Truth OR Myth? Starfleet Starships – Main Weaponry

Hello Everyone, and welcome to a special episode of Truth OR Myth. The video you’re about to watch is actually a stroll down memory lane for me. originally written, recorded and edited to be episode 5 of season 1 a year ago, I had simply forgotten about it and basically packed it away to NEVER see the light of day.

Flash forward to present time, while cleaning and organizing some old files I came across it and thought, geez I’ve changed this series a LOT since this video, but it still deserves to be shown as a reminder of how this channel has grown and how much it will continue to grow.

So with a little bit or re-editing to include the new intro, here are today’s episodes, I hope you enjoy!

Hello and welcome to Truth or Myth. In today’s episode, we’re taking a look at ship based Starfleet weapons designed and deployed in the NX Class through the Sovereign and Intrepid Classes. So sit back, relax and enjoy!

With the launch of Starfleet first exploratory vessel, Enterprise NX-01 Starfleet quickly realized that the weaponry of the ship just wasn’t up to the task of defending the Earth Starship.

(CBS) Phase cannons – Standard weapons mounted on NX class starships

Initially Having launched with 3 low yield particle canons and a spatial torpedo launcher, she was later upgraded to include more phased canons that were more powerful and now pulsed and to include a launching system for the newly invented photon torpedoes, this brought the ship more in line with the weapon systems of the races that existed at the time.

With the Construction of the Constitution Class of Starships in 2245, pulse canons began to be replaced by the new phaser beam emitters. And by 2265 were part of the standard weapons given to all Starfleet vessels.

These ships mounted phasers had a massive destruction capability. Being able to destroy entire cities or simple stun people in an entire city block, phasers represented a pinnacle in Starfleet’s weaponry development. They would be modified, upgraded and changed but the general principles would continue to be used for generations to come.

By the Early 2270’s Phasers, power and effectiveness would be increased again. With the new technological breakthroughs to be included in the refit of the USS Enterprise, Phaser power was increased by channelling the power directly from the warp core.

Though much more powerful it was quickly discovered to have a major limitation, if the warp core was offline, the phasers wouldn’t work. Back up phaser battery units were then installed to allow the continued function of the phasers even if at a reduced level of power.

(CBS) Phasers were nadion-based particle weapons (Beam and Cannon based)

Midway through the 24th Century with the invention and launch of the Ambassador class, phasers were redesigned into an array system. This improved phaser coverage in battle significantly. And with each successive design of new starships saw these arrays increasing in size and damage potential.

Torpedo systems, on the other hand, were much slower to develop. though slight upgrades would increase their yield through out the first 200 years of Starfleet history, they remain virtually unchanged.

It wasn’t until the early 2370s, that a breakthrough in the torpedo system would see the invention of Quantum Torpedoes. Originally designed to battle the Borg, Quantum torpedoes were widely used during the Dominion war.

Quantum torpedoes contained a plasma warhead, instead of the traditional matter-antimatter warhead of the photon torpedo design.

Both Photon and Quantum Torpedoes could travel at warp for short periods of time, making them the only federation weapon that could be fired at warp velocities.

(CBS) Transphasic torpedo

It was believed that Quantum Torpedoes would remain in service and become the primary, slowly developed weapons system of Starfleet Starships, that is until 2378 when Admiral Kathryn Janeway from a future timeline brought technology back in time to equip the Starship Voyager to defeat the Borg.

These Transphasic torpedoes had massive destruction capability, being able to destroy an entire Borg cube with only one shot. It is widely believed however that Starfleet would keep these Transphasic torpedoes as a last resort weapon to use against the Borg, knowing that they could destroy them and not wanting to give the Borg any information to prevent them from adapting their technology to shield against them. Though this would make sense, there are no canon sources to confirm this.

Thanks to Starfleet’s quick and clever ingenuity, Starfleet Vessels would be able to defend themselves adequately against any attack. And because of this would be able to expand the federation into the final frontier!

Thanks for watching today’s episode, and don’t forget to like and subscribe to the channel. Thanks again for watching, Live long and Prosper.

Watch episode 69

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