Malcolm's British Education

[JaysPlays]

Ah, Torpedoes! Now you have me on a pet subject!

The RN probably has the fastest 'non-cavitating' in the world - and that term may give a few of you a few ideas for future combat.

Non-cavitating torpedoes are relatively quiet, but fairly slow - hence slow stealth. Cavitating or super-cavitating torpedoes surround the missile with a cloud of bubbles so that it doesn't touch the water, hence reducing drag, and go faster - certain nations claim in excess of 250mph. The problem is, they're damned noisy - so no stealth. But as a Chief Petty Officer once told me, because they're so damned fast "they're like the mother-in-law: You can see her coming, there's sod all you can do about it, and when she arrives it's going to ruin your weekend".

So what about warp and non-warp (both impulse and thrusters) missiles in the ENT era... What would the Rommies use against the emerging Federation?

[Distracted]

I never thought of "photon torpedoes" in TOS as actual torpedoes. I thought they were just discrete energy "packets", like lasers only changed somehow so that they were blasts and not beams. But there were actual physical torpedos on Enterprise, weren't there? Were those supposed to be "photon" torpedos or just regular old fashioned nuclear missiles?

I'm not sure what Romulans used in space, but isn't it canon that they used nuclear weapons to destroy planet-bound facilities during the Romulan war?

[JaysPlays]

If I have my canon right - all torpedoes ini Trek were physical torpedoes, it was just the payload and drive that varied. They even ended up being the casings and drives for probes once Starfleet managed to get back to exploring, extending (with a degree of saftey) the sensor range of it's ships - hence Spock and many others have been released into the deepness of space in a torpedo casing on thier passing.

[JaysPlays]

Oh yeah! Just recalled! The Rommies used 'Plasma' torpedoes that were capable of penetrating shields and all Starfleet armour.

As for nuclear - I can't recall them using it (sounds a bit Terran to me) as they moved with the artificial singularities as power sources. But that said - it would be interesting for them to use nuclear weapons, as it would look like another species...

[Alelou]

After we watched The Wrath of Khan in the theater, my evil best friend insisted that deceased Spock's torpedo case said "this side up".

I could swear there was something about the Romulans using "primitive nuclear weapons" in TOS, but it could have been what they used in the earlier Romulan War. The transcript for "Balance of Terror" would have it.