Weapons of Star Trek
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The Star Trek fictional universe contains a very large number of weapons.
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[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 smallarms 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] A laser-armed ship[2] and space station[3] are similarly described as being no match for the Enterprise-D.
[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.[4] Phase cannons generally are more powerful than spatial torpedoes.[5]
[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 save Star Trek: Enterprise.
Phasers appear as both personal hand-held weapons and as starship-mounted weapons. Hand-held phasers have a variety of settings, able to either "stun" or kill, and also able to vaporize large swaths of material. They 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.[6]. Similar to the hand phaser, ship phasers can also be fired to evenly disintigrate a target object such as meteors and asteroids.
[edit] Phased polaron cannon
These are weapons that were first encountered when contact with the Dominion was made. The cannon emits a particle beam of polarons, the antimatter counterpart of the muon.
[edit] Biological weapons
[edit] Cascading biogenic pulse
The cascading biogenic pulse is 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.[7]
The biogenic pulse uses thalaron radiation to kill all biological life within its range.[7] Thalaron radiation's massive destructive potential leads the Federation to consider it a biogenic weapon.[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] 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, save Star Trek: Enterprise, also are armed with photon torpedoes.
Photon torpedoes appear as red,[9] orange,[10] yellow or blue blobs[11] of light when fired.
[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. 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.[4] Spatial torpedoes are themselves superseded by more powerful photonic torpedoes.[4]
[edit] Tricobalt devices
USS Voyager uses a pair of tricobalt devices to destroy the Caretaker array in the Star Trek: Voyager pilot episode, "Caretaker".
[edit] References
- ^ "The Outrageous Okona." Star Trek: The Next Generation.
- ^ "Suddenly Human." Star Trek: The Next Generation.
- ^ "Conundrum." Star Trek: The Next Generation.
- ^ a b c "Silent Enemy." Star Trek: Enterprise.
- ^ "Fallen Hero." Star Trek: Enterprise.
- ^ "A Piece of the Action." Star Trek.
- ^ a b c Star Trek: Nemesis.
- ^ a b "Year of Hell." Star Trek: Voyager.
- ^ Star Trek VI: The Undiscovered Country.
- ^ a b Star Trek: First Contact.
- ^ Star Trek: The Motion Picture.
- ^ Zimmerman, Herman, Rick Sternbach and Doug Drexler. Star Trek: Deep Space Nine Technical Manual.
- ^ "To the Death." Star Trek: Deep Space 9.
[edit] External links
- Weapons article at Memory Alpha, a Star Trek wiki.
