Thus, it is quite possible that the engines are capable of burst speed to Warp 9 for a few hours, the reality is that most of that power is intended for weapons use. If you're going to have an attack fighter, it's going to have fairly powerful weapons, which need a decent warp core to cover. Most ship power comes from a combination of the warp core and the impulse reactors, with the warp core doing the bulk of energy lifting.
