Firearms

[wautd]

Is there a reason why Starfleet doesnt has firearms onboard their ships since FC? You know... just in case a cube shows up in alpha quadrant or a ship gets lost in the delta quadrant

[Col. Crackpot]

Is there a reason why Starfleet doesnt has firearms onboard their ships since FC? You know... just in case a cube shows up in alpha quadrant or a ship gets lost in the delta quadrant

what the hell are you talking about? Did you not notice the walls of pahser rifles being passed out en masse in Nemesis?

[Ghost Rider]

Is there a reason why Starfleet doesnt has firearms onboard their ships since FC? You know... just in case a cube shows up in alpha quadrant or a ship gets lost in the delta quadrant

what the hell are you talking about? Did you not notice the walls of pahser rifles being passed out en masse in Nemesis?

I believe he's refering to things like literally an M-16 and not the Starfleet analogy.

And there is a reason that even fits a logical view...it's very hard to overhaul an entire military weapon even within a few months, given the training and need knowledge required.

While having such weapons are a benefit in particular scenarios and overall have better profile then say current phaser pistols, a complete overhaul or even slight replacements on that level is akin to giving an overhaul to the US military. Something that doesn't happen in a span of years...easily.

[wautd]

@ Col. Crackpot: i never saw Nemesis

[Prozac the Robert]

I'm not convinced that it would be at all hard to do. A pistol can presumably be replicated, and if you can't use a holodeck for training then what can you use it for?

Of course the general reasons for not using guns on a spaceship still hold even if you are facing the borg.

[Kamakazie Sith]

@ Col. Crackpot: i never saw Nemesis

They did the same thing in First Contact, right before the assault in engineering. Except they seemed to be in some sort of armory.

[Ghost Rider]

I'm not convinced that it would be at all hard to do. A pistol can presumably be replicated, and if you can't use a holodeck for training then what can you use it for?

Of course the general reasons for not using guns on a spaceship still hold even if you are facing the borg.

Right because maintence and handling of weapons is just point and shot.

So in the middle of combat and your weapon jams...no sweat, pray you have a replicator nearby.

This is literally an entire overhaul since they'll have to know how to maintain and use these weapons for a enemy that while extremely vulnerable to KE, can be destroyed by other methods that are much easier in their reach.

For one it does nothing against their ships and only attack them when they get dumb enough to board.

And if they decide to go a raw power route instead of a frequency based system or hand to hand weapons since no Borg has demonstrated as a part of the collective a projectile weapon would be both far more desirable and easier to maintain.

[Prozac the Robert]

How many hours does it take to learn to shoot and maintain a simple pistol*? Surely starfleet security members have enough spare time to train (making use of the holodecks so they can each have a competent instructor) in between the first occurance of the borg and first contact.

*Assuming starfleet could design a simple weapon of course. Their answer to areas where phasers are inefective was to build a massively complicated sniper rifle IIRC.

[Stofsk]

Given that the Borg - arguably Starfleet's chief adversary, and perhaps the single biggest threat to the Federation - have a vulnerability to KE weapons I can accept Starfleet changing it's doctrine in weapons training. It would take months to implement, but I think it would be worth it.

Of course, having firearms without training to use them is... problematic, to say the least.

[Sarevok]

Given enough time could the Borg adopt to bulltets ?

[Gandalf]

Given enough time could the Borg adopt to bulltets ?

Theoretically they could just install more armour on themselves, but I don't see that happening anytime soon.

[TrailerParkJawa]

Just hand out some shotguns, we always see crew members who are fascinated by 20th century earth. Some of them should be familiar with a shotgun. Hell, for all we know people still do skeet shooting. But even if they don't a shotgun is a good weapon for close quarters combat and isnt all that hard to use.

[The Nomad]

Given enough time could the Borg adopt to bulltets ?

A bullet has no frequency, last time I checked ( of course, if you're really into technojunk you could calculate its de Broglie wavelength - or use E=mc²=hf as long as the bullet isn't relativistic... ).

And there is still the thorny issue of momentum. Borg necks are fragile, ya know, and even with a shield, their limbs could be torn. Unless they install inertial dampers on their drones... ( that's how I design a kinetic shielding )

[Deathstalker]

Why are the Borg incapable of making shields that stop kinetic energy attacks? Surely they have navagational deflectors that keep space debris from punching holes in there ships, why can't they just adapt drone shields to handle KE attacks. I would love to see Worf's "Klingon strangely designed knife of the moment" bang off a Borg's shield.

[Praxis]

Why are the Borg incapable of making shields that stop kinetic energy attacks? Surely they have navagational deflectors that keep space debris from punching holes in there ships, why can't they just adapt drone shields to handle KE attacks. I would love to see Worf's "Klingon strangely designed knife of the moment" bang off a Borg's shield.

I thought most people here have read Mike Wong's site...lol.

Read the stuff about shielding, how kinetic energy is transferred to the generators and even if the shield is infinitely powerful, if the blast has too much KE it will tear the generator off the ship.

Guess what? If the Borg made shields to block KE, and someone hit them hard, it would transfer the KE to EVERY NODE IN THEIR BODY, thus probably ripping them off. Extremely painful, and it would probably kill them.

[Deathstalker]

I guess that is why I am not an engineer, because that doesn't make any sense to me. If I hit a Borg with a tank round, maybe I could see its' sheild doing what Praxis says should happen. But I would think a Borg could handle the KE impact of small arms fire. Not really that big a deal to me, Borg have become so wussified, I guess I should really care less.

[Prozac the Robert]

With all the technology in star trek, I think a shield could be developed which would stop the momentum as well as the bullets. It could either be dumped to the air behing the drone o the floor, maybe dumped into subspace or something equally silly, or maybe the drone would fly backwards but inertial dampers would stop it being painful.

[Ghost Rider]

With all the technology in star trek, I think a shield could be developed which would stop the momentum as well as the bullets. It could either be dumped to the air behing the drone o the floor, maybe dumped into subspace or something equally silly, or maybe the drone would fly backwards but inertial dampers would stop it being painful.

You do know the problem of doing such...is that you would have to make the power source of the shield able to do this.

You also understand that it destroy the surrounding and you if it becomes more then one bullet?

KE just doesn't disappear and the air would be start be signifcantly affected.

Just because you redirect does not mean the danger disappear...or better put because bullet proof vest stop it from killing you, doesn't stop the entire KE of the impact of ONE bullet...let alone a hail.

[Praxis]

http://stardestroyer.net/Empire/Tech/Sh ... mpact.html

[Sarevok]

With all the technology in star trek, I think a shield could be developed which would stop the momentum as well as the bullets. It could either be dumped to the air behing the drone o the floor, maybe dumped into subspace or something equally silly, or maybe the drone would fly backwards but inertial dampers would stop it being painful.

The problem is there is no evidence that the technology to dump momentum into subspace or thin air could be developed.

[The Nomad]

With all the technology in star trek, I think a shield could be developed which would stop the momentum as well as the bullets. It could either be dumped to the air behing the drone o the floor, maybe dumped into subspace or something equally silly, or maybe the drone would fly backwards but inertial dampers would stop it being painful.

The problem is there is no evidence that the technology to dump momentum into subspace or thin air could be developed.

Worf's shield in "A Fistful of Datas" ?
Any how, they don't have to 'dump' momentum into subspace : they just need inertial dampeners so as to prevent acceleration gradients within their bodies ( the generators accelerate faster that the rest of the body, doing internal damage ). Even if they're thrown backwards, the combo shield+dampener should protect them nicely.

[Adrian Tullberg]

I can imagine new trainees using the holodeck to train on firearm practice, and getting R. Lee Emery as their sargeant ...

[Jeremy]

I can imagine new trainees using the holodeck to train on firearm practice, and getting R. Lee Emery as their sargeant ...

You sir have one evil imagination.