Quantum Torpedo's

Starfleet for some time now has been worried about the well established photon torpedo, which although highly effective in combat has been known to 'backfire', some times wrecking starships in the process. The major difference between the quantum and photon torpedo has to do with the warhead. Photon torpedoes use a mixed matter/anti-matter reaction as their warhead. This can create a powerful explosion, but is unsafe. Anti-matter is very unstable and must be kept in a magnetically-sealed container. You often hear in a battle situation, that before torpedoes are launched, the weapons officer has to arm them. Armed meaning that the torpedoes must be filled with anti-matter before they can be fired. This process is relatively fast, a matter of seconds, but seconds can be a bad thing when in battle. A malfunction in the arming mechanism can ignite the anti-matter and blow a hole in the hull of the starship. For this reason the Starfleet weapon designers came up with the quantum torpedo. Designers had to find a power source for the warhead that was stable and powerful. Something that could be loaded into a torpedo when their made and remain stable throughout a mission. The designers found such a power source in the form of the Quantum Filament. You will recall that the Quantum Filament is a natural form of energy in space. It has no mass and if triggered just right can release almost astronomic amounts of energy. Using readings taken by science teams studying natural filaments, the designers created small artificial filaments. What makes a Quantum torpedo so powerful is that the warhead contains 50-100 small artificial filaments. These can be loaded into a torpedo before they are put on a starship, and remain stable. The filaments can then be made active by a cascade reaction activated when the torpedo is launched from a starship. Upon impact the filaments spread out and explode, ripping any starship hull apart. Overall the Quantum Torpedo is one of the major advances in weapons technology for over 100 years and has aided in keeping both the Borg and Dominion at bay since its inception.

This Site was modified on Stardate: 2008-12-30

Questions or problems regarding this web site should be directed to Webmaster.
Copyright 1998 U.S.S. Stargazer BBS / ARJ Systems & Data Recovery All rights reserved.