The Klingon blockade of Cardassia Prime inflicted severe damage to their military infrastructure and therefore their ability to wage war. Even more it injured deeply the fabled and deep-rooted Cardassian pride. Cardassia had always mandated an aggressive expansionist policy but never had a clear vision on how to accomplish it with the use of ships rather than stationary space stations such as Terok Nor. The mobility required to move from system to system was not possible with current Cardassian technology. However, a small and innovative group of Cardassian engineers had been working on designing a massive flagship in which Cardassia could effectively control distant systems and demoralize those who sought to strangle Cardassia's economic growth. But the problem in building this vessel was the lack of organization as much as the available resources, much of which had to be imported.

With the end of the blockade and the start of the Alliance with the Dominion the Cardassian shipyards started construction of what was to be the largest ship ever to be built in the Alpha Quadrant - the Hutet-class. Clearly a departure from the traditional Cardassian ship design, its enormous size reflected the ambitious desires of its makers. Described as a planetary assault ship, its primary role was to launch long-term moderate size assaults against moderately defended systems with little or no escort. That a Hutet could do this due to a new structural technology that could absorb hits from of all conventional weapons. In addition an innovative use of Dominion technology allowed the Hutet to quickly perform short term self-repair of battle damaged critical systems. To assist in its role of rebellion suppression the Hutet can maintain support for a small fleet of Class-1 and Class-2 ships. By far the most frightening weapon on the Hutet is the Big Wave Cannon, which is mounted on the forward array, which harness enough firepower to decimate entire continents.