posted
I was hoping people on this forum could help me. My website lists the Sovereign Class with 3 torpedo launchers. One on the bottom of the saucer and 2 on the secondary hull. I been told that this information is incorrect and in fact it has 2 more. Where are they located and which one is correct?
-------------------- "We set sail on this new sea because their is new knowledge to be gained and new rights to be won" John F Kennedy
posted
The actual studio model of the ship has a total of five relatively easily recognizable torpedo launcher muzzles. However, pictures of that model aren't so commonplace, and many sources omit the views that would show the two aft tubes. The "TNG Sketchbook" has a good selection of photos.
In the model, the tubes are placed like this:
-Single tube at the bottom vertex of the saucer, seen firing bursts of bluish quantum torps in "First Contact". Just above the berth of the Captain's Yacht.
-Twin forward tubes just below the navigational deflector dish on the secondary hull, side by side. Not seen firing yet.
-Twin aft tubes at the point where the bottom of the ship makes a sharp twist from the bulbous "belly" to the stern "undercut". There is also a blocky tractor beam emitter there, obscuring the tubes for view if one looks from below. These tubes may have been responsible for the single yellowish aft torpedo seen fired in "Insurrection", although the camera angle denies us absolute proof.
It's also possible that the shot came from a heretofore unseen launcher somewhere on the upper aft hull of the ship, but no such launcher has been built into the studio model.
Of course, the "real" ship may have hidden weapons between movable panels. Computer graphics could easily create such panels even though the studio model lacks them.
posted
And they might be right. After all, even though there are five tubes, four of them are in two-tube pairs. Perhaps a pair is counted as a "launcher"?
As an aside, perhaps you have read the recently released early version of TNG:Nemesis script? It mentions "aft phasers" in several occasions. Given that the E-E doesn't have any aft phasers built in, it may be that these references were dropped from the final script - or then some aft phasers were actually installed! Certainly the ship could use some...
posted
Starship Spotter took a lot of its info from the SciPubTech poster, which in turn was based on the MSD that labels the quantum launcher and the two launcher sets torpedo *launcher* as opposed to *launchers*. That's probably how SciPubTech failed to double the forward and the aft twin tubes.
[ March 22, 2002, 05:52: Message edited by: Boris ]
Registered: Sep 2001
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posted
It isn't in the real world. Typically, a steerable triplet of ASW torpedo tubes on a western navy frigate or destroyer is considered a single "launcher", so that a classic six-tubed frigate has only two launchers. And anti-ship torpedoes of old were often launched from big sviweling five-tube launchers.
Of course, the Trek launchers are fixed to the hull, like submarine torpedo tubes. But sub tubes aren't typically referred to as "launchers" anyway.
In the missile business, a "launcher" typically comes with several "launch rails". Again we're talking about swiveling arrangements - a fixed missile launcher usually is a "silo" or a "container".
In that parlance, the four-tube Miranda torpedo pod would probably count as a single launcher...
posted
I'd guess that the Starfleet system is basically identical to the subs, but they're called "launchers" instead of "tubes."
But then... what about the fact that the Enterprise-D can launch multiple torpedoes at the same time? I don't recall if it was addressed in the TNG:TM, but I remember seeing the Enterprise fire a burst of a half-dozen torpedos or so. I doubt that they just fire them one after another in very rapid succession... so that implies that the launchers can handle much more than just a single torpedo.
-------------------- “Those people who think they know everything are a great annoyance to those of us who do.” — Isaac Asimov Star Trek Minutiae | Memory Alpha
Registered: Nov 2000
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posted
The TNG tech manual suggests the Enterprise D's launchers can accomodate up to ten torpedoes at a time, launched together and then splitting off to take care of their individual targets.
Registered: Mar 1999
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posted
I've challenged a friend of mine to do a sample CGI animation of a Galaxy-class starship operating at the level of tactical effectiveness the TNG Tech Manual led us to expect, with the added perk of multiple phaser beams firing from different points on the same strip as seen in "Sacrifice of Angels".
And suggestions what the threat ship(s) should be? And how many?
--Jonah
-------------------- "That's what I like about these high school girls, I keep getting older, they stay the same age."
--David "Woody" Wooderson, Dazed and Confused
Registered: Feb 2001
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posted
Or maybe a couple of Romulan Warbirds - the Federation wasn't on good terms with them during the TNG era. Or you could have a couple of Cardassian Galor-class vessels.
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Registered: Apr 2001
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