It seems to me that Star Trek ships can't take a lot of punishment. Perfect example is the Miranda and Excelsior classes, their hulls almost disenegrate under Jem'Hadar fire. Now I am assuming those little Jemmie bugs don't pack that much of a bang to do that much damage. The only reason I see is that modern hull and armor designs don't fair well against modern weapons. Like WW1 and 2 battleships are obsolete becuase steel armor doesn't fair well against missiles, bombs and torpedoes. The only way is to combat the damage is to localize the damage and to prevnt the enemy to have a successful hit.
So what I am saying is the E-nil could take a lot punishment with little to no visible damage to the hull because the weapons at the time couldn't seriously damage it. Then the E-A is where you see the perfect balance in weapon and defensive technology. E-A took some damage but not to a point where half the hull is vaporized when a phaser hit glanced off it. Then somewhere along the line weapon technology when beyond that of armor and hull designs so even a single phaser hit can destroy a ship like the Excelsior class.
------------------ Predict the unpredictable, but how do you unpredict the unpredictable?
Posted by Treknophyle (Member # 509) on :
Of course, someone defined shipbuilding history as a race between offensive and defensive systems. Good point though. Actually, if there is an inherent limitation to shield strength technology, this failing in starship "toughness" may be a species-wide development. It may require starships to utilize "new" (for the 24th century) strategies and technologies:
Interceptors: The role of the F14 Tomcat is not to attack ships - but rather to protect its carrier from incoming missiles/missile carrying planes.
Point Defense: The CIWS (close-in-weapons-system) mounted on all modern US warships can be thought of as a marriage between a millimeter radar and a gatling gun. Its role is to actively (as opposed to passive shields) attack and destroy incoming missiles.
Any thoughts on upgraded weapons systems (defense or offense) for Federation vessels?
------------------ Faster than light - no left or right.
Posted by Mikey T (Member # 144) on :
Okay, that reminded me of the All Good Things Enterprise-D for some reason.
------------------ "Oh for fuck's sake, stop your moaning, If you fancy a threesome at this time of night, you can't get start getting choosey about which particular three! -Queer As Folk, UK
Posted by Treknophyle (Member # 509) on :
Actually, it reminds me of the alternative time-line Enterprise from the Enterprise-D with the Enterprise-C encounter (my Encyclopedia is packed for moving, so episode names are not my strong suit). A CIC (Combat Information Control[?]) (used in the wet-navy to control a battle, as opposed to helm the ship) was mentioned.
------------------ Faster than light - no left or right.
Posted by Matrix (Member # 376) on :
Well for the interceptors, we have seen some sort of Federation fighter and phaser arrays has shown to fire fairly accurate.
The only modern ship in Star Trek that I saw that took alot of punishment is the Defiant. She took alot of damage in First Contact that would vaporized any other ship. It seems that her top is heavily armored compared to her bottom as she blew apart when she was a drift.
------------------ Predict the unpredictable, but how do you unpredict the unpredictable?
Posted by Mikey T (Member # 144) on :
The Defiant already lost main power by then, taking the Structural Integrity Field offline. But the designer of the ship did say the ship design was based on a turtle.
------------------ "Oh for fuck's sake, stop your moaning, If you fancy a threesome at this time of night, you can't get start getting choosey about which particular three! -Queer As Folk, UK