The Phantom-class can trace its roots all the way back to the Federation-class dreadnought of the early twenty-third century. The Federation-class was to be implemented to assist in the ongoing hostilities with the Klingons, but technical problems prevented the class from progressing past the prototype. The Federation-class would have been the first Federation vessel to make use of three nacelles, among other innovations.

The failure of the Federation-class project was an important learning experience to the Federation council members of the time. Various shipyard divisions and conflicting research had been the biggest problem in developing the new dreadnought. Due to hostilities with the Klingons, many council members also found the Treaty of Algeron's technology restrictions confining.

As a result, in 2243, the Bureau of Starship Technologies (BST) was set up under several independant contractors. The BST was founded on the ideals that it would be a central repository for all starship tech, and shipyard design teams were required to submit their research. What few knew was the concurrent establishment of the Bureau of Restricted Starship Technologies (RST), which was a politically-sensitive way to say "illegal" technologies. Access to the RST is restricted to the CEOs of two independant contractors who "own" the Bureau, a catalog team consisting of five officers, the chair-holder of The Daystrom Insititute, and a special advisory commission consisting of a few members of the Federation council. Additional temporary access is granted to shipyard design teams in rare cases, but from its founding to 2365, this occured only twice.

In early 2350, relations with the Klingon Empire again hit a low, and war was feared. Acting with an independant design team, the chair-holder of The Daystrom Institute, Dr. Merak Invinoori, began the design of the Hannibal-class. Design was all completed when the team's plans were mysteriously uncovered and a full inquiry was launched. The team was discharged from service and Dr. Invinoori was officially censured, but not relieved of his position as head of the Daystrom Institute. Still, the sentiment that the Treaty of Algeron was too constraining still existed and the door was open.

A group of admirals eventually approached Dr. Invinoori, and his research was allowed to continue under the close supervision of the newly reformed Starfleet Intelligence Corps. Commander Michael Bates was his primary advisor. Most of the details of this agreement remain shrouded in mystery.

In 2365, Starfleet sent out a brief to all design teams. Classed as a Heavy Cruiser, it was to be smaller than the Ambassador-class with the firepower of a Galaxy-class vessel. Other requests included sustainable cruise velocity of Warp 9.9, enhanced sensor arrays, and a more modular design. Most shipyard teams declared the project unfeasible, including the very vocal team at Utopia Planetia. Beauracracy eventually forced the Antares ShipYard Design team to except. At the time, Antares was under extensive pressure to develop a worthwhile design, something it had consistently failed to do for twenty or so years. Thus, the Frontier-class project was begun.

The team originally began with the Nebula-class as a template, hoping to capitalize on the idea of an "options platform". However, numerous problems plagued development, and the project was closed and re-opened several times. The project was officially declared a failure in 2369.

Contact with the Dominion in late 2370/early 2371 led to a re-opening of the project, but with the requirement of a vessel with a greater armament in place of scientific capabilities. Previous research soon became the Tempest-class project. While conflict was expected, the project was not severely rushed in the initial design stages. The increasing threat of war led Starfleet to speed up the project, however, and Dr. Invinoori was brought in to head up the team. The project moved from protected to classified status. A subsequent inquiry into Antares ShipYards expenditures in 2372 exposed the project and it was halted.

As had been the case with numerous other ship design projects, the idea of a "Federation warship" was hotly debated amongst the members of the Federation council. After both the Ammendments to the Treaty of Algeron in mid-2373 and the impending war with the Dominion, the Starfleet Admiralty convinced the Council to allow the project to continue. After much debate, it was and full access to the RST was given to the design teams, along with added high-clearance advisors. In late 2373, the USS Tempest was destroyed during its first warp flight testing. Unforseen power problems had arisen and one warp core was declared unfit in order for the design to work.

Dr. Invinoori and his design team went back to the drawing board and produced the revolutionary Phantom-class. The design implemented an unprecedented three warp cores and four warp nacelles, along with many other technologies adapted from the RST database. The Phantom-class design was also left somewhat unfinished to allow ease of upgrading components to some of the more controversial RST technologies.

The latest design was kept more compact to allow easier production, but by no means did this mean the ship was not to have teeth. While the principal of arming the ship with as much weaponry as possible had been a fundamental part of the Tempest Project, it was made feasible by the exponentially increased power allowances of the new tri-core design. By themselves, the new Type XV phasers and multiple torpedo tubes gave the Phantom unprecedented firepower for a ship of its size, but the growing trend of "bigger is better" in enemy starships still left it unable to compete with the top of the line vessels of other races. The solution was the addition of the Type C phaser cannon. While difficult to aim and requiring nearly an entire warp core to power it, the cannon grants the Phantom-class firepower comprable, if not greater, then any other ship in existance (excepting the Borg Cube, of course).

By mid-2375, the USS Phantom was officially launced. A team of Starfleet Officers led by Lieutenant Commander Dade Rojc spent nearly six months working the bugs out of the ship, and was later commisioned under the command of Captain Daniel Whitman, an established Starfleet veteran.

Only recently was the Phantom-class put into the field, where, despite overwhelming odds and the loss of one of the warp cores, it performed remarkably well. The technical data gleened from this first mission provided invaluable insight to the design team, who only recently finished the last major overhaul. Vice-Admiral Michael Bates proved instrumental in pushing the design through the Federation Ship Commision and class production has begun to replace the Frankenstein Fleets of the Dominion War.

In peak condition, the Phantom was recently subjected to intense combat with five Romulan warbirds. While sustaining moderate damage, the Phantom destroyed two attackers and critically damaged the remaining three.