Some were stations from Akira class cruisers while others were carried by makeshift carriers that were converted from cargo vessels.
The Peregrines entered into the war and fought hard. In a few of the early battles, the Federation was forced to use older fighter designs. Luckily, just as the Federation went to war with the Dominion, the Peregrine class fighter was ready to enter full production. Some people suspect that in reality the ships were given to the Maquis by Federation Intelligence to test the new design. Several prototypes were stolen by the Maquis where they fought well against the Cardassian's ships. For this reason, a new warp fighter was developed to replace all older Federation fighters including both warp capable and non warp capable fighters. The old Argus class warp fighter was too old to fill the role and runabouts were too general purpose. The wanted a vessel that could also be rapidly produced. The Borg had destroyed many Federation vessels and they needed ships to take up some of the burden of large starships. The Federation went away from the use of fighters for many years and it was not until just before the Federations War against the Dominion that they started to reconsider the idea.