New Starbase

[Graham Kennedy]

Trek torpedoes need to be fired from a launcher facing the target usually

Says who?

[Teaos]

Says almost all of the on screen evidence, as Seafort said we have seen torpedoes move and track a bit, but very rarely, one would think them a different make, and they seem to be slower from what I recall.

[Graham Kennedy]

Says almost all of the on screen evidence, as Seafort said we have seen torpedoes move and track a bit, but very rarely, one would think them a different make, and they seem to be slower from what I recall.

I don't know of any onscreen evidence that says they need to. I've certainly seen onscreen evidence that indicates that they usually choose to, but that's a very different thing. And given the onscreen evidence also shows that they clearly can make torpedoes do anything they like... not sure why anybody would claim otherwise.

[Teaos]

Because if every torpedo could track, yet we see that most don't, occams suggests that they are different varieties.

[Coalition]

You could have the torp maneuverability inversely proportional to their speed. When first kicked out of a launcher they are nimble, then they focus their engine on acceleration. The power devoted to speed is taken from maneuverability, and the torp is less nimble. If the torp diverts its power from speed back to maneuverability, it slows down, and the opponent can use its speed to get away.

Or on a station, they can devote more mass to launchers that can turn/aim their torp better on launch. A starship can maneuver much better, so they use a smaller/simpler launcher as a result.

So torps might be limited in terms of maneuverability and speed, while not requiring much mass. A starship will have high speed and maneuverability, but also contains long-term support systems. As Atomic Rockets says, trade-offs (look up Trade-offs on that page).

[Graham Kennedy]

Because if every torpedo could track, yet we see that most don't, occams suggests that they are different varieties.

But we don't know that they don't track, we only know that they tend to aim the ship at the target to fire, thus removing any need to track significantly. Occam's razor would suggest that all torpedoes can track, but only do so when they need to; it's the simplest solution.

[Graham Kennedy]

You could have the torp maneuverability inversely proportional to their speed. When first kicked out of a launcher they are nimble, then they focus their engine on acceleration. The power devoted to speed is taken from maneuverability, and the torp is less nimble. If the torp diverts its power from speed back to maneuverability, it slows down, and the opponent can use its speed to get away.

This is pretty much what happens with many air to air missiles. They burn through their fuel rapidly and then coast towards the target. Every maneuver they make during coasting saps KE, and so slows them down and reduces their range. I have no problem believing something similar applies to photon torpedoes.

[Teaos]

Its hard to see exactly with the shots given, but a lot of the time it seems as if the torpedoes are going straight point A to B, and several times they miss. I have a hard time believing that they didnt correct their trajectory just so they wouldnt lose KE when they ended up missing all together.

[Graham Kennedy]

Its hard to see exactly with the shots given, but a lot of the time it seems as if the torpedoes are going straight point A to B, and several times they miss. I have a hard time believing that they didnt correct their trajectory just so they wouldnt lose KE when they ended up missing all together.

It's relatively rare for torps to actually miss, unless there's some interference or battle damage involved. Throw in that there could be ECM (of the future!), or just plain systems failures in the occasional torp and I don't find it hard to believe.

We have dialogue explicitly stating that torps have guidance systems. Worf is testing a new and improved one in Genesis - meaning there was one previously. We see that the Prometheus has one in Message in a Bottle - and more, the Voyager EMH treated it as perfectly common knowledge that "you have to tell them what to do!" and that they would wander off astray if you didn't. Meaning Voyager had guided torps.

There's just too much evidence to think that guided torps are in any way unusual.

[McAvoy]

Even in ENT showed the torpedoes to be remarkably accurate both types.