David and Goliath

The largest Klingon ships today: a C8 Dreadnought and a pair of C7 Heavy Battlecruisers, and then to round things off a dozen shuttles. These heavy ships won't see a lot of use, but my brother and I have had a couple of occasions when we would have been glad of more Suicide Shuttles. They only move slowly, but a swarm of them can be pretty nasty. Moreover, the concept is rather amusing-cum-baffling. Do they really represent Kamikaze pilots or are they really being controlled from the mothership, or does the pilot pop himself into a tiny escape pod just before impact? I lean toward the remote-control option, but I really don't have a handle on the comprehensive background of the Star Fleet universe. I am reliant on lovely old episodes of ST:TOS, and it would be a rare instance then when Kirk would allow an ensign to ram himself and some tubs of antimatter into an enemy!