Early on in the Ambassador-class design phase, it became clear to mission planners that while their new design would revolutionize starship deployments, the unprecedented scope of the vehicles and their enormous cost would severely limit construction. Until an acceptable number of units could be fielded, a smaller class was needed to fill the gaps left by the Ambassador’s limited availability. Drawing on the new technologies coming out of that project, the Renaissance-class was intended to fill the temporary gap left by their larger multimission counterparts." - (FASA - FEDERATION SHIP MANUAL 2385)