First - I was excited about this ship; the Defender is one of my favorite vessels in SWTOR.
However, I spawned the ship locally after looking over the blueprint, and tried using it. I wasn't at all impressed with any bit of the performance.
First things first - this ship is missing key features. There is no warp drive. The blaster cannons don't actually do anything. The turrets on the side of the ship aren't actually turrets. No missiles (which, is damning in the current metagame.)
Other than looks, or *maybe* RPing, there's no actual use for this vessel. I am very disappointed.