The Dakar class was a type of a heavy destroyer serving in the Cardassian Guard during the 24th century.
Launched in 2366, it is the most powerful destroyer ever fielded by the Cardassians, armed more like a warship.
On occasion, they act as auxiliary command centers for fleets.
Most times the ships are used for long-range patrols or keeping peace through multiple systems of a sector. Prior to the Dominion War, they were common sights among the Iron Path and other places Central Command felt the need to show the flag, like newly pacified worlds. Their mere presence was a major deterrent to smugglers, pirates and the like.
During large conflicts, they were grouped by units consisting of two pairs and used to anchor formations of smaller ships in large fleets.
Forward and aft torpedo launchers with one hundred type II photon torpedoes and a forward Drevan class disrupter array, two Jhokel and two Ta'vor and four Rentaile disrupter arrays made up its offensive armaments. A class 5 shield generator protected the cruisers.
A crew of 353 manned the destroyers, with room for another 113 passengers. Space could be made for a total of 6,725 beings onboard in an emergency, but only 1280 would be able to flee the ship in its 160 escape pods.
Its embedded type 5E nacelles and class 10/P warp drive could propel the vessels at warp 9.1 for twelve hours or more, and the pair of 4B impulse engines let it reach .85c.
20 shuttlecraft normally filled its hangar bay, located on the aft section of the engineering hull. During the Dominion War 12 of the shuttles were replaced with smaller fighters.