An older Cardassian ship, the Seltik Escort Cruiser, also commonly referred to as the Seltik "Ripper" Cruiser, is a ship design built around the gravitic disruptor weaponry that was common at the dawn of the 24th Century.

Seltik Escort Cruisers are designed almost solely to strip enemy shields at range using its gravitic disruptors so that fire from its charges will be more effective against the target. Seltiks were deployed in large numbers to take advantage of this, in hopes that enough saturation of gravitic disruptor fire would overload a ship's shields leaving them vulnerable to compressor beam or phaser strikes through that shield projection.

As the gravitic disruptor began to lose popularity among the Cardassian military elite so did the Seltik Escort Cruisers. Though hardy and boasting a reasonable weapons loadout, the ship was simply deemed inappropriate for the changing Cardassian military structure.