Cardassian Ship Technology

[Captain Seafort]

I still do not like the comparison much because when comparing space ships I tend to use naval vessels as rough equivalent and not aircraft. A space ship is somthing of a combination of both...

Then let's use the Pacfic campaigns of WW2. The US Navy routinely used battle lines for pre-assault bombardment, and was frequently able to hit the entire island from the sea (Iwo Jima for example). They were not, however, able to depopulate the islands of their defenders, and assaults were needed to evict them.

Similar in space...prior to ground combat you need the ability to ship your troops to planet x. Very dangerous if you do not have space superiority.

Absolutely, but this doesn't remove the necessity to land troops to take physical possesion of the planet.

That is absolutely right and that is the reason why we see ground forces. But basically they are just light infantry, a guy with a phaser-rifle and nothing more heavy. Nothing more is needed.

AR-558 disproves this - a single GPMG would have allowed the Feds to wipe out the entire Jem'Hadar force without suffering a single casualty. Hell, given the abyssmal ergonomics of the type-III I'd happily substitute the original B Coy, 2nd Bn, 24th Foot for the Feds there, and expect them to do a lot better.

I believe it was "who mourns for adonis" but I am not 100% sure.

Orbital bombardment was frequently used or mentioned in TOS, but the orbit-to-surface stun you're thinking of is from "A Piece of the Action". Note that the targets of said shots were outside, and there's no indication that the tactic would have been sucessful had they not been. Using full-power shots, which would be able to flatten cities, raises the problem that others have already mentioned - mass civilian casualties.

If your target is one person you are screwed. If your target are APcs, Mbts or other forms of artillery, we now have to support ground forces, taking them out from orbit should be no problem. ECM could hinder that but unless the all have cloaking devices you could at least spot them from orbit. I guess 24th tech is more sophisticated than 21th century spy sats. That is, I admit only in my humble opinion, the reason we hardly see anything more heavy than a guy with a phaser rifle. You can hide guys with phasers in a city, you cannot hide a tank brigade or battle robots or whatever they could have in star trek.

Yes you could - we can do that now, with cammo nets. Even if you haven't got anything that would absorb or scatter sensor returns, simply scatter material that reflects sensor beams throughout the city and at the very least you'd have your opponent firing effectively at random. If you're talking specifically about transporters, then the solution would be to use electricity substations as strong points - "Legacy" shows that they're effective at blocking transporters.

See my above reply. Considering the technical possibilities I think heavy mechanised infantry is obsolete.

People have been saying that for decades, ever since effective infantry-borne anti-tank weapons became widespread. Guess what, we've still got armoured and mechanised infantry.

To be honest I do not understand what is so bad about it. The importance of different army parts during history changed constantly. At one point large pike-formation were king. At one point it was all about artillery. At one point it was all about cavalry. You always had all parts but the importance of each one was never constant. I say considering the technological possibilitys the space navy would become much more important with ground combat beeing more or less police actions, is that really so absurd considering that at one point or another in history different parts of an army was considered the king of the battlefield?

Tactics will certainly change. The principles of warfare never will. Fundamentally, while the equipment and detailed tactics of armies have changed, the basic composition of an effect force never has - long-ranged weapons to attrit the enemy before close contact is made, infantry to pin him, absorb his reserves, and further attrit him, and cavalry to outmanoeuvre him, deliver shock at any weak points that develop, and exploit any breakthrough. Whether those roles are filled by slingshots, blokes with swords, and horses, or air power, mechanised infantry supported by artillery, and tanks isn't really relevent.

I agree altough considering UFP politics having to conquer the planet seems to be exactly what they do not want. If it is enough to surpress them from space for a short period and it suffices...

In WYLB the possibility of simply containing the Dominion around Cardassia Prime was discussed and rejected. The Cardassian War ended with a stalemate that led to the sceeding of Federation worlds to the Cardassians, quite possibly because of the Feds inability to fight a ground action. The Feds might not want to fight ground actions, but they do have a need to do so.

That is true. Consider the Bajorans who at the end were able to win the war.

Not so much "win" as make the Cardies' continued presence not worth the cost in lives, equipment and money, just as the Old IRA did to the British Empire, and the NLA did to the US.

But let me ask you this, are you willing to risk pissing the orbital force so much that they say.....damn it, lets just level the place and bomb them into stone age and start annew? Considering the nature of the CU I think the Bajorans played a damn risky game.

Of course they took a risk - they considered that risk preferable to the continuation of he Occupation.

They do not even need to really destroy the place. They could just poison the world and making it unsuitable for cardassian live like the maquis did to one colony.

Biological warfare is an iffy business. What happens if it mutates to affect your own population?

Why is it again a few nations have the a-bomb?

Two main reasons:

1) Dick-waving.

2) Because other people have it and nobody (with the possible exception of one of the Kims) is insane enough to risk annihilation just to clobber their opponent.

Well I probably would still use a phaser but only because I would also use wide angle beams, sweeping beams etc. all the things making a phaser superior but which are never used onscreen 8).

Note that they have been used on screen. Just at point-blank range, and on stun. That pesky inverse-square law.

What I meant was more with a small handheld phaser beeing able to obliberate whole city blocks everything you would mount on a MBT or artillery would be serious overkill and therefore obsolete.

Yes, they would be. What's this got to do with anything, given that phasers can't do anything of the sort?

Sure, maybe they build more heavy tanks able to withstand orbital bombardment or other super-powerful tanks but I am sure Kendall and Seafort would agree that during the ages at one point the armour has it, at one point the offensive has it.

Of course - this simply leads to changes in equipment and tactics, not basic principles.

(Knights becoming obsolete with gunpowder etc.). Once again I do not see the sacrilege of thinking in the 24th century it is likely once again different than nowadays.... .

Of course it'll be different, but as Quark said "the more things change, the more they stay the same".

[mlsnoopy]

Anyone of the better trek shuttle designes is superior to any APC.
It has superior firepower.
Superior shielding.
Superior mobility.

[Captain Seafort]

It has superior firepower.

Not if you give your APC type-IV or V phasers.

Superior shielding.

Not if you give your APC shuttle-grade shield generators.

Superior mobility.

And a crap target profile. Shuttles are the Trek equivalent of the Blackhawk, not tanks or APCs.

[Mikey]

Mechanized infantry not only existed among the Cardassians, their APC's were eminently useful per Nerys' description of the occupation. And in general, nobody's debating the usefulness of air superiority - just that it doesn't negate the need for ground forces in a territorial campaign.

[Aaron]

Ugh. I think I'm just going to put up a pic of the Three Stooges slapping each other or Benny Hill running around in a circle every time this topic appears.

[Atekimogus]

Similar in space...prior to ground combat you need the ability to ship your troops to planet x. Very dangerous if you do not have space superiority.

Absolutely, but this doesn't remove the necessity to land troops to take physical possesion of the planet.

I agree that you need to do that if you want to take possession but I guess since not every backwater planet in the CU is of interest to the UFP it would suffice to eliminate those forces possing a threat to the fleet and otherwise leave them alone.

AR-558 disproves this - a single GPMG would have allowed the Feds to wipe out the entire Jem'Hadar force without suffering a single casualty. Hell, given the abyssmal ergonomics of the type-III I'd happily substitute the original B Coy, 2nd Bn, 24th Foot for the Feds there, and expect them to do a lot better.

Ah well AR-558.....the whole episode did not make much sense.

Orbital bombardment was frequently used or mentioned in TOS, but the orbit-to-surface stun you're thinking of is from "A Piece of the Action". Note that the targets of said shots were outside, and there's no indication that the tactic would have been sucessful had they not been. Using full-power shots, which would be able to flatten cities, raises the problem that others have already mentioned - mass civilian casualties.

Ah, I did not mean the stun, I think - altough not sure- they tried to destroy some stonegate or something similar which they thought was the power source of Adonis, so it was fired with destructive attempt. For using full power shots I always had the impression that federation phasers can be very delicatly adjusted?

In WYLB the possibility of simply containing the Dominion around Cardassia Prime was discussed and rejected. The Cardassian War ended with a stalemate that led to the sceeding of Federation worlds to the Cardassians, quite possibly because of the Feds inability to fight a ground action. The Feds might not want to fight ground actions, but they do have a need to do so.

I think during the time of Captain Maxwell it is said that there have been a peace treaty since one year yet the crew of the E-D never seemed to be aware prior to that there was even a war going on. It does seem like a rather small, local conflict so maybe it was not taken entirely serious by the UFP. Maybe your viewpoint is the right one but what bugs me is that all tend to think that since they went quite a while to achieve a diplomatic solution it must be that they were simple unable to beat them. Or like the president said during his kithomer speech : Just because we are able to do a thing, doesn't mean we should do that thing" or something along that line.

Not so much "win" as make the Cardies' continued presence not worth the cost in lives, equipment and money, just as the Old IRA did to the British Empire, and the NLA did to the US.

Yes I agree......if this counts as win is hard to decide.

Of course they took a risk - they considered that risk preferable to the continuation of he Occupation.

That is true, but the stakes are somewhat higher than the continued existance of a nation. If you have no colonies it becames a matter of the survival of the species.

Yes, they would be. What's this got to do with anything, given that phasers can't do anything of the sort?

Well I think I remember one episode where Data was obliberating a whole aqueduct with a simple handheld phaser. That is roughly the firepower I was talking about. Finer minds than mine may calculate the energy output needed for that but I guess it'd be pretty impressive, surley a glock 18 is not able to do.(Or even a panzerfaust). Of course if this is because he managed to pimp his phaser for one time and it is not the standard model or something of that sort my whole argument becomes void. I am just stating an observation I made which is that even handheld phasers seem to have awesome firepower.....it the writers need it .

(Knights becoming obsolete with gunpowder etc.). Once again I do not see the sacrilege of thinking in the 24th century it is likely once again different than nowadays.... .

Of course it'll be different, but as Quark said "the more things change, the more they stay the same".

Quark, ironically the most wise character of DS9

The comments I did not reply to I more or less agree with you.

Mechanized infantry not only existed among the Cardassians, their APC's were eminently useful per Nerys' description of the occupation

That may also be due to the low tech of the bajorans. All you need is beeing just one step ahead of your enemy.

[Captain Seafort]

I agree that you need to do that if you want to take possession but I guess since not every backwater planet in the CU is of interest to the UFP it would suffice to eliminate those forces possing a threat to the fleet and otherwise leave them alone.

That's the issue - how do you eliminate said forces if they're deeply entrenched? Certainly a good number of systems can be isolated and ignored, as the US frequently did in the Pacific. However, if you want to use a system as a staging post for further advances you need to go down and take posession of the surface.

Ah, I did not mean the stun, I think - altough not sure- they tried to destroy some stonegate or something similar which they thought was the power source of Adonis, so it was fired with destructive attempt. For using full power shots I always had the impression that federation phasers can be very delicatly adjusted?

Hmm, I'm sure someone was talking about orbit-to-surface stun shots. Anyway, in that case you're right - the two main cases of orbital bombardment to destroy stuff occured in "Who Mourns for Adonis" and "The Apple". In both cases the target was well out in the open with no concealment, and so an easier target than, say, an armoured division occupying a city. Even were said armoured division's tanks destroyed, its supporting infantry would be well dug in, and therefore a much tougher target - you'd still have to go down and root them out.

I think during the time of Captain Maxwell it is said that there have been a peace treaty since one year yet the crew of the E-D never seemed to be aware prior to that there was even a war going on.

I'd interpret that as more evidence as Fed space superiority - they simply didn't need a GCS to be able to hammer the Cardies ship-to-ship. As for the treaty, given the evidence of later episodes, I'd interpret it as simply the initial armistice, rather than a final settlement.

It does seem like a rather small, local conflict so maybe it was not taken entirely serious by the UFP. Maybe your viewpoint is the right one but what bugs me is that all tend to think that since they went quite a while to achieve a diplomatic solution it must be that they were simple unable to beat them.

It's not so much the fact that it took a long time to hammer out a treaty that indicates that the war was a stalemate (although it does lead that way) but the fact that when the treaty was finally established it involved both sides giving up territory. If the war had been a decisive Federation victory they wouldn't have been giving up territory - it would either have been a return to the status quo or purely annexing Cardie territory.

That is true, but the stakes are somewhat higher than the continued existance of a nation. If you have no colonies it becames a matter of the survival of the species.

Or, from another aspect, the entire species living in slavery. Although both are rendered false by the existence of considerable numbers of Bajoran exiles, as shown in "Ensign Ro".

Well I think I remember one episode where Data was obliberating a whole aqueduct with a simple handheld phaser.

You're misremebering. He certainly disabled an aqueduct, but he did so by shooting a particular component (the computer controlling it maybe) which produced what looked like a chain reaction shutting the whole thing down.

I am just stating an observation I made which is that even handheld phasers seem to have awesome firepower.....it the writers need it .

'Fraid not. The best I've seen a type-II do was "vaporise" what looked like a couple of cubic metres of rock in "Chain of Command".

Quark, ironically the most wise character of DS9

I wouldn't go that far - there's Odo and Garak to consider as well.

The comments I did not reply to I more or less agree with you.

That may also be due to the low tech of the bajorans. All you need is beeing just one step ahead of your enemy.

Nonetheless, the Bajorans had your typical AQ array of weapons - rifles and pistols. If you can protect your forces from orbital attack, either through concealment or a continued space presence to force your opponents' ships to concentrate on defending their landed forces rather than supporting them, such vehicles would be just as effective against the Federation.

[Mikey]

Ah well AR-558.....the whole episode did not make much sense.

No, it didn't; yet, there it is, canon and all.

I agree that you need to do that if you want to take possession but I guess since not every backwater planet in the CU is of interest to the UFP it would suffice to eliminate those forces possing a threat to the fleet and otherwise leave them alone.

Still doesn't help in those situations in which you DO want to take and hold territory.

That may also be due to the low tech of the bajorans. All you need is beeing just one step ahead of your enemy.

The Bajoran insurgents had phasers, with no discernable tech gap from those of the contemporary Federation.

[Coalition]

What I meant was more with a small handheld phaser beeing able to obliberate whole city blocks everything you would mount on a MBT or artillery would be serious overkill and therefore obsolete.

For actual firepower of a hand phaser, should we compare what was seen on screen?

TNG Season 4: "Legacies"
LaForge was counting out drilling depth (using the ship's main phasers) at a rate of .1 km per second. Width was enough to transport the Away team (3 meters wide, 4meters wide?). So the volume being drilled away by a main starship's weapon per second would be ~700 to ~1300 cubic meters of rock per second. A hand weapon would be much less capable.


TNG Season 6: "Chain of Command pt 1"
They widen a hole that is ~1 foot wide to become ~3 feet wide. Depth is unknown (I am assuming 10 meters, or a little over 30 feet). Phaser is on setting 16. 3 feet wide is .9 meters diameter, or .45 meters radius, times 10 meters depth becomes ~6.4 cubic meters. This is ignoring the narrow hole in the center, to make may math easier.


TNG Season 7: "Inheritance"
They made a hole a little over 2 meters wide, 2 km deep, and it took 5 seconds. This was after they had focused the Enterprise's main array into the "most highly focused particle beam possible". I'll assume 2.5 meters wide, for 1.25 meters radius. The volume is a little less than 10,000 cubic meters, or about 2000 cubic meters per second.


So hand phasers might not be as strong as originally thought.

[Sionnach Glic]

I agree that you need to do that if you want to take possession but I guess since not every backwater planet in the CU is of interest to the UFP it would suffice to eliminate those forces possing a threat to the fleet and otherwise leave them alone.

Aye, that'd certainly be possible. As Seafort pointed out, the US did something similar in the Pacific against Japan during WW2. Yet the US was still involved in a lot of ground combat. Why? Because they needed to take islands for staging posts.
Sure, they could have just gone on a campaign to destroy the Japanese Navy, ignored all the islands in the Pacific and just tried to land troops on Japan itself, but they would have run into massive logistical and supply problems.
It's the same in a space war. If it takes weeks for reinforcements or supplies to arive, you're going to encounter problems when you try to actualy take a planet.

Ah well AR-558.....the whole episode did not make much sense.

Correct. The episode was stupid in so many different ways.
That doesn't change the fact that it happened, though. And nor does it change the fact that four guys with AKs could have probably outperformed the entire Fed force there.

Ah, I did not mean the stun, I think - altough not sure- they tried to destroy some stonegate or something similar which they thought was the power source of Adonis, so it was fired with destructive attempt. For using full power shots I always had the impression that federation phasers can be very delicatly adjusted?

Again, that was an instance where it was out in the open and unprotected, not hidden underground in the middle of a city, perhaps with a shield generator protecting it. Against a properly defended military facility, the only option would be a stronger powered shot, which would level any buildings around it.

I think during the time of Captain Maxwell it is said that there have been a peace treaty since one year yet the crew of the E-D never seemed to be aware prior to that there was even a war going on. It does seem like a rather small, local conflict so maybe it was not taken entirely serious by the UFP. Maybe your viewpoint is the right one but what bugs me is that all tend to think that since they went quite a while to achieve a diplomatic solution it must be that they were simple unable to beat them. Or like the president said during his kithomer speech : Just because we are able to do a thing, doesn't mean we should do that thing" or something along that line.

If the only possible sollution to a war is seceeding your own planets and removing the people on them, then you've clearly been unable to bring the enemy to a defeat. A proper Fed victory would have involved the Cardies giving planets to them, or if the UFP wanted to be nice, no planets being exchanged on either sides. The victors voluntarily depopulating and handing over their own territory makes no sense. It'd be like if, after WW2, France gave a large chunk of its territory to Germany.

Well I think I remember one episode where Data was obliberating a whole aqueduct with a simple handheld phaser. That is roughly the firepower I was talking about. Finer minds than mine may calculate the energy output needed for that but I guess it'd be pretty impressive, surley a glock 18 is not able to do.(Or even a panzerfaust). Of course if this is because he managed to pimp his phaser for one time and it is not the standard model or something of that sort my whole argument becomes void. I am just stating an observation I made which is that even handheld phasers seem to have awesome firepower.....it the writers need it .

As Seafort has pointed out, that instance involved a chain-reaction rather than a conventional blast. The highest power shot ever seen was, again as Seafort said, a few M³ of rock.

That may also be due to the low tech of the bajorans. All you need is beeing just one step ahead of your enemy.

Given that the UFP has no armoured vehicles at all, the APCs would keep the Cardies a step or so ahead of the Redshirts, too.

[Sionnach Glic]

What I meant was more with a small handheld phaser beeing able to obliberate whole city blocks everything you would mount on a MBT or artillery would be serious overkill and therefore obsolete.

A handheld phaser taking out a city block?
Uh....no.

So hand phasers might not be as strong as originally thought.

Hand phasers are seriously over-rated in terms of....well, everything.
A lot of the claims for them having uber-powerful shots stems from a half-mad Riker's threat to his captors that his phaser, which they'd never seen before, could destroy a building on full power. Even ignoring the fact that the quote is highly suspicious due to the context, that claim can be simply refuted by pointing out that Federation troops are unable to kill enemies hiding behind packing crates.

[mlsnoopy]

Not if you give your APC type-IV or V phasers.

We know what kind of weapons can be put on a shuttle. We have no idea what kind of weapons can be put on any ground vehicle.

Not if you give your APC shuttle-grade shield generators.

And how will the shield interact with the ground.

And a crap target profile.

What does that have to do with superior mobility.
And a target profile of any vehicle will be similar to a shuttles.
So your point doesn't make sence.

Shuttles are the Trek equivalent of the Blackhawk.

They are more of an equivalent of the Hind.

not tanks or APCs

They are superior to them. They offer greater mobility and protection.

[Captain Seafort]

We know what kind of weapons can be put on a shuttle. We have no idea what kind of weapons can be put on any ground vehicle.

Look at the mountings - at their largest they fill the front end of the nacelle, at smallest they're the size of an A4 sheet of paper and about an inch thick. There's no reason why the couldn't be fitted to a ground vehicle.

And how will the shield interact with the ground.

Unknown. However the solution would be to either a) use antigrav tanks/APCs (not perfect by any means, but you take what you can get) or b) use a combination of hull-huggers and adapt the portable shield technology observed in The Naked Now and Insurrection, which forms a solid barrier with physical objects.

And a crap target profile.

What does that have to do with superior mobility.

Shuttles have good mobility because they fly. This also means that they're vulnerable to the world and his brother taking potshots at them.

And a target profile of any vehicle will be similar to a shuttles.

Wrong. Any vehicle that can operate effectively on the ground would be far superior.

They are more of an equivalent of the Hind.

Shuttles are primarilly intended as bulk cargo and personnel transports, not purpose-built combat aircraft. Therefore they are nothing like Hinds.

They are superior to them. They offer greater mobility and protection.

They're probably superior to modern tanks, but only by virtue of their technology - build a proper tank with Trek tech and it would be far superior as an infantry support vehicle than a shuttle.

[mlsnoopy]

Look at the mountings - at their largest they fill the front end of the nacelle, at smallest they're the size of an A4 sheet of paper and about an inch thick. There's no reason why the couldn't be fitted to a ground vehicle.

Of course there is no reason, but all the evidence points to ground vehicles having smaller weapons. Look at the gun on the buggy from Nemesis. And also the armoured vehicles that Cardasians used also didn' offer any superior firepower to defeat the Bajorans.

Unknown.

Exactly. We have an added complication that doesn't exist with the shuttle.

a) use antigrav tanks/APCs (not perfect by any means, but you take what you can get)

From using the antigrav to the drive system that a shuttle uses whats the diffrence.

b) use a combination of hull-huggers and adapt the portable shield technology observed in The Naked Now and Insurrection, which forms a solid barrier with physical objects.

And what happens when you want to move.

Shuttles have good mobility because they fly.

They can fly cm or km of the ground. Can hover. Can go across water, swamp, forrest,...

This also means that they're vulnerable to the world and his brother taking potshots at them.

What are you talking abaut?

Wrong. Any vehicle that can operate effectively on the ground would be far superior.

Why? A shuttle can operate cm of the ground there by the profile will be similar to a ground based vehicle.

Shuttles are primarilly intended as bulk cargo and personnel transports, not purpose-built combat aircraft. Therefore they are nothing like Hinds.

You compared a shuttle to a blackhawk. How the hell is that similar.
At these moment the Hind is the most similar vehicle on Earth. As the shuttle it has the ability to transport and deploy troops and than stick around to offer heavy firepower.

build a proper tank with Trek tech and it would be far superior as an infantry support vehicle than a shuttle.

A baseless statement. Why will it be superior?
You can't put better weapons on it.
You have problems with the shields.
You have inferior mobility.
You are vulnerable to air attack.

[Atekimogus]

However, if you want to use a system as a staging post for further advances you need to go down and take posession of the surface.

I agree but also consider that most of the interesting stuff still happens in space. Considering the capability of self repair like Voyager has shown what need could they have from a planet short of building a new shipyard there and needing a rare resource? Is that even a problem? What resources are non-replicable in star trek? Providing a save haven aka a starbase? Once again what do they really need from a planet? Do we know that in the 24th century parts are still fabricated on a planet and then transported into space similar to the ISS? I had the impression they can do pretty much everything in appropriate space facilities and considering replicators the only ressource needed is energy.

In both cases the target was well out in the open with no concealment, and so an easier target than, say, an armoured division occupying a city.

I agree with you altough - and this is only my personal opinion - I just think even considering concealment, jamming etc. if you consider the advanced sensor technology of star trek, which could analyse the chemical composition of my morning coffee from orbit (yes slight exaggeration to emphasis my point, so nitpickers go away...no I will not provide evidence since this is an ironical statement) I just think hiding big vehicles like tanks is not as easy as you think it is.

I'd interpret that as more evidence as Fed space superiority - they simply didn't need a GCS to be able to hammer the Cardies ship-to-ship. As for the treaty, given the evidence of later episodes, I'd interpret it as simply the initial armistice, rather than a final settlement.

Makes sense.

It's not so much the fact that it took a long time to hammer out a treaty that indicates that the war was a stalemate (although it does lead that way) but the fact that when the treaty was finally established it involved both sides giving up territory. If the war had been a decisive Federation victory they wouldn't have been giving up territory - it would either have been a return to the status quo or purely annexing Cardie territory.

Now correct me if I am wrong because I do not probably know all the finer details of this treaty but the impression I always got from this situation was, some humans setteled on worlds they shouldn't have because the cardassians lay claim and some cardassians settled on worlds claimed by the UFP which they shouldn't have (a little similar to the near eastern situation maybe?) and the whole treaty was there to rectify the situation and enable a long lasting peace. Therefore some UFP people were told to pack their suitcases and vice versa...... . That indicates to me that the UFP is quite the peaceful organization but that doesn't mean they could not have steamrolled them and I think the CU knew that.

Or, from another aspect, the entire species living in slavery. Although both are rendered false by the existence of considerable numbers of Bajoran exiles, as shown in "Ensign Ro".

That is correct altough most species seems to be rather touchy when their homeworld is at stake. I am sure there are quite a few human colonies and see how protective they are about earth.

You're misremebering. He certainly disabled an aqueduct, but he did so by shooting a particular component (the computer controlling it maybe) which produced what looked like a chain reaction shutting the whole thing down.

Quite possible, like I said it has been a while.

'Fraid not. The best I've seen a type-II do was "vaporise" what looked like a couple of cubic metres of rock in "Chain of Command".

Shame altough I think they should really come up with something why they are all using phasers if a simple nowadays pistol/rifle whatever is that much better. Pointing out the the UFP is just weak, backwards and stupid is no satisfying answer since the same would apply to the romulans, klingons etc.

I wouldn't go that far - there's Odo and Garak to consider as well.

How can one know Garak and not like the Cardassians? 8)