Battleship

A Battleship is generally the largest warship in a fleet, designed to engage other warships with phasers, disruptors, or missiles. Battleships are so large and powerful, they become symbols of the nations they serve. Any ship may technically be called a Battleship, but only the largest truly deserve the name.

Origins
The Term "Battleship" is, in most languages, a dirivitive of the phrase "Line of Battle Ship", a term used, almost invariably from planet to planet, to describe first-rate fighting ships, originally wooden, sail-driven ships, and later metal ships powered by steam or gas turbines.

seagoing battleships always carried large-caliber guns and were heavily armored. on Earth, in the mid-20th Century, Battleships reached their zenith with the US Navy's Iowa class and the Japanese Navy's Yamato class. Iowa measured 884 feet long, 106 feet abeam, displaced 45,000 tons, and carried 9 16" guns. Yamato measured 864 feet long, 115 feet abeam, displaced over 65,000 tons, and carried 9 18" guns, the largest guns fitted to a human battleship. These ships came into existance as the ship that would make them obsolete, the Aircraft Carrier, came into wide-spread use.

In the end, the Aircraft Carrier and it's air wing of strike and fighter aircraft spelled the end of the Battleship at sea.

Space Battleships
As many species came into space, and built deep space fleets for exploration and warfighting, the need for a deep-space battleship became appearent. Some powers, like the Federation, resisted. They instead built multi-role vessels: Ships built for exploration and science, but armed like Cruisers or Destroyers should the need for a combat force arise. The Klingons and Valderans, however, wasted little time building battleships.

United Federation of Planets
The Federation's policy on Battleships seems to be "Better late than never," As the Federation has only begun to build warships, much less Battleships, within the past 15 years. At the start of the Dominion War, The Federation had 2 active Battleships and four active Battlecruisers, the Wisconsin Class and Shiloh Class, respectively. Shiloh, however, is referenced by several intelligence agencies as a "Pocket Battleship".

Since the end of the Dominion War, Starfleet has begun to strenghten the battleship fleet. By the beginning of 2386, she had 10 Battleships (6 Wisconsin-class Battleships and 4 Georgia Class Battleships.) although midyear of 2386 saw the destruction of USS Montana.