NOTE: I made this on a game that includes the altered sprites from the Miranda Class (In the thread called 'Help with Importing ships'), I am not sure if it works without those altered sprite files.

//*********************************************************************************************************
Open 'all_cap_veteran' (C:\Program Files\Activision\Star Trek Armada II Fleet Operations 3.0\Data\odf\system) and add at the end:

fleetcapclassXX = "pf_kickstartr6"
fleetcapclassXXcapvalue = 8

Replacing XX with the number 1 higher than the ship before it.

//*********************************************************************************************************
Open 'all_veteran8' (C:\Program Files\Activision\Star Trek Armada II Fleet Operations 3.0\Data\odf\system) and find:

wpnname = "Promote to Veteran"

add above it

replacementXXcondition = "pf_kickstartr5"
replacementXXclass0 = "pf_kickstartr6"

Replacing XX with the number 1 higher than the ship before it.