Editing Star Trek Starships (section)

==Systems==
===Drives===
Unlike other franchises, the vessels in Star Trek have three different types of engines. Warp Drives, Thrusters, and Impulse Engines. The main means of FTL travel in Star Trek is the Warp Drive, which distorts space-time around the ship, forming a bubble around it. Anything within that bubble can move along at superluminal speeds. In order to keep the crew from being turned into flesh paste, ships also have "Inertial Dampening Fields".

Roughly speaking, by the late 2370s, Starfleet ships could keep up a pace of about 1,000 times the speed of light (given that it would take Voyager about 70 years to cross about 70,000 light years) and could sprint faster still.

For STL travel, Impulse Drives are used. These work on a broadly similar principle to Warp Drive, but don't need Antimatter Reactors to work. In a Pinch, they can work as a low-end Warp Drive. Most of the Impulse is used for inner solar systems and planetary orbits.

Thrusters are mainly used for maneuverability, while moving while inside or docking with Starbases/Spacedocks. Some vessels have Thrusters that allow 600 meter plus ships to pull off feats [[what|typical of space fighters in other franchises.]] Something more commonly seen in the post-TNG era. This is actually somewhat realistic. As there is little to no atmosphere in space to provide resistance, the primary limiting factor to your speed is the output/specific impulse or your engine, fuel reserves and ''"How many G of acceleration until the humans turn into chunky pasta sauce"'', with a secondary concern of when the hull it self will fail but generally the organic part is the weakest link of a ship. For the sake of simplicity. We'll assume that Inertial Dampening Fields are on during emergency and combat maneuvers too. However, said feats are mainly exclusive to Federation vessels such as the Galaxy and Sovereign classes. On the other hand, since Feddie Engineers have a large enough reputation to have memes about them in the universe. Even by factions they fought against. Such as "one of those famed Starfleet engineers who can turn rocks into replicators, " coined by one of the Dominion's Vorta commanders. Maybe they are nearly just that good.

===Weaponry===
Energy weapons are the backbone to virtually every faction, with phasers (a type of phase laser) being the most common type due to their flexibility, ranging from hand-held pistols to ship guns, with Starfleet as the main users. Disruptor weapons, which use energy fields to disrupt molecular bonds, are also common, due to Klingons and Romulans using them as their main type of weaponry. Plasma weapons are rarer for their instability, which makes them viable only for short-range attacks or as projectile weapons. Other more exotic forms of energy weapons exist, such as Polaron-based. Projectile weapon also exists as torpedoes, and sometimes missiles, with variable yield energy-based warheads, while large bore slug throwers like rail-guns are very rare.

In Star Trek, even handheld weapons such as Type 2 phasers (i.e., the most common full-size handgun) are absurdly powerful. As it has sixteen settings ranging from knocking out a human adult in one shot to outright "vaporizing" them, or rather jumpcutting them to oblivion. Vaporizing that much mass requires the energy to power or destroy a small city, maybe larger, so many fans say that they have some exotic nuclear disruption force/NDF effect. Obviously, rifles such as the Type-3 Phaser are even better. In a pinch, personal Phasers and Disruptors can be overloaded on purpose to use as makeshift grenades. As for why they don't do that more often. Special effects eat into the budget, and like IRL militaries, most non-civilian vessels store their own dedicated explosives.

The Federation's own ship-mounted weapons are just as crazy. Even on the "low end", the stun setting used by the first Constitution-class Enterprise to knock out an entire city block of people would require an absurd amount of energy. On the higher end, they are able life wipe entire worlds (Starfleet's General Order 24) or used to drill into the mantle or cores of planets. While still being capable of being used like Autocannons against other vessels. During the TMP era, i.e., after 2270. Starfleet changes their phaser banks by tying their power directly the ship's Warp Core. Turning them offline while moving at Warp speed. Energy beams/bolts would be less effective during FTL regardless. A decent tradeoff for nearly unlimited "ammo". As long as the primary reactor and the internal coolant remain operational.

Being able to drill into planets is one of the reasons super weapons(besides the budget) are so rare in Star Trek. There is no need for super weapons when a single vessel can just drill into the center or teleport Photon or Quantum Torpedoes, Antimatter warheads, or any other kind of explosives into the core. By the 24th century, as seen in Star Trek 2009, even civilian mining companies have access to ship-mounted mining equipment capable of destroying a planet. If you see this as a problem. That's what the movie was about, plus a Romulan civilian ship stealing both Borg and Federation technology, then accidentally ending up in the past. The script just calls it a "Plasma Drill". Spock's Red Matter(the source of the mentioned time travel) from the same film is one of the few actual super weapons in the franchise. Originally, Red Matter was supposed to create an artificial Black Hole to save Romulans from the impending Supernova of its home star (he failed obviously, or there wouldn't be a movie.) It's also not the first time something meant for peaceful purposes was repurposed as a weapon of mass destruction. The Genesis Device from Star Trek II: Wrath of Khan being the most famous example.

It's also worth noting, that discussions about power of ''Star Trek'' weapons are still going on. Counter-arguments (e.g. [http://www.stardestroyer.net/Empire/Database/Query-ST.php?Series=TNG&Category=Realism&EpName=&Keywords=&Quotes=&Analysis=&Submit=Submit there], [https://www.stardestroyer.net/Empire/Tactics/ there] and [https://www.stardestroyer.net/Empire/Tech/ there]) say that Phasers can't penetrate dense materials with good electric and thermal conductivity (metal, actinides, futuristic materials like neutronium). [[Star_Trek#Criticisms|While everyone are unarmored and non-augmented]], it works fine - but so much as [[Flak Armor]] equivalent would make target practically Phaser-proof. Ship-mounted Phasers are a lot stronger, but still struggle with ship hulls - anti-matter and photon torpedoes, which have no such problem, are a lot stronger. Most weapons in ''Star Trek'' have absolutely awful ergonomics; as if proper stocks, trigger guards and sights are [[LosTech]]. Over 75% of types of weapons are missing: no tanks, no artillery, no anti-tank weapons, no armor, no NBC protection, etc, but again Star Trek is mostly a TV show so parsing what is actually missing vs what is too expensive to put on screen is sometimes [[skub|quite an argument.]]
* Found [https://www.ex-astris-scientia.org/inconsistencies/22nd-cent-tech.htm some] [https://www.treknology.org/tactical.htm wargear]. Yes, many things ''are'' missing - but some just got found. Like grenades, combat knifes, guns with proper ergonomics, armor suits, etc. Too bad, that characters act as if they were on extremely strict budget restrictions, being unable to afford any of that - [[Derp|despite living in post-scarcity economy, where replicators can print nearly anything for free]].
** For example, there were Stun Grenades - capable of knocking multiple people out in single blast. Plus, weak Worfzooka munitions and Phaser Carbine grenade launcher munitions could be turned into hand grenades, a-la Khattabka.
* It's really hard to determine, how strong armor penetration of Phasers is. [https://www.stardestroyer.net/Empire/Tech/Ground/Misc-ST.html Some] explain that Phasers can't penetrate thin metal crates (as seen in many scenes) - while [https://www.treknology.org/tactical.htm others] claim that Hand Phasers and Disruptors easily penetrate tritanium armor and hand shields, though polarized tritanium stops them (but they say so without any source, calculation, or scene example). Both have their reasons, and both are hard to verify or object because everyone in Star Trek are unarmored and unaugmented. My guess, is that phaser pistols can't penetrate WW2 steel breastplate; tritanium and polarized tritanium suits effortlessly deflect most small-arms fire; heavy alloys, force-fields and tank-like cybernetic augmentations [[Power_Armour#Terminator_Armour|make you pretty much invulnerable]].

===Misc===
Matter-antimatter reactors are the main type of energy source for ships to keep functioning, all ship systems, including Warp Drive. Energy shields are the mainstream form of ship protection from weapons, objects, and other hazards. Cloaking devices exist, but are mostly relegated to Klingons and Romulans due to intergalactic treaties. There are some examples of Federation-made stealth systems - but due to treaties, those are kept in secret and used mostly by special forces; on the other hand, ''personal'' cloaking devices for infantrymen are legal.