WEAPONS
| Page contents: | Introduction | Phasers | Photon torpedoes | Quantum torpedoes | Spatial charges |
| Photon charges (possibly another term for 'spatial charges') |
Thalmerite | Tri-cobalt | Deflector dish (separate page) | Self-destruct system |
INTRODUCTION
During its construction at Starfleet's Utopia Planitia Fleet Yards, Vessel Frame IC-103 designated for USS Voyager NCC-74656 went through numerous initial design changes. Defensive weapons deployments on the Intrepid pathfinder design (the USS Intrepid was the first of its type and, as per Starfleet convention, gave its name to the starship class) fluctuated over a wide range of types and numbers of devices, as Starfleet planners wrestled with decisions over mission types, time between starbase resupply opportunities, and suitability of particular weapons classes to available power systems and launcer hardware. The initial design specification for five phaser emitters (two dorsal, two ventral, one ventral lower) and two forward photon torpedo launchers grew to thirteen phaser emitters, with the addition of two dorsal aft emitters, two ventral aft, two pylon and two dorsal fantail, and also four torpedo launchers. (See detailed sections below.) This additional aft-firing tubes and increased phaser coverage ensured that the Intrepid-class could counter most known and predicted threat vessels of similar size and mass, in battle group, escorted, or solitary operation scenarios. Although of course no one could anticipate that USS Voyager would be taken into the Delta Quadrant, a vast area of space uncharted by Starfleet, the Intrepid-class defensive weapons specification proved to be invaluable as ship and crew end up facing numerous hostile forces. It gives the crew a distinct advantage from the outset as opposed, say, to the fortunes of the crew of USS Equinox who are taken into the Delta Quadrant in a far smaller and less well defensively equipped starship.
PHASERS
PHASER is an acronym for PHASed Energy Rectification, a directed-energy weapon used by the Federation Starfleet and others. Phasers did not exist during the 22nd century, according to Worf in [TNG: A Matter of Time], so they had to have been invented no earlier than the year 2200, although a version known as phase pistols were in use for the mission of Captain Jonathan Archer of the NX-01 Enterprise in 2151. Phasers were apparently not in common use as late as 2254, as the Enterprise NCC-1701 landing party in [TOS: The Cage] was equipped with laser weapons. Type-4 phasers are medium-sized phaser emitter device, mountable on small vehicles such as shuttlecraft, although not part of most shuttles' standard equipment, ref. [TNG: The Outcast]. The Type-8 phaser is a starship-mounted phaser emitter device. Maquis ships in the Demilitarised Zone gained possession of several type-8 phasers through covert means and used them in an attack on Gul Evek's ship in 2370, ref. [TNG: Pre-emptive Strike]; Gul Evek and his ship is attacked in self-defence by Chakotay's Maquis raider in [#1 and #2 Caretaker]. By this time, all Federation Starships are equipped as standard with large ship-mounted phaser weapons, often called phaser banks. By 2367, the effective tactical range of shipboard phaser banks (and most directed-energy weapons) was about 300,000 kilometres (about one light-second). Ship's phasers could be reconfigured to drill into planetary surfaces, and could effectively drill to great depths, as indicated in [TNG: Inheritance] and hoped for in [#99 Once Upon A Time]. Ship's phasers were also used to drill into a planet in [TNG: Legacy] and [TNG: A Matter of Time]. Generally, the higher the phaser Type number, the more advanced, sophisticated and powerful (and sometimes smaller in relative proportion) the weapon is.
 [#24 Persistence Of Vision] |
Voyager's phasers are Type X collimated phaser arrays and are direct descendants of the Type X phasers on the USS Enterprise NCC-1701-D, form large multi-emitter strips strategically placed on the hull to provide maximum weapons coverage. Voyager's phasers have individual emitter segments capable of directing up to 5.1 megawatts (by comparison, the personal phaser type-2 used by Voyager personnel is capable of directing a maximum of 0.01 megawatts).
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 click to enlarge [#79 Concerning Flight] |
Below: USS Voyager fires phasers at a Borg sphere.
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Voyager fires phasers aft at a target (here the target is a Borg vessel).
[#109 Dark Frontier, Part One]
Voyager flies over a target and fires phasers (here the target is a Borg tactical cube).
[#146 Unimatrix Zero, Part One]
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The harmonics of Voyager's phaser beam can be modified to heal subspace rifts, in order to prevent polaric detonation.
 Tactical control console, bridge  Source: CC. Full size 64KB. Beam here for more details of the Tactical/Security station. |
Phasers, like all Voyager's weapons and defence systems, are controlled from the Tactical station on the bridge, supported by a smaller station to the behind and left of the commander's chair. From these stations a phaser's output, dispersion beam width and length of burst can be controlled. Among the buttons on the smaller console are ones marked "auxiliary targeting scanners", "tactical scan", "phaser power status" and a large one marked "weapons systems". It is possible to target phasers manually if required. |
 Secondary tactical control console, bridge. Source: CC. Full size 63KB. |
Phasers provide Voyager with a normally formidable and adaptable defence, but on occasions certain shield configurations can deflect a phaser beam e.g. an interferometric pulse can reflect the directed energy away from the target which thus renders phasers ineffective as a weapon [#46 The Swarm].
Phasers can also, by adjusting the harmonics of the beam, be used to cut through solid rock e.g. for rescue missions.
The following terms relate to phasers. A rapid nadion pulse is the burst of subatomic nadion particles that facilitate a release of energy from the emitter crystal in a phaser, presumably ship-mounted as well as handheld, ref. [TNG: The Mind's Eye]. There is also the emitter stage, which is a component of a Federation phaser weapon, presumably ship-mounted as well as handheld, ref. [DS9: Soldiers of the Empire], [DS9: Treachery, Faith, and the Great River]. The phaser array power cell is a disposable component of a starship's phaser array. These power are cylindrical and about a metre in length. (During the Dominion War Captain Benjamin Sisko maintained a tradition with his crew aboard the Federation Starship Defiant of celebrating the completion of a combat mission by toasting the disposal of an exhausted phaser power cell. [DS9: Behind the Lines]) The pre-fire chamber is a component of a Federation phaser weapon, and presumably relates to both ship-mounted and handheld weapons, noted in [DS9: Soldiers of the Empire]. Voyager was having a problem with the pre-fire chamber in 2372, in [#41 Resolutions].
Discharging a phaser or disruptor weapon in the vicinity of warp plasma particles will cause the particles to ignite. Warp plasma particles are residual amounts of plasma created during the matter/antimatter reaction within a starship's warp engine. Transporter beams are also known to destabilise the plasma. Tosin, of the Kolaati, demands that Neelix and Wixiban provide him with three grammes of warp plasma to improve their engine efficiency, in [#55 Fair Trade]. Neelix, with Tosin's weapon trained on him, keeps the upper hand by releasing warp particles into the air and warning Tosin not to open fire as that would create an explosion and kill them all. But one of Tosin's associates panics when the Nekrit Depot Supply manager Bahrat arrives to arrest them, and when he opens fire it does create an explosion which kills the associate concerned and injures Neelix.
PHOTON TORPEDOES
The photon torpedo is a tactical weapon used by Federation starships. Photon torpedoes are self-propelled missiles containing a small quantity of matter and antimatter bound together in a magnetic bottle, launched at warp speed at a target. Photon torpedoes are usually the weapon of choice when a ship is at warp drive, since they are not limited by the speed of light. The warhead can be removed from a photon torpedo, leaving a small, high-speed missile that can be used as an instrumented probe, to transport small objects, as in [TNG: The Emissary], and even for burials in space - such burials are seen in [Star Trek II: The Wrath of Khan], [TNG: The Schizoid Man], in [#57 Coda] (in Janeway's hallucination) and [#128 One Small Step]. Galaxy-class starships, such as the USS Enterprise NCC-1701-D, are capable of launching up to ten photon torpedoes simultaneously from a single launch tube. Each torpedo can be independently targetted, as noted in [TNG: The Arsenal of Freedom], this being a reasonable tactical requirement. A Galaxy-class starship is normally equipped with 250 photon torpedoes, [TNG: Conundrum].
 Voyager firing a photon torpedo [#109 and #110 Dark Frontier] |
Voyager is equipped with Type-6 PHOTON TORPEDOES, noted by Janeway in [#33 Dreadnought].
In [#6 The Cloud] it is establised that Voyager has a complement of 38 photon torpedoes "and no way to replace them once they're gone" (says Janeway), located in arrays on the outer hull. But as Voyager has fired more then 38, presumably they used replicator technology to replace them, assuming that Voyager has sufficient power available for the task. Photon torpedo launchers are located in pairs, with one pair fore and one pair aft. |
At the end of 2373/start of 2374, in [#68 and #69 Scorpion] which depicts Voyager's involvement in the war between the Borg and Species 8472, the Borg (speaking through Seven of Nine) observe that Voyager currently has a compliment of 32 Class 6 warhead photon torpedoes, with an explosive yield of 200 iso-tons. (The Borg and Tuvok construct bio-molecular warheads using 13 standard photon torpedoes and one Class 10 armed with a high-yield warhead.)
Below: USS Voyager fires photon torpedoes.
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Below: USS Voyager fires a photon torpedo (as the signal to contestants to start the Antarian Trans-Stellar Rally) from the starboard launcher above the main deflector:
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Photon torpedoes are self-propelled missiles. They contain, to cite ST:M, "explosive material, target acquisition guidance, detonation assemblies and warp-sustainable engines. Due to its small size the warp-sustainable engine is not a true warp engine, mor a matter anti-matter fuel cell. If the torpedo is launched at warp speed, the sustainable coils in the fuel cell acquire warp velocity from the torpedo launcher tube. The matter and antimatter are carried aboard the torpedo in tiny packets. This method increases the effective contact area by three orders of magnitude over the same amount of matter and antimatter carried in large chunks. As a safety measure the packets are kept far apart within the torpedo until just after launch. The torpedo carries only a maximum of 1.5 kilograms of antimatter but the use of packets yields destructive power greater than that of a Galaxy-class antimatter pod rupture."
 Janeway configures for manual torpedo launch [#50 and #51 Future's End] |
The launch of a photon torpedo is from the control panels at the Security station on the bridge.
However, manual firing can be configured but it is a dangerous procedure and anyone doing it is likely to be injured by a plasma blast. Janeway went to torpedo bay one and reconfigured for manual launch in [#51 Future's End, Part Two], in order to destroy Henry Starling's ship. |
 Janeway configures for manual torpedo launch [#50 and #51 Future's End] |
Voyager fires the photon torpedo to seal the temporal rift, with the torpedo being fired manually by Janeway, [#50 and #51 Future's End]
To see a picture sequence of torpedoes being laid like mines from the aft torpedo launchers, beam here.
 [#109 and #110 Dark Frontier] |
In 2375 Voyager destroys a small Borg vessel by beaming aboard it a photon torpedo while its shields were down. The Borg designate a drone to disarm the torpedo but is unable to do so in time.
The picture right shows how the timer and detonation device is accessed, and the controls inside the photon torpedo. |
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 [#120 and #121 Equinox] |
 view of launched torpedo as seen on>br>Voyager's bridge's main viewscreen [#120 and #121 Equinox] |
QUANTUM TORPEDOES
 Source: ST:M |
Voyager is an advanced class ship and carries quantum torpedoes. Other Federation Starships equipped with quantum torpedoes are the Borg-busting prototype USS Defiant and the Sovereign-class starships (such as the USS Enterprise NCC-1701-E on which serves Counsellor Deanna Troi who is seen in several [Voyager] episodes). A quantum torpedo is a further development of a photon torpedo and employs a quantum uncertainty to generate additional particles and enhance the detonation. A quantum torpedo consists of two stages, a "conventional" matter/antimatter booster that initialises a quantum warhead. Quantum torpedoes represent advanced weaponry developed by Starfleet in the late 2360s. The Cardassian guided tactical missile known as Dreadnought, encountered by U.S.S. Voyager in 2372, is equipped with quantum torpedoes [#33 Dreadnought]. The quantum torpedo casings can be fitted with a matter-antimatter explosive charge when needed. |
Offsite link: Maximum Defiant for a good USS Defiant site.
SPATIAL CHARGES
Voyager carries spatial charges which can be laid like mines and detonated when required. For instance, they are deployed in [#114 Think Tank] and successfully crippled a pursuing Hazari vessel. Spatial charges are also employed against the Kazon as seen in [#118 Relativity] although not seen in any Kazon episodes of Seasons One and Two.
Spatial charges can also be carried in the hand and used as explosive charges during covert missions carried out by a group of individuals, such as in Janeway's mission to steal a Borg transwarp coil in [#109 and #110 Dark Frontier]. For more information and pictures, beam to HANDWEAPONS.
It is possible that 'photon charge' is included in the term 'spatial charges'. 'Photon charge' is not mentioned in sources, so I have put it under a separate heading in case (see next heading).
PHOTON CHARGES
As 'photon charge' is not mentioned in sources, it is possible that the term refers to spatial charges - see heading above - but I have placed it in this separate heading in case.
Voyager carries explosive devices called PHOTON CHARGES. In late 2371, in [#18 Elogium], Voyager is pulled into a swarm of about 2,000 small space-dwelling lifeforms. When a large creature of the same species appears it thinks Voyager is a sexual rival for the attentions of the small creatures after some of the small creatures turn blue and turn over to indicate submissiveness and attach themselves to Voyager's nacelles. The large creature rams Voyager several times to try and drive its 'rival' away. Voyager tries to leave but the large creature will not let it, and the ship suffers a loss in structural integrity due to the ramming. Janeway gives the order: "Let's try this: detonate a field of photon charges between Voyager and the creature. Maybe the shockwave will let him know we mean business." However, Chakotay suggests that it would be better to mimic the behaviour of the small creatures and act submissively. Accordingly, Voyager vents blue plasma residue to make the ship look blue, and goes into a roll. The small creatures detach from Voyager and the large creature is satisfied, and the ship leaves the area. Therefore, the photon charges are not used.
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Janeway destroyed the Caretaker's array with a TRI-COBALT device [#1 and #2 Caretaker], [The Voyager Conspiracy]. Tuvok determined the yield - he used a 20,000-teracochrane yield. They are capable of creating a tear in subspace whereas phasers or photon torpedoes are not. Starships do not normally carry this kind of weapon, which was cited as one reason by Seven of Nine to explain her conspiracy theory in [#129 The Voyager Conspiracy].
Tri-cobalt was not invented for  The substance was used in the early stages of the war between Eminiar VII and Vendikar, a war that ended in 2267 - featured in [TOS: A Taste of Armageddon]. Here is a screenshot of a city on Eminiar VII.And Arne Darvin planted a miniature tri-cobalt bomb in a tribble in his attempt to murder James T. Kirk, also in 2267 - featured in [DS9: Trials and Tribble-lations]. |
THALMERITE
Voyager is equipped with at least 40 tons of the explosive chemical compound called THALMERITE. In [#8 Ex Post Facto] the captain of a Numiri ship calls off his pursuit of Voyager when informed that Voyager carries this substance. It is just possible that this is a bluff by Janeway but there is no clear indication that this is so.
It is also possible to use the main deflector dish as a weapon. For more information beam to SPECIFICATIONS: page 10.
SELF-DESTRUCT SYSTEM
The last line of defence can also be considered as a weapon, namely Voyager's self-destruct system (also interchangeably referred to in some sources as auto-destruct system), which causes a warp-core breach and thus an immediate highly-destructive anti-matter explosion. It is initiated by the captain, whose verbal authorisation code is "Janeway pi one one zero" [#33 Dreadnought] [#37 Deadlock]. The auto-destruct system can be set to detonate with a time-delay of the captain's choosing, and can be set to produce audio warnings or run without audio warnings. In [Dreadnought] Janeway cancels the auto-destruct sequence. In [Deadlock], after a duplicate Voyager including duplicate crew was accidentally created, one of the Janeways (whether the duplicate or the original is deliberately left unclear in the show) self-destructs her ship after it is boarded by Vidiians who plan to kill the crew and harvest their body organs.
[Deadlock] [Dreadnought]: activation
[Dreadnought]: deactivation
 the computer display counts down the time |
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 self-destruct begins |
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 Voyager explodes and takes the Vidiian ship with it |
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| The above 3 screenshots are from [#37 Deadlock] | ||
Beam to DESTROY VOYAGER - your chance to destroy U.S.S. Voyager.
Next page: STRUCTURAL INTEGRITY FIELD (SIF). HULL BREACHES AND CONTAINMENT FIELDS.
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