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But you don't need a torpedo launcher to send those probes on their way. You can just shove them out of the nearest airlock; or launch them from a dedicated rack that comes so much cheaper than a torp launcher, since it omits all the stupid acceleration coils and reactant loaders and other expensive things.
About the Nova: I guess torp launcher technology has become cheaper and more compact since the TOS or even TNG era, so that nowadays even shuttles can have tiny torp tubes. Thus, a 2370s science vessel could carry multiple tubes as a "nice to have and costs nothing even thoguh we don't really need it" extra feature, while a 2350s or 2270s science ship could never have hoped to accommodate a torp launcher.
If 2370s shuttles can have torp launchers, then there is no reason not to have them aboard just about every dinky little tug, garbage barge or maintenance drone. Heck, I expect to see torp launchers on spacesuits soon enough. It's just that refitting them into those older vessels that were built when torp launchers were big and expensive might not be a high priority for Starfleet.
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I guess I'm saying that an Oberth might indeed have a launcher, dedicated to launching probes and not torpedoes, with none of the high-end options available to a torpedo launcher, and yet be rather indistinguishable from a torpedo launcher.
quote:But you don't need a torpedo launcher to send those probes on their way.
Well, I think you *do* need one. Most of the probes are especially designed to go at warp speed, in particular the ones based on the photontorp itself.
I also think most of the ships are equipped with tubes, maybe because they're cheap, or maybe because it's regarded standard.
As for the aft-deflector on the Oberth: sensors are usually boosted by navdefs, and I guess the Oberth's got a lot of sensor equipement on board. Why aft? I don't know..
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