The Defiant was launched around the same time as Voyager and we know that the Equinox, which arrived in the Delta Quadrant before her, was equipped with an EMH...so with the Defiant being a warship and having inept medical capabilities, why wasn't an EMH installed? It would have saved having Bashir hang around on the bridge, waiting for an officer to be injured and then moaning...all the while being wooden as a board.
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The ship didn't even have a sickbay originally, so where would you put the EMH and his holographic projectors?
It also was still a prototype - I suppose the production model might have eventually seen some improvements in that regard. Or maybe not. If the Defiant Class primary purpose was to have a warship for the Borg, maybe they expected them to mostly be attached to larger fleets or starbases, so any injured could be transported over anyway, if the ship even survived. This is kinda how the Defiant was operated, too - it wasn't doing much in the way of self-sufficient Deep Space operations.
And it might also explain the reason for the "Escort" title (other than as euphenism). it was never supposed to be a stand-alone ship, but to "escort" other ships or bases.
Of course, the real-world reason was that the concept of the EMH wouldn't be thought of until Voyager (as a show) was developed, and Picardo's contract would likely have prevented him from having to pull double-duty that would be required for two shows.
Edit: mustrumridcully0 beat me to the punch...
Well if I remember correctly the Defiant was being worked on for a long time before it's launch, the design was shelfed for some reason or another but I guess as technology advanced they were able to fix the problem(s). So it's possible the ship was designed before EMH's were.
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You pretty much just said the same thing I did, it's just that you mis-read my post.
I should have been a little more succinct: While the Sovereign makes for an excelent replacement for the Excelsior-class, it replaced the Defiant in it's intended role as a Borg fighter. This isn't a bold statement, this is from the producers, and the handoff is illustrated in the Battle of Sector 001.
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Don't forget poor Sisko. He was around, too. He is also an engineer, a starship design specialist at that. I am sure he had a little bit of input on how to fix the thing.
" As well, the Defiant had no space for science labs, of which are mandated by the Starfleet Charter."
Where does this come from?
In Season 5 "Doctor Bashir, I Presume?" Picardo actually plays both Dr. Zimmerman and the EMH. But afaik he was only in that single episode, so your point still stands.
In that episode Sisko explains, that the Cardassian technology is incompatible with most Starfleet systems, and that's why they can't install an EMH on the station.
While that doesn't say much about the Defiant, it does tell us, that it's not as easy as just slapping some holo emitters on the wall.
The fact, that Rear Admiral Bennett attended Bashirs hearing via a holo-projection on DS9 in the same episode, and the use of holo-projected communciations on the Defiant's bridge suggests, that it's not an issue to install and use holo emitters.
The problem seems to be that the EMH software just doesn't work on all machines. "Compatiple only with LCARS 2.1 - Exploration Edition", while the Defiant runs a more specialized "Combat Edition" due to maybe a less powerful computer core.
Or it lacks certain hardware that's necessary for the program to work, but outside of that it's only used for more advanced science experiments, which the Defiant can't do anyway due to not having a Science Lab.