Canon Facts Backstage Info  Speculation

Notes : The Predator design was fielded by the Trabe species during the period 2320 - 2345. The ships were originally designed as freighters, their huge size allowing them to carry up to twenty million tons of cargo. Some thirty of these vessels were built over the twenty five years they were in production, and they became a common and impressive sight among the Trabe worlds.

When the Kazon overthrew the Trabe and forced them to retreat from their worlds, the prodigious size of the Predator class ships made them a natural choice for refugee transports. Knowing this, the Kazon sects attempted to capture or destroy as many of these ships as they could. The Trabe escaped with five vessels, the Kazon captured about fifteen, the remaining ten being destroyed.

Both the Trabe and the Kazon have extensively refitted their Predators, in the former case to enhance living standards and in the latter to install weaponry. Their size and prodigious energy output would theoretically allow the Kazon ships to be fitted with a very heavy armament, and indeed the Predator class vessels are amongst the most powerful in the area. However, indications are that the Kazon have not been willing or capable of providing the support and maintenance facilities required to keep these ships in top condition. They therefore tend to perform far below the level which might otherwise be accomplished.

To date the Predator has been involved in combat against Starfleet on only one occasion, when the USS Voyager and a Peregrine class craft were attacked by a Predator and two Raider class vessels near the Caretakers Array in the delta quadrant. The Predator class proved to have an armament approximately equal to Voyager, and the Kazon had the upper hand for much of the battle. Nevertheless Voyager was able to cause intermittent failure in several of the Kazon ships shields; using one of these the damaged Peregrine rammed the Kazon vessel, causing it to loose all helm control and collide with the Array. The ship was destroyed by this collision (see below).