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Ablative armor

One of the coolest bits of tech we have seen in trek in my opinion. Now it has been several years since I watch end game so I can't quite remember everything about it but I'll do my best.

The idea its self is genius. The hull of the ship being coated with an extra layer of armor that covers all vital areas during battle ie windows and weapons.

I don't think we are ever told what the substance is but by looking at it it has darker hue to it than the rest of the hull. Now to cover a whole ship in a layer of something is a mean feat. The power behind it is impressive to say the least. But what I would find interesting is what the substance is. The hull of the ship needs to be made of metal, strong and flexible. If it was made out something more brittle it would be very susceptible to breaking when put under stress.

The armor coating doesn't need to worry about this problem though. The hull of the ship is still under it providing the structural strength to the ship thus the armor can be anything.

Ideally it would be made out of what ever substance has the highest melt/boiling point. The armor has to put up with beam weapon fire and torpedo fire. Thus the material with the highest boiling point is best since it would take the most energy to destroy. This would most likely make the armor be some sort of mineral rather than a metal.

Also as soon as the armor is breached and there is a gap in the fire you can replace the piece making your ship near indestructible.

Another thought I have is if you have a good targeting computer tied into your ablative armor system it could replicate a piece of armor in front of the incoming torpedo and detonate it before it gets near the ship. The distance from the ship would depend on the range of the replicators but even twenty meters would help a lot.

So thoughts on Ablative armor?

i too think the stuff is genious... i absolutely loved that first time it was deployed on voyager in Endgame... so badass. Its a really cool piece of tech

Yeah and it would look as intimatating as hell. Reminds me of that car show Viper were the car could change from a normal car into the fighting car. Scare the hell out of people.

I wonder how to hull Transports on to the hull plating? I love it, Talk about Technology!

i want to know how the pieces of armor stay on... does the transporter thing kind of weld them to the existing armor.. or together...

I think it would just kind of grip to it. Doesn't need to be held on real well just take the hit onc and thats it.

What I want to know is; why the hell don't they just build the armour onto it instead of relying on some roundabout transporter tech way?

Because this way it can be replaced during battle. It can cover windows and weapons when not in use. And it looks really cool.

But if it was already built on you would have even more protection without having to beam it on to the hull. (can you imagine the power needed to do that?)

Windows could be replaced by something like viewscreens. If you did it well enough no one would even know.

Granted it does look cool.

Yeah the power issue is a problem.

It still protects the weapons systems that normal armor can't and replaces it which is a huge advantage.

This also allows you to have a nicer ship with added luxury. Federation are in combat a very small amount of the time thus it wouldn't make sense making them so combat ready. Starfeet like to have a peaceful image.

How do the weapons fire through the armour?

They armor panels get dematerialized when the weapons are needed and put back on when not.

So they take the armour off when they need to fire? If they built the weapons onto the armour they could avoid that.

But then the weapons could be damaged.

Can you imagine a tank that needed to remove its armour to fire?

Yes, the weapons can be damaged. But if you lose power at least you won't be completely defenceless.