The last gasp of the Eaves-Kurtzman ships, the Repulse was a rival design to the Federation and Atlas class ships. Unfortunately, like the Federation, it was a failure. Whilst sharing its lines with the famed Excelsior class, it would prove to be a far less successful design.
Before we start on the Repulse, it is important to clarify what the Eaves-Kurtzman ships actually were. Designed based on the revolutionary work of the Eaves-Kurtzman Design Bureau, these ships took a radical stance compared to older ships. Marked by their impressive size, respectable warp performance and acceptable combat capabilities these ships were the backbone of Starfleet from the 2190's to the 2250's, despite the simultaneous existence of the Okazaki-Jefferies Design Bureau. Their ships were characterised by a distinct dark brown paint and more angular hull form, including square warp nacelles and triple-Bussard Ramscoop assembly. Notably one ship, the Magee class, didn't actually house its warp engines within external nacelles, instead housing them in large square assemblies within the primary hull.
What is also important to note, however, is that these ships disappeared in the 2250's largely due to Burnham's War with a splinter state of the Klingon Empire, which saw many of the Eaves-Kurtzman ships destroyed when smaller Klingon ships outmanoeuvred them at impulse. It was these horrific losses that saw the Constitution class and its derivatives, the Pioneer, Saladin and Miranda Classes, rise to prominence, but the Eaves-Kurtzman ships hardly went down without a fight.
It was these horrific losses that saw the EKDB rush to develop a newer, better ship. The result was the Repulse. Using an upgraded version of the SSWR-XV Vertical Warp Core being tested on the refit Asia Class the ship was designed to be more agile, faster and better armed than anything else built up to that point. Taking combat results into the equation the ships were smaller than other EKDB ships at 520m in length, resulting in a more compact and capable vessel. In order to speed up construction the warp nacelles, shields and various secondary components were ripped from Crossfield class ships in various stages of construction and used in the class, allowing for easier maintenance long term in addition to faster construction. The ship sported no less than 12 phaser banks spread across the hull and a dual torpedo launcher, housed in the neck of the ship. In theory the ship should've been able to take the fight all the way to Qo'Nos.
Unfortunately the USS Discovery beat her to it. Through the use of the Spore Drive, a recently declassified piece of technology that Discovery was built around, she was able to win the war before Repulse was even out of drydock. With this Starfleet cancelled any subsequent orders of the class as, due to her extensive parts sharing with older ships, she was already obsolete. Whilst Repulse herself would be completed she would remain the sole member of her class, with the Atlas class ultimately netting the battleship contract. In 2290 she would be sent to Qualor II and broken up, donating her name to an Excelsior class vessel already under construction.
Now nominally the loss of the contract would mark the end of the ship as a whole. A depressing finale to a promising design. But for the Repulse it would be different due to the issues around Excelsior. The Excelsior class entered development around 2269 and waded loosely through development until 2277, when the first prototype was constructed. This ship, tentatively named USS Alkanis, would be a rather flat vessel and ultimately fail to achieve Transwarp, though the ship would still be considered a success as a transport. Two further prototypes, the USS Vantage and USS Tornado, would be constructed and similarly prove to be failures when it came to achieving transwarp velocities. It was these continued failures that saw the head of the Excelsior program, Captain Styles, to start looking around Starfleet's reserves, happening on Repulse. In an act of desperation Repulse was hauled into dock, refitted with a Transwarp drive and sent out on a trial run. Despite all odds, it worked! Repulse broke the warp speed record and proved Transwarp could at least work, and with her success a fifth prototype, the USS Excelsior, would be constructed. Whilst Transwarp Drive itself would be a failure the Excelsior class would be a monumental success, with ships essentially modelled on Repulse still being in service today. Whilst she may have been a failure at the time, it's hard to say she was a failure in retrospect. Not bad, eh?