Weapons of Star Trek

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Contents 1 Energy weapons 1.1 Disruptors 1.2 Lasers 1.3 Phase cannons 1.4 Phased polaron cannon 1.5 Phasers 2 Biological weapons 2.1 Cascading biogenic pulse 2.2 Metreon cascade 3 Projectile weapons 3.1 Chroniton torpedoes 3.2 Gravimetric torpedoes 3.3 Photon torpedoes 3.4 Plasma torpedo 3.5 Quantum torpedoes 3.6 Spatial torpedoes 3.7 Transphasic torpedoes 4 Subspace Weapons 4.1 Isolytic burst 4.2 Tricobalt devices 5 References 6 External links

The Star Trek fictional universe contains a very large number of weapons.

[edit] Energy weapons

[edit] Disruptors

Disruptors are employed by the Cardassian Union, Romulan Star Empire, Klingon Empire, Borg, Breen and Orions in their personal and military small arms as well as being mounted as cannon, emitters, turrets, and banks.

[edit] Lasers

Lasers are a sidearm in the original Star Trek pilot "The Cage", and laser pistols appear in several Original Series episodes.

The ship-mounted lasers of two craft are incapable of overcoming the navigational shields of the USS Enterprise-D.^[1]

The Borg use lasers as drills, often to slice samples of starships after draining the ship's shields with their tractor beams. ^[2]

[edit] Phase cannons

Phase cannons are 22nd century weapons, several of which first appear mounted to the Enterprise in the Star Trek: Enterprise episode "Silent Enemy". Phase cannons have a variable yield, with the cannons on the Enterprise being rated for a maximum output of 500 gigajoules.^[3] Phase cannons generally are more powerful than spatial torpedoes.^[4]

[edit] Phased polaron cannon

These are weapons that were first encountered when contact with the Dominion was made. The cannon emits a beam of polaron particles, the antimatter counterpart of the muon. Polaron beams were quite effective at tearing through most Alpha Quadrant races' shields. Prior to the occupation of Deep Space Nine, Federation and Klingon ships made modifications to their shields to prevent polaron weapons from penetrating them. The Jem'Hadar, Call to Arms.

[edit] Phasers

Phasers are common directed-energy weapons first seen in the original Star Trek and later seen or referenced in all subsequent films and TV spin-offs.

Phasers appear as both personal hand-held weapons and as starship-mounted weapons. Hand-held phasers have a variety of settings, able to "stun," "heat," "dematerialize," and "disrupt." Capable of being used as welding torches or cutting tools, they can be set to "overload," whereby they build up a force-chamber explosion internally; the resulting blast will destroy most natural objects within a 50-yard radius. Hand phasers can also be set to fire in "Wide Beam" mode, to defeat multiple targets at once. The phasers mounted on the USS Enterprise also can fire a stun blast capable of incapacitating groups of people on a planet's surface.^[5] Similar to the hand phaser, ship phasers can also be fired to evenly disintegrate a target object such as meteors and asteroids. The hand-held phasers include a larger rifle which has similar settings to the smaller phaers. The rifle is more powerful than the smaller phasers, there have been a number of different types of phaser rifles, most notably the phase compression rifle which has appear in a number of Voyager episodes and in all the recent films from First contact to Nemesis. In Nemesis, Picard demonstrated the rifle's mechanical weakness as he used it as a melee weapon when fighting the Remans during the final scenes on board the Reman ship and it promptly snapped in half.

[edit] Biological weapons

[edit] Cascading biogenic pulse

The cascading biogenic pulse was first used in 2379 by Praetor Shinzon to assassinate the Romulan senate in Star Trek: Nemesis. Shinzon's attempt to use a ship-mounted version to kill the crew of the USS Enterprise-E is thwarted by Lieutenant Commander Data, who is killed in the process.^[6]

The biogenic pulse uses thalaron radiation to kill all biological life within its range.^[6] Thalaron radiation's massive destructive potential leads the Federation to consider it a biogenic weapon.^[6]

[edit] Metreon cascade

The Metreon Cascade was designed by Dr. Ma'Bel Jetrel of the Haakonian Order. Unstable metreon isotopes were used to create a devastating explosion, with radiation effects similar to those of the 20th-century atomic bomb. Those not killed or vaporized in the initial blast suffered terrible radiation poisoning and death in the aftermath. It was used only once, on the Talaxian moon Rinax in 2355.^[7]

[edit] Projectile weapons

[edit] Chroniton torpedoes

Chroniton torpedoes are twice seen used by the Krenim. Their temporal nature makes them extremely dangerous and potent.^[8] Their reliability is not absolute, as Seven of Nine and Tuvok find an undetonated chroniton torpedo lodged in Voyager's hull.^[8]

[edit] Gravimetric torpedoes

Used by the Borg. The weapon emits a complex phase varience of gravitons to create a gravimetric distortion. Strong gravimetric distortions can severely damage or completely destroy a starship.

[edit] Photon torpedoes

A photon torpedo is a torpedo weapon armed with an antimatter warhead. The Enterprise episode Sleeping Dogs reveals that the Klingons have had photon torpedo technology since as early as 2151. Photon torpedoes first appear on a Starfleet ship in the Original Series episode "Arena" as part of the USS Enterprise's armament. The key ships and installations in subsequent Star Trek spin-offs, other than Star Trek: Enterprise, are also armed with photon torpedoes.

Photon torpedoes appear as red,^[9] orange,^[10] yellow or blue blobs^[11] of light when fired.

Furthermore, smaller Starfleet craft such as shuttlecraft and Runabouts can be armed with 'micro-torpedoes', a scaled-down version of photon torpedoes designed for use on craft too small to accommodate the full-sized torpedoes.

[edit] Plasma torpedo

Used by the Romulans and Cardassians. The damage of a plasma torpedo spreads out over several systems at once, but the torpedo loses its effectiveness after only a few minutes of travel.

[edit] Quantum torpedoes

Quantum torpedoes first appear in the Deep Space Nine episode "The Search" as a weapon aboard the USS Defiant. Additionally, the USS Enterprise-E fires quantum torpedoes in Star Trek: First Contact and Star Trek: Nemesis. The non-canon Star Trek: Deep Space Nine Technical Manual states that Quantum torpedoes derive their destructive power from zero-point energy.^[12]

Four of the USS Enterprise-E's quantum torpedoes destroy a Borg sphere.^[10] Quantum torpedoes are not entirely effective against solid neutronium.^[13]

[edit] Spatial torpedoes

Spatial torpedoes are 22nd century weapons used by the Enterprise. Spatial torpedoes are the ship's most powerful and primary ship-to-ship weapon prior to the installation of phase cannons.^[3] Spatial torpedoes are themselves superseded by more powerful photonic torpedoes.^[14] Unlike photonic torpedoes or any of the warhead's successors, spatial torpedoes are launched at sub-light velocity and can be used much in the manner of a missile, having the warhead on a fly-by-wire.^[15]

[edit] Transphasic torpedoes

Transphasic torpedoes only appear once, in the Voyager episode Endgame Pt.2. They are high-yield torpedoes that are (theoretically) designed specifically to fight the Borg; they are first used by Admiral Janeway (brought back from the future) in a Federation shuttle-craft and again later after being installed onboard Voyager. They are among the most powerful weapons used in the Star Trek universe, this is evident in that as little as one torpedo is enough to destroy an entire Borg Cube (which in other cases have taken a severe amount of punishment from standard Federation weapons).

[edit] Subspace Weapons

Subspace weapons are a class of directed energy weapons that directly affect subspace. The weapons can produce actual tears in subspace, and are extremely unpredictable. These weapons were banned under the second Khitomer Accords.

[edit] Isolytic burst

Son'a vessels carried and used isolytic burst weapons, a type of subspace weapon. They were seen using this weapon against the Enterprise-E in Star Trek Insurrection. The Enterprise was only able to escape the weapons effect by ejecting its warp core and detonating it.

[edit] Tricobalt devices

USS Voyager uses a pair of tricobalt devices to destroy the Caretaker array in the Star Trek: Voyager pilot episode, "Caretaker". Tricobalt devices are not a standard armament of Federation vessels and yields are calculated in Tera-Cochranes. The tricobalt warhead is a subspace weapon whose high-yield detonations can tear holes in subspace.^[16][17]

[edit] References

[edit] External links

• Weapons article at Memory Alpha, a Star Trek wiki.