[Athamby]

Just pondering something:

What effect do modern weapons (2012) Have on Starships from late 23rd century (Voyager + Enterprise)? Do Nuclear weapons have a significant effect on starship shields? Do Starship shields protect from physical objects (Bullets, Missiles)? Could we fight off a Battlecruiser or Warbird?

Just something i'm wondering.

[Jon Thomas]

Well in the early days of starships Eg. the Daedalus class. ships were equipped with nuclear missiles, And I can recall the one or two times races were encountered with Nukes they said that there was little threat to enterprise or Voyager, as for projectiles they would have to be Very large and Very fast to make it past tractor beams, and the shields.

[KishoJB]

Seems like there was an episode of Voyager where the planet they were in orbit of experienced time at a different rate and they launched nukes (to little effect). As far as physical projectiles, well, that's what they have a deflector for. (Though if holographic bullets [First Contact] are any indicator, shields offer no protection)

[Broderic]

Well in the early days of starships Eg. the Daedalus class. ships were equipped with nuclear missiles, And I can recall the one or two times races were encountered with Nukes they said that there was little threat to enterprise or Voyager, as for projectiles they would have to be Very large and Very fast to make it past tractor beams, and the shields.

On that note I suspect a Super MAC from the Halo series would pose a significant threat, probably even the directed energy beams of some of the Covenant ships that you read of in the novels, although I suspect a ship like Voyager would be able to hold her own against any Covenant ship via the higher maneuverability of Federation ships compared to most ships in the Halo universe

[Burtonshaw]

I couldn't see current weapons being effective against a starship, however i would say that modern small arms would be more than a match for personal energy weapons.

[Silynn]

Wouldn't all, well most, modern weaponry be consider 'kinetic' base?

If so, shielding would offer quite a bit (but not totally immune) of protection. I'm sure there would be a threshold where the shields would fail and the kinetic-base attack would do damage.

Also, I would venture to guess that starship hulls would be considered highly armored/protected from kinetic/physical attacks due to the dangers of everyday space debris and radiation.

Then considering that using a projectile-based weapon in a zero-gee environment adds its own difficulties. Recoil, oxygen, ammunition casings, etc would all need to be rethought and adapted.

[Dave Harper]

railguns,we are devloping them and a high enough nuculer blast <mabye a thermonuculer blast> may pose issues,you throw enough of something at something it fails and if theres one thing we have ... its alotta nukes and bullets/projectiles

[Avenger]

Well I'd have thought a modern day EMP blast would probably still do some damage? lol

[Endeavour]

Well, first off, Voyager was the mid/late 24th century. :p

Shields protect from whatever the script calls for. Sometimes they stop solid objects, sometimes they don't. (Note that in most Trek games, they don't.)

[Josh Broughm]

Still, If you board a ship, Nothing stops a bullet right through the warp core. Tick.......Boom.

[Three of Seven]

Still, If you board a ship, Nothing stops a bullet right through the warp core. Tick.......Boom.

You would have to expose the warp core first, I don't think a bullet could get through the casing of the core.

As for current weapons against a starship, I don't they would do much, if any damage, an EMP would be the best shot at doing something, maybe disable sheilds but the advanced hull plating matches nothing that we have and is far tougher than anything we have.

I'm sure that their weapons could shoot any missles out before they got close as well.

[Dave Harper]

saturation fire, weapons systems can only target so much of something at any one time,Starships would have the same <allbeit higher limits>


ofcourse there is also the borg mentality,our stuff may be to " old school" for them to effectivly counter it

[Three of Seven]

The borg see old technology as irrelevent, humans record everything so there would be historical information about those weapons, so a counter would be produced.

[Dave Harper]

youd be suprised three,you can only go back so far,they suffer id presume the same problems we do with say older windows games,they dont work properly,id asmue the modifications wouldent really work to well either

[Three of Seven]

You can make an old game work properly, people spend time doing that and will continue to do so, if you look at Star Trek, they have at times had to adapt their current technology to work with something that they found from the past.

A missle is unlikly to get past a starships sheilds and if it catches a ship with its sheilds down and bypasses other systems, the explosion isn't going to do the damage it would against something we have now. We have materials that give protection against some explosions, so imagin those materials improving, a missile won't do much.

A nuclear missile might do a bit more damage but then you take into account that enviromental systems can protect the crew for certain levels of radiation, so even then, it wouldn't be as effective as it would be now.

As defenses get stronger, they can withstand better from weapons of the past. A ballistic vest will protect against an arrow, is a working example of this, just because something is old, doesn't mean it will be able to penatrate newer armours better.