Star Trek torpedos

posted on August 3rd, 2009, 3:22 pm

What do you think how strong the torpedos of Star Trek in 2371 are? Standard torpedos with standard yields, unmodified.


Photon (Federation) - 100%
Quantum (Federation) -
Plasma (Romulan) -
Photon (Klingon) -
Borg torpedo -


Please add more torpedos if you know other types.

posted on August 3rd, 2009, 3:27 pm

is the dominion poleron torp I think, but it is really easy to tell what their strengths are if you just look over at memory alpha.

posted on August 3rd, 2009, 3:43 pm

I already found some numbers with that strange unit isotons, but only for very few torpedo variants. What i want to know is the relative damage of the torpedos based on your personal opinion.

Is a plasma torpedo stronger than a quantum torpedo, are Cardassian quantum torpedos stronger than Federation quantum torpedos and so on.

posted on August 3rd, 2009, 3:47 pm

• Cardassian Torps would likely be similar, just not a effective as a Starfleet one (impared speed, range, etc).
• Romulan Plasma's would probably be between a Photon and a Quantum.
• Klingon Photons would be stronger but more dangerous to the user than a Federation one (since they are not the sort to weaken a weapon with safeties)
• Borg Torps would be the best, they can one-shot some Starfleet ships.
• Dominion ones are likely somewhere around Federation/Klingons levels. The only advantage they had was the 'pass through Shields' ability.

posted on August 3rd, 2009, 3:59 pm

@ Tyler: that assesment seems pretty reasonable to me

Even that statement about Klingon Photons seems pretty likely... I think in one of the movies a Klingon bird of prey fired upon a federation starship to try and disable it... and instead blew it out of existence 

posted on August 3rd, 2009, 4:01 pm

Photons should be near to each other.
Plasma, the romulan weapontechnology is less advanced compared to federation. But the torps should be a little bit stronger.
Quantum Torps should be much stronger then photons, but Cardassian Quantom Torps?  :blink:
Dominiontorps are arround the photons I think, they where just shieldignoring.
Borgtorps are much stronger then all of them, but transphasic (the ones the Voyager got from Admiral Janeway) are much stronger.


But it is hard to say. TNGtorps where much stronger then DS9 torps but phasers where weaker... But in TOS torps where weaker. 

posted on August 3rd, 2009, 6:06 pm

But it is hard to say. TNGtorps where much stronger then DS9 torps but phasers where weaker... But in TOS torps where weaker. 

I dont think one can make the argument that torps in TNG were much stronger than torps in DS9 or torps in TOS weaker. When comparing standard photons the yields are the main difference... but the technology is probably not that different for standard photons. Just revisions to guidance systems etc. like Mk II Mk III etc.

posted on August 3rd, 2009, 6:22 pm

Just talk about what I've seen in the series.

The TOS Enterprise in the movies took a lot of kling torps, even with disabled shields. And it wasn't destroyed by this torp.
In TNG the Enterpise hit a borg cube realy hard with its torp and I think they destroyed some ships with only one torp. Later in the Movies the borgcube in first contact took a lot of torps. Even quantums.
And in DS9 Mirandas where destroyed by one torp while sometimes other ships took salvos of quantums.

That is the problem with SciFiseries. If it looks good it is good.


And I think there are more differences then just the guidance system between the torprevisions.
I realy don't think the Klingons will use the same warhead they used in Enterprise.
Nukes got stronger too.

posted on August 3rd, 2009, 6:28 pm

Just talk about what I've seen in the series.

The TOS Enterprise in the movies took a lot of kling torps, even with disabled shields. And it wasn't destroyed by this torp.
In TNG the Enterpise hit a borg cube realy hard with its torp and I think they destroyed some ships with only one torp. Later in the Movies the borgcube in first contact took a lot of torps. Even quantums.
And in DS9 Mirandas where destroyed by one torp while sometimes other ships took salvos of quantums.

That is the problem with SciFiseries. If it looks good it is good.


And I think there are more differences then just the guidance system between the torprevisions.
I realy don't think the Klingons will use the same warhead they used in Enterprise.
Nukes got stronger too.

Sure nukes got stronger... but what's happens at the atomic level. same thing.... As for comparing the different series and the relative power of their respective torpedoes, I think you said it best, you can't make an accurate comparison because if it looks good, it is good. So obviously the enterprise is going to cause the most damage and absorb the most hits because its the freakin enterprise.

posted on August 3rd, 2009, 6:32 pm

lol, Take wolf 359 for example.  1 cube killes I don't know how many ships, then the enterprise comes n and it is destroyed in a matter of seconds.(not counting time travel )  Heck they even had the defiant on their side.

(Of course Q could have something to do with this )

posted on August 3rd, 2009, 6:48 pm

But in Wolf 359 they didn't have the defiant and the cube wasn't really destroyed. They made it only sleep  .
The only torpedos Cardassians ever had were installed on their defense platforms. Their ships DON'T have torpedos. They have strong disruptors, so they don't need torpedos. I think the torpedos on those platforms were plasmatorpedos, but I'm not sure about that  .

posted on August 3rd, 2009, 7:19 pm

I'm thinking of First contact, wolf 359.  I am pritt sure there was more that one battle of wolf 359, so thats my bad for not being spacific.

posted on August 3rd, 2009, 7:22 pm

But in Wolf 359 they didn't have the defiant and the cube wasn't really destroyed. They made it only sleep  .
The only torpedos Cardassians ever had were installed on their defense platforms. Their ships DON'T have torpedos. They have strong disruptors, so they don't need torpedos. I think the torpedos on those platforms were plasmatorpedos, but I'm not sure about that  .

Yeah I think Cardassian ships use whats referred to as a compressor beam. Not sure what that compares to as far as phasers or disruptors. But I think it has been mentioned somewhere that ships of the ferengi alliance like marauders are also equipped with these.

[Tyler]

posted on August 4th, 2009, 11:20 am

Last edited by Tyler on August 4th, 2009, 11:23 am, edited 1 time in total.

The TOS Enterprise in the movies took a lot of kling torps, even with disabled shields. And it wasn't destroyed by this torp.
In TNG the Enterpise hit a borg cube realy hard with its torp and I think they destroyed some ships with only one torp. Later in the Movies the borgcube in first contact took a lot of torps. Even quantums.

I don't think TMP Klingon and TNG Borg Torps are a very good choice for comparisons. Borg tech is known to be far beyond any of the Alpha/Beta quadrent empires.

posted on August 4th, 2009, 1:29 pm

I'm thinking of First contact, wolf 359.  I am pritt sure there was more that one battle of wolf 359, so thats my bad for not being spacific.

That isn't wolf 359, it's the second battle of sector 001 - the terran system.  I love that line 

I don't think TMP Klingon and TNG Borg Torps are a very good choice for comparisons. Borg tech is known to be far beyond any of the Alpha/Beta quadrent empires.

I think he meant that federation photon torpedoes sometimes took out shieldless ships in one hit, not the borg.