The Brinok Missile Cruiser represents a shift in thinking within the Central Command during the 2340's. They had seen how effective their older warships could be in battle, but the Cardassian Union lacked a warship with the range advantage enjoyed by their adversaries. Each Galor Cruiser did operate a pair of photon torpedoes, but an individual Galor could not project enough ranged firepower to be effective. What the Cardassian military desired was a dedicated bombardment cruiser.

The Brinok throws to the wind all secondary armaments in favor of equipping itself with as many photon torpedoes as is possible on a hull of its size. Exchanging armor for increased forward firing arcs for its photon torpedoes, the Brinok is a potentially devastating ship on the battlefield.

Many Brinok Missile Cruisers built many of these ships, but the lack of a secondary phaser armament proved telling and the ships found themselves easily crippled and left for dead on the battlefield. Galor Cruisers proved to be a more balanced combat option, and in most cases two Galors could be built for a single Brinok.

Brinoks continued to be built at their normal rate, and were sufficiently effective to remain in useful service. During the Dominion War their fire support abilities in large fleet actions was a major advantage for the Dominion forces.