The Shackleton Expanse

Located well away from the heart of Federation space and beyond the far borders of both the Klingon and Romulan Empires, the Shackleton Expanse is an area shrouded in mystery and even legend. It is largely uncharted, save for the efforts of automated survey probes. Many of those drones have recorded onboard system issues when traversing the region, originally explained by various stellar phenomena that emit peculiar forms of electromagnetic and gravimetric distortions that have been deemed hazardous to navigation. For this reason in particular, Starfleet’s efforts to push into the area have been limited, though many stories have been passed around thanks to decades of independent merchants and prospectors skirting the region.
However, recent months have seen increases in the level of interference, and Narendra Station’s science officer has requested additional resources be devoted toward enabling further study of the Expanse. To that end, experimental improvements in sensors and deflector shield technology have been installed aboard three of the vessels assigned to the starbase:

U.S.S. Venture – NCC-71854 – Galaxy Class
U.S.S. Bellerophon – NCC-74705 – Intrepid Class
U.S.S. Thunderchild – NCC-63549 – Akira Class