Arm Phasers?

[CoveTom]

Anyone got a good explanation for why it's necessary to arm weapons like phasers before firing? It's not like the phasers have a warhead that can be in an inactive state. It's an energy beam. What is there to "arm"?

 

[DonIago]

There's probably a matter of rerouting energy systems so that the phasers are "hot". Given that Federation ships are generally predisposed towards diplomacy, having the weapons not fully ready to fire all the time is probably standard procedure, especially given that it seems starships can usually detect when another vessel's weapons are armed.

 

[T'Girl]

Perhaps "Arm" is a Starfleet acronym?

Mister Sulu, appropriate responsive measure all phasers.

 

[MacLeod]

There's probably a matter of rerouting energy systems so that the phasers are "hot". Given that Federation ships are generally predisposed towards diplomacy, having the weapons not fully ready to fire all the time is probably standard procedure, especially given that it seems starships can usually detect when another vessel's weapons are armed.

I'd go with this as well.

 

[Chaos Descending]

Yeah, they probably sit there "powered off" most of the time. To "arm" phasers probably just means to apply power to them.

 

[The Wormhole]

Because telling the tactical officer to "arm phasers" sounds cool.

 

[HarryM]

It could also be that having the phasers continously "armed" would put some sort of thermal strain on them.

 

[Timo]

One might similarly ask why missiles aboard modern warships need to be "armed". They are already simple ready-to-fire packages, after all - just unleash them at the enemy, no "arming" required! But "arming" in practice refers mainly to the removing of launch-precluding safeties; bringing a modern weapon to firing status is seldom a matter of enabling, but instead is one of turning off the disabling.

Timo Saloniemi