Info on the USS Kelvin

[SomosFuga]

That is a technological issue.

Someone claimed that lasers aren't a practical weapon right now, I'm saying they are provided you are willing to live with the trade offs.

Ok, lasers are possible now and the military could make them operative in relatively short term, agreed.

[Mark]

Out of curiosity, when WAS the first time we heard of a probe being launched? Did we ever see one in TOS?

I'm fairly sure we heard of one in TOS. Damned if I can be sure, though.

Wasn't one used on the giant space amoeba in the Immunity Syndrome?

Of course, the Kelvin may have had different kind of probes. The movie seems to rate torps as weaker than phasers anyway, so maybe they didn't feel Kelvin needed them as "backup" weapons.

[Sionnach Glic]

Wasn't one used on the giant space amoeba in the Immunity Syndrome?

That may have been it.

[steamrunner]

The problem is the relative progression of technology has jumped so quickly in the past 30-40 years, that it is leaps and bounds ahead of the past millenia. It took us nearly 400 years to go from constructing ships from wood to constructing them from metal. In the past 100 years we have gone through iron, aluminium, steel, fibreglass, plastic even for small ones. Technologically speaking it took us 300/400 years to develop from crossbows to flintlock fired weapons. It took is 100 years from the first practical automatic machine guns to weapons which can fire 3500 bullets per minute, shred an aircraft in seconds and track missiles going at several times the speed of sound. Technology advances so fast today that a phone is virtually obsolete via technology standards merely weeks after it is released, Computers are made redundant compared to their successor in a month. If that trend continues, where technology develops at a phenominal rate, we could have plasma based weaponry, or anti-matter based weaponry far sooner than you would expect.

In eight short years, the U.S. went from a manned suborbital flight to landing men on the moon. At that rate of progress, one would expect to find a continuous manned presence on the moon. Yet, man has not set foot on the moon since 1972 - and, according to the latest projections - the earliest man will again set foot on the moon will be the year 2020...almost 50 years later! Sometimes a change in philosophy (and funding!) can wipe out a trend...I don't mean to be a downer, here, just some food for thought...

[SomosFuga]

IIRC the Kelvin had 2 diferent types of energy weapons: a continuous beam like a phaser but red and one of green or blue pulses similar to B5 interceptors. Were both fired by the same turret?

[Tsukiyumi]

...Were both fired by the same turret?

The blue pulses were from smaller turrets further forward on the saucer, from what I saw.

[Lt. Staplic]

...Were both fired by the same turret?

The blue pulses were from smaller turrets further forward on the saucer, from what I saw.

ya, that's what it looked like to me too.

[Mark]

Ditto, but double check with GK and IK. Nobody saw it more than they did.

[Graham Kennedy]

Check the pics on the ship entry. The two turret types are noticeably different, and in different spots on the hull.

The "white pulse" units look smaller, and are in an arc just inside the "ring" on the saucer dorsal surface. Two emitters are located in one turret housing.

The "red beam" phasers are located closer to the center of the saucer, are larger I think, and each bank comprises to separate turrets standing beside one another.

Very different weapons.

[SomosFuga]

I see it now, thanks.
I like the point defense phasers, it's a very good and realistic concept i think we never saw befor in Trek; i wonder how powerful are those and if you could use them for offensive or are too weak to use them against a shielded ship.

Check the pics on the ship entry. The two turret types are noticeably different, and in different spots on the hull.

In the armament section of the entry, what CIWS stands for?

[Tsukiyumi]

CIWS

Close In Weapon System

[Sionnach Glic]

Basicaly a point-defence weapon system. On the Kelvin it was probably used to down shuttles and torps.

[Mark]

or Fighters or possibly small asteroids even. i'm guessing they lose effectivenes against shields

[Teaos]

Fighters generally = shuttles in trek

[Sionnach Glic]

Range debate split to here.