Constructed at the K'rang shipyards, in orbit around the Klingon homeworld, the USS Avenger was designed and built in record time. The advanced construction techniques of the Klingon Empire and the huge Federation engineering input both contributed to this, building a major vessel from scratch in just over six months.

Built to survive a major battle, the vessel has both ablative armour and parametalic alloy hull plating. The ablative armour is bonded onto the hull plating, making the combined outer hull even more resilient to weapons fire. The hull plating was also constructed in the large single sheet reducing the number of joins required and therefore weaknesses. This design also makes the hull more rigid, allowing the vessel to perform extreme manoeuvres.