Torpedoes are illogical

[Crazy Eddie]

Torpedoes are illogical, they would not work in the Trekverse.

Ships have tractor beams capable of toeing enormous ships, when torpedoes get fired all the targeted ship needs to do is fire a tractor beam in the direction of the torpedo. The computer could be programmed to do it automatically when a torpedo is detected inbound on sensors.

Torpedoes shouldn't even be capable of reaching an enemy ship.

This seems to be another example of you trying to swat a mosquito with an x-ray laser.

If they could do this with tractor beams, they could do this with phasers. They can't do it with phasers (except in STXI, thank god!) so what in the world makes you think they can do it with tractor beams?

Actually, the problem seems to be that targeting of small fast moving objects is rather difficult even for Trek ships. Most of them don't bother targetting and simply envelop their entire ship in a DEFLECTOR field that blocks anything that comes close to them. Since a deflector shield is basically a tractor beam that repels things in all directions at once, your idea is pretty much covered already.

 

[Timo]

Well, Kirk took potshots at the meter-long NOMAD with his own photons in TOS, and apparently tried to shoot down Khan's torp with phasers in ST2. Targeting technology has developed since then. It should be possible to hit torps in flight with phasers and perhaps with countertorpedoes. So the reason this isn't done must lie elsewhere.

As for tractor beams, their hold of a large starship is often precarious, dependent on the power fed to the beam and the vigor with which the prey struggles. Perhaps they can target a fast and maneuvering midget enemy like a torpedo very easily, but cannot really maintain their hold if the enemy starts squirming?

Timo Saloniemi

 

[EmperorTiberius]

Worf in Generations:

However, since we do not know the exact point of origin, it will take us between eight and fifteen seconds to lock our
weapons onto it."

You wonder how long it would take if they knew the exact point of origin, but probably still longer than a second on two. They can't lock on fast enough.

 

[All Seeing Eye]

Worf in Generations:

However, since we do not know the exact point of origin, it will take us between eight and fifteen seconds to lock our
weapons onto it."

That was in relation to a missile with warp capability, the missile shot into orbit and then warped into the star (probably just a small warp engine of warp 1). The 8-15 seconds was the time between the missile being in orbit and hitting warp speed.

 

[msbae]

And how many tractor beam emitters does any given ship have?

The average seems to be 2 or so - certainly not enough to deflect a barrage of torpedoes.

Trying to lock-on to a target moving at FTL speeds would be rather unlikely as well.

 

[Tom Riley]

Worf in Generations:

However, since we do not know the exact point of origin, it will take us between eight and fifteen seconds to lock our
weapons onto it."

That was in relation to a missile with warp capability, the missile shot into orbit and then warped into the star (probably just a small warp engine of warp 1). The 8-15 seconds was the time between the missile being in orbit and hitting warp speed.

No, the whole line is "Sir, according to my calculations a solar probe launched from the Klingon ship or the planet surface will take 11 seconds to reach the sun. However, since we do not have an exact point of origin, it will take between 8 and 15 seconds to lock our weapons onto it."

It was 11 seconds from launch to impact.

 

[Lt. Reth]

Torpedoes are illogical, they would not work in the Trekverse.

Ships have tractor beams capable of toeing enormous ships, when torpedoes get fired all the targeted ship needs to do is fire a tractor beam in the direction of the torpedo. The computer could be programmed to do it automatically when a torpedo is detected inbound on sensors.

Torpedoes shouldn't even be capable of reaching an enemy ship.

Even if the torpedoes could be deflected by the tractor beam, there's still another problem. Activating the tractor beam would require a good amount of extra energy, and if the ship was at Red Alert (as it probably would be if there were incoming torpedoes ), the ship's energy would be decidedly stretched as it is. So, where do we draw the power from? And, now that I think of it, it would take a bit of time to divert power from anything- and by then, the torpedoes have hit and the whole thing is moot.

A nice idea, but the technical aspect unfortunately doesn't work out.

 

[SeerSGB]

Torpedoes are illogical, they would not work in the Trekverse.

Ships have tractor beams capable of toeing enormous ships, when torpedoes get fired all the targeted ship needs to do is fire a tractor beam in the direction of the torpedo. The computer could be programmed to do it automatically when a torpedo is detected inbound on sensors.

Torpedoes shouldn't even be capable of reaching an enemy ship.

Even if the torpedoes could be deflected by the tractor beam, there's still another problem. Activating the tractor beam would require a good amount of extra energy, and if the ship was at Red Alert (as it probably would be if there were incoming torpedoes ), the ship's energy would be decidedly stretched as it is. So, where do we draw the power from? And, now that I think of it, it would take a bit of time to divert power from anything- and by then, the torpedoes have hit and the whole thing is moot.

A nice idea, but the technical aspect unfortunately doesn't work out.

Not to mention opening a hole in the shield. So a smart attacker just launches a brace of torps, and while you're busy playing catch with them, they use those holes to punch through with phasers. Or they just swarm you with a to many torps for the computer to target in time with the emitters you have on hand.

 

[Timo]

To be sure, we have never heard it suggested that one needs to open the shields for operating a tractor beam or a phaser beam or a sensor beam, or any other beam save for a transporter beam. Indeed, in "The Battle", the E-D is specifically said to have her shields up and concentrated against the Stargazer dead ahead while a tractor beam is also projected dead ahead to grab the Stargazer.

Timo Saloniemi

 

[Lt. Reth]

To be sure, we have never heard it suggested that one needs to open the shields for operating a tractor beam or a phaser beam or a sensor beam, or any other beam save for a transporter beam.

Well, even if you didn't have to open the shields, you'd probably still have to reduce power to them, as they eat up a lot of power. With reduced shielding, the aforementioned phaser blast would still cause extra damage that might exceed that of a fully-shielded-against torpedo impact.

 

[Vanyel]

In The Way of the Warrior, the Defiant used a tractor beam to deflect some of the incoming disrupter fire from a Vor'cha class ship. So it might be possible to use the tractor beam to deflect torpedoes. The two ships were pretty close together; so it is possible that the Klingons would not fire their torpedoes. Although, the Klingons still might use their torpedoes, since the explosion would heavily damage the Defiant and the Vor'Cha. The Klingons would still come out ahead, the Cardassians would be stuck on a heavily damaged ship and the Defiant wouldn't be in much better shape. The only working, battle capable ship would have been the BoP.