Built at the same time as the Keldon Dreadnought, the Dur'nat was meant to be a competing design to the Keldon. This proved to be an unsuccessful bid, as while the Dur'nat had six torpedo tubes it could not compete with the Keldon in survivability. With better shields and simply more mass, the Keldon could take more of a beating than the Dur'nat, which was only mildly more resilient than the Galor class. The Keldon also mounted more compressors and better sensors and -- of greatest importance -- a better reactor. The Dur'nats inability to power all of its weapons was looked on as a major handicap, as enemy ships (particularly Maquis or Bajoran craft) would find areas where the weapons were not powered and start to strafe the ship.

However Central Command authorised a limited production run of Dur'nat class ships as fleet support vessels, firing volleys of torpedoes to knock down the shields of key enemy craft. The ship performed adequately in squadrons, and was usually seen providing heavy torpedo support to Galors.