greater numbers is uncertain.

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All Cardassian warships seen so far are painted ochre, and have backwards-swept delta winged hulls (resembling an ankh); the delta wings resemble fins, giving the Cardassian ships the appearance of predatory sharks. They are all protected by force fields.

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