Transporter weapons?

Post by **NecronLord** » 2003-06-23 12:36pm

Could the federation equip a class of ship with massive scale transporters to use as weapons, both beaming weapons onto ships with depleated shields and taking big chunks out of enemy ships and leaving them as scattered particles (Think Asgard here)?

We know that an outdated BoP can beam up two hundred tonnes. Could they make multi Kiloton capacity transporters?

Death from the Sea · Post by **Death from the Sea** » 2003-06-23 01:06pm

The problem with that would be the fact that the attacking ship would have to lower its shield to use the transporter/weapon; leaving it open to attack.

Post by **NecronLord** » 2003-06-23 04:44pm

Yes, for quickly dealing with ground targets. It could also be used by cloaked ships, as they have no problems running transporters (ST:4)

Ted C · Post by **Ted C** » 2003-06-23 05:01pm

NecronLord wrote:Yes, for quickly dealing with ground targets. It could also be used by cloaked ships, as they have no problems running transporters (ST:4)

Actually, the BOP wasn't cloaked when Scotty beamed up the whales. Sure, you can beam a few people around without dropping the cloak, but it doesn't necessarily scale to 200 tons.

This would be useless as a ship-to-ship weapon, and it would be useless against any race with any knowledge of transporters, since damn near anything (funky radiation, shields, tractor beams, natural minerals, etc.) will keep them from working.

Post by **Sea Skimmer** » 2003-06-23 05:16pm

NecronLord wrote:Yes, for quickly dealing with ground targets.

Why not use the normal transporters to beam down atomic bombs?

Really this will only work against an unshielded target with no jammers. Against them anything will work and you don’t need to waste resources building some huge new transporter.

EmperorMing · Post by **EmperorMing** » 2003-06-23 11:10pm

Against ground targets (not ground bases) the concept of transporter artillery might work.

Please note that this is an SFB idea...

Post by **NecronLord** » 2003-06-24 03:49am

Ted C wrote:
NecronLord wrote:Yes, for quickly dealing with ground targets. It could also be used by cloaked ships, as they have no problems running transporters (ST:4)
Actually, the BOP wasn't cloaked when Scotty beamed up the whales. Sure, you can beam a few people around without dropping the cloak, but it doesn't necessarily scale to 200 tons.

Not really. For some strange reason conventional weapons don't work thorugh a cloak, it's not a power limit (as how much energy can it take to launch a torpedo?)

This would be useless as a ship-to-ship weapon, and it would be useless against any race with any knowledge of transporters, since damn near anything (funky radiation, shields, tractor beams, natural minerals, etc.) will keep them from working.

Ships can easily be beamed to and from, and normally run with shields down.

Post by **NecronLord** » 2003-06-24 03:51am

Sea Skimmer wrote:Really this will only work against an unshielded target with no jammers. Against them anything will work and you don’t need to waste resources building some huge new transporter.

Tansport interfearence is only a problem in most situations because it is difficult to re-assemble things. In this situation it doesn't matter.

Post by **Sea Skimmer** » 2003-06-24 03:55am

NecronLord wrote:Not really. For some strange reason conventional weapons don't work thorugh a cloak, it's not a power limit (as how much energy can it take to launch a torpedo?)

There anti matter weapons, and running the containment fields along the pipe from the fuel tank into the missile could consume a fair amount of power. Thus my suggestion of just carrying some nuclear missiles.

Post by **NecronLord** » 2003-06-24 10:17am

Sea Skimmer wrote: There anti matter weapons, and running the containment fields along the pipe from the fuel tank into the missile could consume a fair amount of power. Thus my suggestion of just carrying some nuclear missiles.

They're armed before launch AFAIK.

Death from the Sea · Post by **Death from the Sea** » 2003-06-24 12:34pm

NecronLord wrote:
Sea Skimmer wrote: There anti matter weapons, and running the containment fields along the pipe from the fuel tank into the missile could consume a fair amount of power. Thus my suggestion of just carrying some nuclear missiles.
They're armed before launch AFAIK.

Yes, they are but only right before they are launched. They do not carry those photon torpedoes around with anti-matter in them, warp cores are hard enough to keep stable, imagine trying to monitor hundreds of torpedoes.

Post by **NecronLord** » 2003-06-24 02:14pm

Death from the Sea wrote: Yes, they are but only right before they are launched. They do not carry those photon torpedoes around with anti-matter in them, warp cores are hard enough to keep stable, imagine trying to monitor hundreds of torpedoes.

Have you any evidence for this? Because in TWOK it seems to be a case of take torp from rack, shove down tube.

Enola Straight · Post by **Enola Straight** » 2003-06-24 07:04pm

Picard ordered Enterprise to use Transporter Code 14 to prevent 27th century criminals from getting the Tox Uthat, a crystaline device capable of stopping fusion in stars.

TC14 involves starting the dematerialization of a target and rematerializing out of phase, thus making the target explode.

The Silence and I · Post by **The Silence and I** » 2003-06-24 11:26pm

Cool. They should use that more often