What are your controversial Star Trek opinions?

I mean, I'm sure it makes sense to you.

BB-8 is the best though. He is shaped like a ball.

 

It sure does

I prefer BD-1 over BB-8 myself.

 

It's not just tech, it's tactics. I just watched the final battle of "The Siege of AR-558". There were no grenades used, no directional mines, no incendiaries... all of those things were basic 20th century technology. A few sets of Vietnam era M18A1 antipersonnel mines would have slaughtered dozens of the attacking Jem'Hadar with minimal risk to the Starfleet side.

The battle in "Fortunate Son" was similar. There was a group of Naussican pirates, standing together and shooting from a place of relative cover. A WWI era black powder grenade, tossed into their midst, would have obliterated all of them. But, all anyone did was shoot ray guns at them. That's why they won the engagement, and undoubtedly continued to pillage Earth's freighters for years to come.

 

Can't really throw a grenade in an enclosed space like what we see in "FORTUNATE SON". Blast would puncture a hole in their inner hull.

In "THE SIEGE OF AR-558", they used the Houdinis on the Jem'Hadar. From the distance, we heard a lot of those explosions go off. They thought it would take out 1/3 of them, and probably did. Since those were sort of mines, they were used.

 

Then they should develop an explosive that can be used. An incendiary, maybe. A cheap Molotov cocktail would have lit the uglies up like a Christmas tree in February.

All the more reason to have a few Claymores encircling your position, too. Light those suckers off, and you've got Jem'Hadar casserole.

 

Considering tricorders and other scanning equipment the Dominion has, plus the Jem'Hadar's shrouding capabilities which severely limit Starfleet's ability to send out people to lay them in the field, and they were on a foreign world to begin with, I'm not sure how claymores or landmines can even be set to be effective enough against large Dominion forces. Small groups, maybe. But they were severely outnumbered. Holding position and forcing the Jem'Hadar in a bottleneck was probably the only thing that kept them alive.

 

A regular minefield would be problematic, but Claymores are directional (they're the ones with FRONT TOWARD ENEMY) stenciled on them. The backward blast is minimal (you can be within a few yards of one as long as you're behind it), but they'll shred everything within 50 meters in about a 60 degree arc.

 

I know claymores do that. The issue on AR-558 is setting them up. You'd need to set up a lot of them, and enough Starfleet people to actually do it and provide cover.

That's the part I think makes that ineffective against the Dominion.

 

The issue on AR 558 was also explicitly an extreme lack of supplies. For all we know they simply ran out of heavy explosives.

 

Very true, and quite likely, as it was still very difficult just to get the supplies Sisko had at that time, while the Dominion can keep sending stuff on a much more regular basis since it's their home turf.

 

They did mention that control over the space above AR 558 was hotly contested and constantly shifted based on who can maintain current control.

The USS Defiant had to temporarily retreat.

 

Unfortunately, Starfleet demonstrates a largely reactionary attitude towards tactics. Given Riker's dismissive attitude towards practicing starship tactics it makes me skeptical of how much effort Starfleet would put in to actual tactics. It's one thing to be familiar with a weapon and make effective use of it. A phaser, with no real recoil, would take moderate practice to get the hang of but actual tactics against an opponent? They seem reluctant to practice them.

 

Remember...

"Starfleet is not a military organization. It's purpose is exploration."
Captain Picard, "Peak Performance"

 

Is that why it never upgrades the weapons on its starships in 200 years?

 

I think Starfleet's weapons are more powerful each decade.

 

The pulse cannons on the Franklin and 90 years later the Shenzhou were probably significantly more powerful than the pulse cannons on Enterprise NX-01.

 

More powerful, but the same basic technology. Like 24- and 36-pound cannons instead of 6- and 9-pounders. As opposed to going from muzzle loading cannons to breach-loading artillery to cruise missiles and railguns.

Starfleet weapon set in 2153: Phase cannons (basically phasers) and photon torpedoes.
Starfleet weapon set in 2260: Phasers and photon torpedioes.
Starfleet weapon set in 2364: Yup, STILL phasers and photon torpedoes.

 

They just updated the Effective Photon Torpedo Yields & wattage outputed by each phaser beam.