How big SHOULD the Federation Fleet be?

[Mikey]

They may just as easily be changing some light bulbs. There's no way to tell; and more germane, there is no relevance at all to fleet numbers.

[Deepcrush]

Aki, phaser strips give you a superior field of fire over a turret. However the Excelsior class between 12 and 20 ball turrets depending on the model. Retooling an Excelsior is rather silly considering they already have impressive coverage.

[Atekimogus]

True, altough I would not be worried about coverage but simply good old plain firepower combined with more flexibility and damage resistance. I would imagine that having a 80 year old design upgraded through the time that they reach a point where the old ball turrets just don't have the capacity that more modern phaser banks have, so either they could upgrade the ball turrets or try to incooperate the newer design. True, all theorycraft but indicators that no new excelsiors were built since the widespread use of phaser stripes.

On the other hand, since most upgrades seem to happen on the inside of the vessels (even ablative armor didn't significantly change the appereance of the Lakota) maybe those old ball turrets are indeed able to handle the energy output of a state of the art warp core and they only needed to change systems within the hull. Altough I would it find hard to believe that they would built a weaponsystem with such broad tolerances, to specs probably only needed in 80 years, maybe phaser emitters are that flexible, who knows. In that case adding stripes would be wasteful, I agree.

[Deepcrush]

The pulse phasers off of the Defiant put out as much power as a GCS phaser strip, or so it seems. Taking that, there's no reason to think that they couldn't fit those types of weapons on the Excelsior. Considering that and the number of turrets on the Lakota, even if they only fire half the normal Phaser Strip output, they can still put out more overall power then a standard GCS.

[stitch626]

I always figure that phaser strips weren't necessarily more powerful, but had better survivability.

The advantage being that part of your weapons array get shot up and you can still use it. If a ball turret gets hit, its gone.

[Deepcrush]

I always figure that phaser strips weren't necessarily more powerful, but had better survivability.

The advantage being that part of your weapons array get shot up and you can still use it. If a ball turret gets hit, its gone.

Possible, but that would depend on how well designed they are and if SF designed them with multiple feeds for power. Just think how often the Ent-D lost power to its phasers. The advantage is that if you knock out a turret, there are thirty more that keep firing.

[stitch626]

True. Starfleet is not well known for their intelligent designs.

[Atekimogus]

The pulse phasers off of the Defiant put out as much power as a GCS phaser strip, or so it seems. Taking that, there's no reason to think that they couldn't fit those types of weapons on the Excelsior. Considering that and the number of turrets on the Lakota, even if they only fire half the normal Phaser Strip output, they can still put out more overall power then a standard GCS.

I like the Excelsior too but that sounds a bit like wishfull thinking imho. As to comparing raw phaser power, the various depictions are varying just as much as photon torpedoes, so I wouldn't really dare to compare Excelsior, Defiant and GCS. Ultimatly it probably boils down to who has the biggest warp core since the biggest phaser array means nothing if you cannot power it. Logically - when not considering the needs of the writer - it would seem that the bigger the ship the more power it produces the stronger are potentially the phasers.

Also, impressive as they are, there might be enough downsides to the Defiant pulse phasers that they are not that powerful and useful for ships which do not have the agility of a small vessel (range, accuracy etc.) otherwise all newer designs like the sovereign and especially the Prometheus - which we know of being design for a tactical role similar to the defiant - would be equiped with defiantlike turrets which is not the case.

To be honest to me they seemed to perform exactly like any other phaser or bird of prey disrupter against the dominion, so I always assumed the pulse style is mainly because it was designed against the borg, I don't know..to better rotate frequency or other technobabble reason but not because they are inherently superior.

[Mark]

I always figure that phaser strips weren't necessarily more powerful, but had better survivability.

The advantage being that part of your weapons array get shot up and you can still use it. If a ball turret gets hit, its gone.

I never understood that. If the CGS main phaser array took a direct hit in the middle, we've seen nothing to indicate it would still function. I read a non cannon explanation that made much more sense. The called the main phaser strips, "collemiter rings" or some such. They theory was that there were actually several phaser generators which made up a ships main phaser array. The way it achieved such superior firepower was combining each of the different phaser "generators" into a combined blast (sort of like the Death Star has all those little lasers that meet before the big one comes out and carries the destruction towards Aldarran.) That would explain why we SEE the energy start along the sides, run around the ring and meet in the middle to fire, also how in DS9 (I forgot the episode) we saw a GCS fire two phaser blasts simultaneously from the one ring.

[stitch626]

If the CGS main phaser array took a direct hit in the middle, we've seen nothing to indicate it would still function.

We have seen both Voyager and a GCS in DS9 fire two phaser shots from one array, indicating it doesn't need the entire thing to fire one shot.

Also, we've seen the "charge up" start from different points on the array (as in not the ends only), indicating it doesn't need the entire thing.

[RK_Striker_JK_5]

They may just as easily be changing some light bulbs. There's no way to tell; and more germane, there is no relevance at all to fleet numbers.

"Are ye daft, man? it'll take four men twelve hours just to find the bloody ladder!"

Okay, in all seriousness... no way to tell, IU. OOU... my explanation might be the best.

[Mark]

If the CGS main phaser array took a direct hit in the middle, we've seen nothing to indicate it would still function.

We have seen both Voyager and a GCS in DS9 fire two phaser shots from one array, indicating it doesn't need the entire thing to fire one shot.

Also, we've seen the "charge up" start from different points on the array (as in not the ends only), indicating it doesn't need the entire thing.

Granted, but as the energy moves across the strip, it looks like its being "passed" along. It may not need the entire thing, and firing two slightly less powerful beams may be beneficial in some situations.

[Deepcrush]

That would explain why we SEE the energy start along the sides, run around the ring and meet in the middle to fire, also how in DS9 (I forgot the episode) we saw a GCS fire two phaser blasts simultaneously from the one ring.

SoA when the GCS fires two beams on the Galor Class Destroyer.

Granted, but as the energy moves across the strip, it looks like its being "passed" along. It may not need the entire thing, and firing two slightly less powerful beams may be beneficial in some situations.

I agree with the pass along rather then a true build up. Also as you say it can be beneficial in some situations. Such as against enemy fighters, warheads or just battle debris.

[Atekimogus]

Well, I always assumed that each emittersegment consists of both, the actual emitter and an energy supply and the cases were we see two beams from one strip is when they want to lay as much firepower on a target as possible in a short time.

For example: you have one strip of 100 emittersegments. Each emitter of every segment is capable of utilising its own and - lets say - 9 energy supplies from its adjacent 9 emittersegments in one concentrated blast. (10 energy-supplies beeing the maximum amount of power-flowthrough an emitter can handle) So if you want to fire the whole array you can either choose between one 10 sec blast or two 5 sec blast or 10 one sec blasts and everything inbetween.

It would fit with the GCS - Galor scene in SoA. They could have fired a concentrated beam for - lets say - 6 seconds, yet they were only passing by, with optimal firing solution lasting only for maybe 2-3 seconds, so to utilize the whole array they fired two beams.

[Deepcrush]

If firing a single 'super beam' as you describe was possible then the GCS in SoA wouldn't have split its power. That's a pretty clear telling that each segment can only support its own power level and not that of all of its adjacent segments.