In early 2370, Starfleet Intelligence, in its ever-growing role in the Federation requested the resources to produce its own specialized starship for mission duty. At the time, contemporary designs were considered to be too large and required too many personnel for staffing purposes to adequately serve as a platform for missions requiring covert operations (the bulk work of Starfleet Intelligence at the time).

Previous to this, the Defiant-class had proved to be a worthy design, but was considered to have the same problems as the rest of the available classes. Since the Intelligence Oversight Commitee had already approved of the project for a Intelligence-specialized craft, then head of Intelligence, Admiral Toko Nakamura sought out the help of Doctor Merak Invinoori. Given broad discretionary powers, Nakamura told Invinoori to produce a ship ala the Defiant, but smaller. Thus began the Fearless-class project.

Surprisingly, the project was never once delayed or questioned by the beauracracy, and other than standard checkups, was allowed to proceed entirely under the supervision of Starfleet Intelligence. Even when full RST clearance was approved, there was no extraneous debate. Despite this good fortune, the project was plagued by its own design demands.

The Defiant was already an incredibly compact vessel, so it now became exceedingly difficult to trim down the systems so that they were of comprable strength. But Invinoori eventually suceeded in his endeavours and in late 2374, turned in the final plans for the Fearless. Those same plans were accompanied by an ultimatum that he would not continue work on the vessel unless the construction was paced, instead of rushed as were several of his other projects.

Admiral Nakamura reluctantly ceeded to Invinoori's ultimatum and construction on the spaceframe began at Utopia Planetia. Over the course of construction, three design projects of interest to Nakamura were completed--the Orion, Promethius, and Phantom classes. Additionally, Nakamura was encouraged by the revised Treaty of Algeron to spur Invinoori to revise the onboard systems.

Culling technology from the prototypes tested on the above three projects, the Fearless easily surpassed its parent Defiant. The new type III pulse phaser cannons and the single type XV phaser bank gave the ship phaser firepower comprable to that of the Soverign or Promethius classes, which compensated for the loss of torpedo firepower (due to the smaller size). Since the design was smaller, it was easier to make the ship more maneuverable--and it has the reputation as the most manueverable non-shuttle type starships in the quadrant. As for the specialization for missions, the Fearless-class is outfitted *standard* with the first version Federation cloaking device, along with a powerful energy sheath and a scaled-down version of the stealth-sensor array found on the Phantom-class vessel.

Unlike how Dr. Invinoori often proceeded in other projects, the Fearless was a "completed" ship--there was left almost no room for further technological expansion. Further more, the ship is very resource-intensive. To keep a Fearless in peak operational condition, starbase facility-based maintenance is necessary about every two months; dry dock-based maintenance every year; and total replacement/refitting of major ship's systems every three years. Factoring in both construction costs and its refit cycle, the Fearless-class is among the top three most expensive vessels currently used by any Federation agency.

While the two Fearless-class vessels in service's records are at present classified, on a general report basis, the two vessels have undertaken nearly fifty missions between them. Of that, the ships have been subjected to combat conditions almost two dozen times. The Fearless is very rarely seen outside of Intelligence-specific missions.

Thus far, the Fearless-class has proved its worth admirably and has proven instrumental in the missions it has undertaken. Funding, though limited, as been allocated to allow Starfleet Intelligence to operate and maintain a fleet of ten of these ships over the next ten years.