The Star Trek fictional universe contains a variety of weapons, ranging from missiles (photon torpedoes) to melee (primarily used by the Klingons, a race of aliens in the Star Trek universe). The Star Trek franchise consists mainly of several multi-season television shows and fourteen movies, as well as various video games and merchandise. Many aspects of the Star Trek universe impact modern popular culture, especially its fictitious terminology and the concept of weaponry on spacecraft. The franchise has had a widespread influence on its audiences from the late 20th to early 21st century. Notably, Star Trek's science fiction concepts have been studied by real scientists; NASA described it in relation to the real world as "entertaining combination of real science, imaginary science gathered from lots of earlier stories, and stuff the writers make up week-by-week to give each new episode novelty." For example, NASA noted that the Star Trek "phasers" were a fictional extrapolation of real-life lasers, and compared them to real-life microwave based weapons that have a stunning effect.
Energy weapons The franchise depicts various weapons which mostly fit the motif of the raygun, the most prominent of these being the "phaser". These directed-energy weapons emit energy rather than a projectile, though some (particularly in newer Star Trek shows) do fire bolts/pulses. A hand phaser can be set to "stun" or "kill".
Phaser
Phasers are common and versatile phased array pulsed energy projectile weapons, first seen in the original Star Trek series and later in almost all subsequent films and television spin-offs. Phasers range in size from small arms to starship-mounted weaponry. Phasers can either fire projectile like energy bolts or directed energy beams like a raygun.
Phaser output can be adjusted in both area of effect and output: a typical hand phaser can be adjusted so that it will merely shock or stun a living organism, while the effects of higher settings range from burning, disintegration, or to true vaporization. This versatility means they can also be used as welding torches or cutting tools, and can create heat sources by firing at a large, solid object (like a rock). The stream can be adjusted to strike multiple targets at once, strike a single target with precision, or even destroy large amounts of material. Phasers can be set to overload, whereby they build up a force-chamber explosion by continuously generating energy without releasing it; the resulting blast can destroy most natural objects within a radius. The overload process is marked by a distinctive sound that increases in volume and frequency until it is deactivated or it detonates. Personal phasers can be made small enough to fit in the user's palm and still be lethal. Larger and more powerful phaser rifles are issued to security personnel.
Ship-mounted phasers have a similar range of functions on a larger scale: The phasers on the USS Enterprise can be used as an "anti-missile" defense to destroy incoming projectiles, stun entire city blocks full of people, destroy cities, and even destroy entire asteroids up to a given size. The ship's phaser system is also said to be capable of destroying continents.
Although starships are frequently shown firing their phasers while at Warp speeds across the various Star Trek series, this was generally avoided during The Next Generation, and the Star Trek: The Next Generation Technical Manual states that it is impossible. The Star Trek: Deep Space Nine Technical Manual, on the other hand, describes an "ACB-jacketed beam device" as the mechanism which allows phasers to function at Warp speeds.
According to later series, phasers release a beam or bolt of fictional subatomic particles called "rapid nadion", which are then refracted ("rectified") through superconducting crystals. The Star Trek: The Next Generation Technical Manual indicates that the superconducting crystals used in phasers are called , which is Japanese for "sea of mystery", and the phrase is written in the original glyphs. This was a homage to the 1990 anime series Fushigi no Umi no Nadia, known in North America as Nadia: The Secret of Blue Water.
The phasers in the 2009 reboot film Star Trek appear similar in shape to the classic phasers, but fire singular energy pulses instead of a sustained stream of them, in a fashion similar to semi-automatic weapons. This version of the phaser has two settings, stun and kill, which fire blue and red colored pulses respectively. The barrel of the weapon is two-sided, one being colored red and the other blue to indicate the current setting; the user must manually rotate to the other output to use the other setting. A similar change is seen in the starship-mounted phaser banks, which also fire single energy pulse instead of continuous streams. In Star Trek Beyond, the barrel sides of the sidearm phasers are flat and both barrels shoot blue bolts that deal no physical damage, while the barrel tips are still colored blue and red.
The original phaser rifle prop from "Where No Man Has Gone Before" sold at auction in 2013 for $231,000.
Laser Lasers are a sidearm in the original Star Trek pilot "The Cage", and laser pistols appear in several Star Trek: The Original Series (TOS) episodes. Star Trek: The Next Generation (TNG) indicates that laser weapons are outdated.
According to The Making of Star Trek, Gene Roddenberry claimed that production staff realized using laser technology would cause problems in the future, as people came to understand what lasers could and could not do. This resulted in the move to phasers on-screen, while letting lasers be known as a more primitive weapon style.
Plasma cannon Plasma cannons are a form of directed energy weaponry used by both Earth Starfleet and the early Romulan Star Empire. On Starfleet vessels, they are the precursors to phase cannons. Plasma cannons fire a plasma discharge in the form of a beam or a burst, similar to the plasma bullets fired by hand-held plasma weapons, but much bigger in size. The NX-class is initially armed with plasma cannons.
Phase cannon Phase cannons are 22nd century weapons, several of which first appear mounted to the Enterprise in the Star Trek: Enterprise episode "Silent Enemy". Phase cannons have a variable yield, with the cannons on the Enterprise being rated for a maximum output of 500 gigajoules, equivalent to about 120 tons of TNT. Phase cannons are generally more powerful than spatial torpedoes. They are the 22nd century precursor to phaser technology, in addition to phase pistols (hand-carried phase cannons). Unlike 24th century phasers, they do not have the normal variable power settings or a variable beam width – only stun and kill.
Disruptor
Disruptors are employed by several alien species in this series, including Romulans, Klingons, Breen, Cardassians, Iridians and Orions in their personal and military small arms as well as being mounted as cannon, emitters, turrets, and banks. Only the first three species are known to have type-3 disruptors, the most advanced type developed by the 24th Century. Disruptors cause damage by exciting the molecular bonds of targets to such great extents that those bonds are weakened and/or broken by the energies emitted, which often manifest as an explosive force. According to Last Unicorn's Star Trek: The Next Generation Role-playing Game, disruptors are considered less "elegant" than phaser-based weapons; their effects there are described as thermal shock and blunt force, as opposed to the "rapid nadion effect". As a result, disruptors inflict more damage to matter, but less damage to shields, than phasers. Klingons call their disruptors nISwI'''.
Phased polaron cannon
Phased polaron cannons are the primary armament of the Dominion, the main antagonist faction in the later seasons of Star Trek: Deep Space Nine. The cannon emits a beam of polaron particles, the fictional in-universe antimatter counterpart of the muon (not to be confused with the actual polaron or the actual antimuon). When first introduced, Dominion polaron cannons easily penetrate the shielding systems of most Alpha Quadrant races. The Alpha Quadrant races eventually learn to modify their shields to resist polaron weaponry ("Call to Arms").
Tetryon cannon Tetryon cannons are the primary armament of the Hirogen and are similar in application to phasers and disruptors. Tetryon cannons are unique in that they are designed primarily to damage energy and force fields, such as starship shields. Tetryon cannons damage matter, but not to the same extent as phasers or disruptors. This is in line with the Hirogen philosophy of the hunt, as depicted in Star Trek: Voyager (VOY). The Hirogen ship would therefore knock out its opponent's shields and beam over hunters to engage in face-to-face ranged or melee combat. This allows the Hirogen hunters to collect items that they would consider to be hunting trophies.
Varon-T disruptor Varon-T disruptors are featured in the Star Trek: The Next Generation (TNG) episode "The Most Toys", and are mentioned to be a rare type of disruptor that are illegal in the Federation because of their slow, excruciating method of killing, with the weapons tearing the body apart from the inside. Kivas Fajo, a Zibalian trader in that episode, owns four of the five Varon-T disruptors ever manufactured (he sleeps with one under his pillow) and uses one on his own crew before his collection of rare items was confiscated after his capture and arrest for kidnapping and theft (among other crimes). The fifth Varon-T was kept by the criminal Kelsey who was killed when her scout ship exploded.
Ferengi energy whip The Ferengi energy whip, as seen in the TNG episode "The Last Outpost", looks and handles like a typical bullwhip and discharges a powerful phaser-like energy pulse.
Projectile weapons
Spatial torpedo Also referred to as conventional torpedoes, spatial torpedoes are 22nd century weapons used by Enterprise. Spatial torpedoes are the ship's most powerful and primary ship-to-ship weapon before the installation of phase cannons. Spatial torpedoes are themselves superseded by more powerful photonic torpedoes. Unlike photonic torpedoes or any of the warhead's successors, spatial torpedoes are launched at sub-light velocity and can be used much in the manner of a missile, having the warhead on a fly-by-wire.
Photon torpedo
Photon torpedoes are a standard ship-based weapon armed with an antimatter warhead. They are present in every version of the Star Trek series and are a standard weapon on almost every Federation ship, though in Star Trek: Enterprise (ENT), the titular ship uses less powerful spatial torpedoes (guided, rocket propelled missiles) until receiving the more powerful "photonic" variant. Photon torpedoes first appear on a Starfleet ship in the original series' episode "Arena" as part of the USS Enterprises armament. In the Star Trek: Enterprise episode "The Expanse", the Enterprise (NX-01) first receives photonic torpedoes. Smaller Starfleet craft such as shuttlecraft and runabouts can be armed with "micro-torpedoes", a scaled-down version of photon torpedoes designed for use on craft too small to accommodate the full-sized weapon.