"Okay, make nice, give us the ray gun."

– FBI Agent (Star Trek IV: The Voyage Home)

Phasers are the most common and standard directed energy weapon in the arsenal of Starfleet and several other powers. Most phasers are classified as particle weapons and fire nadion particle beams, (VOY: "Time and Again") but some like the Ferengi hand-phaser are classified as plasma weapons and fire forced plasma beams. (TNG: "Descent") Based on the intensity and field of the beam and a variety of adjustments, a wide variety of effects can be achieved.

Contents 1 History 2 Descriptions and uses 3 Modifications 4 Sidearm settings 5 Types of phaser weapons 5.1 Hand-held phasers 5.2 Starship-mounted phasers 6 Appendices 6.1 See also 6.2 References 6.3 Background information 6.3.1 Phaser settings 6.3.2 Other types of starship phasers

History Edit

Phaser technology used by Starfleet was preceded by phase-modulated particle weapons in the mid-22nd century, including such weapons as the hand-held phase pistol and ship-mounted phase cannon. Laser weapons, such as the laser pistol were also used before phasers became the standard-issue weapon in the Starfleet arsenal. (Star Trek: Enterprise, all; TOS: "The Cage")

Phaser weaponry was invented during the 23rd century. (TNG: "A Matter of Time") The technology was used by Starfleet as early as 2233; the USS Kelvin was equipped with ship-mounted phaser weapons. (Star Trek) Phaser rifles were used as early as 2265, although at that time officers were still armed with laser pistols. (TOS: "Where No Man Has Gone Before") In 2269, starship bridges were defended by an automatic bridge defense system programmed to defend the ship from capture. (TAS: "Beyond the Farthest Star")

The 24th century saw many new advanced forms of phaser weaponry, such as the ever more powerful phaser arrays that made use of multiple phaser emitter segments, and the powerful rapid-fire phaser cannon. (Star Trek: The Next Generation, all; DS9: "The Search, Part I") As a historical note, the regenerative phaser was chosen instead of the TR-116 for development. (DS9: "Field of Fire")

In the 29th century, phaser pistols were still used by Starfleet, (VOY: "Relativity") but subatomic disruptors were used on timeships, such as the Aeon, as the ship-mounted directed energy weapon. (VOY: "Future's End")

Descriptions and uses Edit

The phaser beam can stun, heat, kill or disintegrate living creatures. Phasers can damage shields or other systems or even cut through a hull. Phasers can also be used to cut through walls and burrow through rock. The beam can be focused to a single spot or widened to impact a large area.

In the nadion particle beam phasers, plasma is passed to a phaser emitter resulting in a discharge of nadion particles. Residual particles can be found in places where a battle has recently taken place. The disruptive effects of nadion discharges are moderated to produce varying effects (discussed below), ranging from benign to extremely destructive. (VOY: "Phage", "Memorial", "Endgame")

The Starfleet-issue personnel phasers come in three types: The phaser type-1 (hand phaser) is small and can be concealed easily. The type 2 phaser is larger and hand-held. It has a longer hand grip or a pistol grip, depending on the model. The phaser type-3 is also known as the phaser rifle. It has a longer barrel, a stock, and some models have a second grip. Over the centuries of use, there have been several models of these weapon types. (TOS: "The Devil in the Dark"; TNG: "The Mind's Eye")

Beyond these types, phasers are usually mounted devices, such as the phaser type-4 used on Starfleet shuttlecraft, all the way up to the large phaser banks and phaser arrays of starships and space stations. Various types of banks, arrays and emitters exist, such as the more powerful phaser type-8 and the phaser cannon. (TNG: "The Outcast", "Preemptive Strike"; VOY: "Live Fast and Prosper")

Hand-held phasers are also used by Starfleet personnel as tools and not just weapons. The phaser can be used to heat rocks and stones for warmth. (TOS: "The Enemy Within") While there were specialized tools like phaser bores and phaser drills, (TAS: "Once Upon a Planet"; VOY: "Once Upon a Time") Worf once used his type-2 phaser to open a tunnel on the Cardassian planet Celtris III. (TNG: "Chain of Command, Part I")

Different models of phasers make different sounds when fired, depending on the model and setting. Federation phaser fire typically makes a high-pitched "whistling" or "tearing" sound, for example. A knowledgeable person can use the sound to differentiate between types and power settings. (TOS: "Errand of Mercy"; TNG: "Too Short a Season"; DS9: "Sacrifice of Angels")

In the alternate reality created by Nero's temporal incursion, hand phasers of the late 2250s emitted concentrated bolts of phaser energy rather than the steady streams generated by phasers of the prime reality. In addition, these phasers had a rotating nozzle which flips when set from stun to kill or vice versa. The ship-mounted phaser banks aboard the USS Enterprise were also used to fire bolts resembling proximity blasts. (Star Trek)

The phaser used by Tolian Soran, in 2371, fired concentrated bolts of phaser energy. (Star Trek Generations)

While phasers were powerful weapons, they also had limitations. Phasers had no effect on neutronium alloys or the dikironium cloud creature. (TOS: "The Doomsday Machine", "Obsession") The creature known as Armus even seemed to be able to feed off of phaser blasts. (TNG: "Skin of Evil") In 2369, two type-2 hand phasers at maximum level were unable to penetrate the toranium inlays of Cardassian doors. Major Kira Nerys recommended a bipolar torch to be used to cut through the door. (DS9: "The Forsaken")

Hand phasers could be made to overload, either deliberately or by sabotage. Phasers in the process of overloading emit a distinctive high-pitched whine. The weapon will release all of its energy in an explosion capable of doing considerable damage to its surroundings. In 2266, Lenore Karidian attempted to murder James T. Kirk by hiding an overloading phaser in his cabin. (TOS: "The Conscience of the King") In 2269, Kirk, McCoy, and Sulu were almost killed while on the Kalandan outpost planet, when its defensive computer fused the controls on Kirk's phaser, causing it to overload. (TOS: "That Which Survives")

Modifications Edit

Personnel phasers were normally set to fire a single steady stream of nadion particles. This beam could be widened to perform a phaser sweep. Most types of phasers could be set to alternatively fire a concentrated bolt of phaser energy. In addition a personnel phaser could be set to fire a spread of multiple beams at once, a field burst of a specific frequency, a luvetric pulse, or an expanding energy pulse. (TOS: "The Enemy Within"; TNG: "Time's Arrow, Part II", "Descent"; DS9: "The Way of the Warrior", "The Adversary")

Phasers had an adjustable resonance frequency. When modified, the color of the beam changed. Borg systems were vulnerable to a frequency spread in the high narrow band, but compensated for the weakness after Locutus was assimilated in 2366. (TNG: "The Best of Both Worlds") In 2367, the phaser adapter was designed, a chip that automatically retuned the phaser to a random setting after each discharge. Using the adapter, phasers were set on a rotating modulation, to allow at most twelve shots to penetrate Borg shielding before they adapted. (TNG: "The Best of Both Worlds, Part II"; Star Trek: First Contact; VOY: "Scorpion") Hand-phasers also had an adjustable dispersion frequency measured in gigahertz and they could be set for specific phase variances. These allowed the phaser beam impact targets that were phased or interphased. (VOY: "Distant Origin", "Scientific Method")

Starship-mounted phasers were also normally set to fire steady streams. They could also be set to fire concentrated bolts of phaser energy that detonate at a specific point in space known as proximity blasts. In addition to the powerful settings, the ship's phasers also had a stun setting that could be used to render life-forms unconscious, when fired at a planetary surface from orbit. (TOS: "Balance of Terror", "The Trouble with Tribbles", "A Piece of the Action")

It was possible to configure starship phasers to also fire non-destructive energy beams, antimatter spreads, laser pulse beams, photon pulses, pulse compression waves, modulating phaser pulses and covariant phaser pulses. (TNG: "Encounter at Farpoint", "Peak Performance", "The Best of Both Worlds, Part II", "The Outcast"; DS9: "Emissary"; VOY: "Dark Frontier", "Parturition")

Sidearm settings Edit

The 23rd and 24th century personnel phasers included several settings.

• Setting number one is also called the base cycle stunning force. (TOS: "The Enemy Within") This minimal setting causes only a stun effect to the average humanoid lifeform. A hit will leave the target dazed and unable to think straight for a moment. (TOS: "The Man Trap") When used at close range, a phaser set on stun is still capable of inducing sufficient trauma to kill if fired at a vital organ such as the brain. (Star Trek VI: The Undiscovered Country) Two phasers set on setting one fired simultaneously can break large objects into pieces, such as the urns of Taurus II. (TAS: "The Lorelei Signal")

• Setting 3.1 is enough to cause a changeling to experience similar discomfort. Setting 3.4 or 3.5 was determined to be a stun setting that would effectively stun and force any changeling to revert back into the gelatenous state. (DS9: "Homefront") A wide-field stun setting is used when large groups need to be stunned with a single shot. (TOS: "The Return of the Archons") Some stun settings can also cause unconsciousness. Although mostly harmless when used at these low settings, multiple phaser stuns like this can result in injury and death. (TNG: "Samaritan Snare") There is a heavy stun force setting and a maximum stun setting also known as full stun charge. (TOS: "Tomorrow is Yesterday"; TNG: "Legacy"; TAS: "The Eye of the Beholder")

• A phaser can be used to heat a variety of substances, such as rocks or even coffee (TOS: "The Enemy Within", "The Corbomite Maneuver ", " Spock's Brain") Phasers can be used to melt certain ores from solid to liquid. (TNG: "The Enemy") They can be used to quickly boil through tens of meters of ice. (TAS: "The Slaver Weapon") Phaser can be set to inflict non-lethal second degree burns. (VOY: "Worst Case Scenario") Settings 6 and 7 cause severe burns in the flesh of humanoids. (TNG: "Night Terrors") Setting 7 is also powerful enough to vaporize noranium carbide. (TNG: "The Vengeance Factor")

• One-quarter and level 10 are names of the kill setting for humanoid forms. (TOS: "The Man Trap"; TNG: "Aquiel") The kill setting on hand-phasers used by the Mordanites has a distinct sound from the stun setting. (TNG: "Too Short a Season") To a humanoid infected by a neural parasite, the kill setting only causes unconsciousness, due to the high levels of adrenaline in the target's body. However, extended exposure to a body part such as the head of a humanoid would cause it to explosively vaporize. Two phasers set to kill can also disintegrate smaller lifeforms such as the neural parasite mother creature with extended exposure. (TNG: "Conspiracy")

• Cutting settings can be used to slice off segments of a steelplast wall, (TNG: "Too Short a Season") a standard starfleet corridor wall (TOS: "The Naked Time") or even to slice off body parts. (Star Trek VI: The Undiscovered Country)

• The normal maximum setting on a hand phaser will vaporize a humanoid lifeform or a human size android with a single hit. (TOS: "What Are Little Girls Made Of?";TNG: "The Vengeance Factor"; Star Trek: First Contact) This is also called disintegration. (ENT: "In a Mirror, Darkly, Part II") When used as a means of suicide, the phaser will also disintegrate along with the person shooting at himself. (TOS: "Elaan of Troyius") There is also a maximum setting that can set parts of clothing or humanoids on fire. (TNG: "Datalore", "The Wounded") Against a Horta, even when set specifically for silicon, the maximum setting will only hurt it. (TOS: "The Devil in the Dark") Disruptor-B is another maximum setting for the type 2 phaser. It is also called the disruptor effect setting. This setting was assessed to be the most effective against gaseous dikironium. (TOS: "Obsession")

• The standard level 16 setting on a type 2 phaser can be used to vaporize tunnels through rock, large enough to crawl through. (TNG: "Chain of Command, Part I") The level 16 wide-field setting can easily destroy half of a large building with a single shot. (TNG: "Frame of Mind") However there were materials phasers couldn't cut through even at this maximum level, such as toranium, (DS9: "The Forsaken") and the unknown material used to create the Hotel Royale on Theta VIII. (TNG: "The Royale")

Types of phaser weapons Edit

There are several numbered types of phasers of increasing size and capability: Types 1, 2, and 3 are personnel phasers, and types 4 and above are ship-mounted weapons. The phasers mounted aboard starships were considerably more powerful than those used by Starfleet personnel, owing to the increased power reserves available. Early phasers, such as the MK IX/01 type found on the USS Enterprise, were mounted in banks of one or two emitters.

Hand-held phasersEdit

• Type 1 phaser is a small concealable sidearm weapon.
• Type 2 phaser is a larger sidearm-type weapon which evolved from a pistol-style design.
• Type 3 phaser is a rifle-sized weapon.

These main types and technologies are further classified to distinguish the many variations.

• hand phaser
  • phaser pistol
    • Bajoran phaser
    • Kzinti phaser
  • phaser rifle
    • Bajoran phaser rifle
    • compression phaser rifle
    • Regalian phaser rifle
  • Ferengi phaser
• plasma phaser - a proposed anti-Borg weapon
• regenerative phaser

Starship-mounted phasers Edit

• class 3 defensive - used on Miranda-class supply ships
• particle phaser - used on transport ships from Boreal III
• phaser bank
  • phaser array
  • phaser cannon - used on Defiant-class starships
  • phaser type-4 - used on type 6 shuttlecrafts
  • phaser type-8 - used on Excelsior-class starships
  • Galor-class phaser bank

Appendices Edit

See also Edit

• Sound of a hand phaser firing^file info
• Phasers.net

References Edit

Background information Edit

According to The Making of Star Trek, phasers are basically lasers, but they have the beam set on a pulsating frequency that can be specifically set to interfere and interact with the wave pattern of any molecular form. This is called "phasing" the beam frequency, hence the name.

According to the Spaceflight Chronology, phaser weapons were developed by Starfleet to combine the benefits of two previously used weapon technologies, particle-beam cannons and laser banks. While particle weapons delivered a big punch, they had trouble penetrating shields, where as lasers penetrated shielding easily, but had very little impact force to do damage. Two years after the events of "The Cage", when the problem with frequency aligning the two systems to work simultaneously in ship-mounted phasers was solved, the development of hand phasers began. (page 173)

Star Trek: The Next Generation Technical Manual explains the inner mechanisms of a phaser. Phaser is the acronym for phased energy rectification according to the process of turning stored energy into an energy beam without intermediate transformation. Energetic plasma is pumped to a prefire chamber made out of a superconducting lithium-copper. There it undergoes a rapid nadion effect in which strong nuclear forces are liberated. A protonic charge forms and is released in pulses to the emitter made out of the same superconductive crystal. A beam of elecromagnetic energy is released from it at the speed of light. (pages 123-125)

On starships, energy for phasers originates from the EPS, while on hand units the charge of energetic plasma is stored into sarium-krellide. This material is used because it can't accidentally release the charge of plasma.

According to the Star Trek: Deep Space Nine Technical Manual, the EM energy beam of a phaser can be delivered at warp speeds due to an annular confinement beam jacket and other advances in subspace technology. These are stated to be new inventions in the late 24th century. (page 84)

When phasers are fired by a ship with deflector shields active, the beam is frequency locked to the second-order harmonics of the shield emissions. This prevents the beam impacting on the shields and overloading them, or rebounding back at the firing ship. (page 92)

It is not known what class of Federation starships was the first to use phaser array strips instead of banks, but "Yesterday's Enterprise" establishes the Ambassador-class to be the earliest known ship design to employ them in the 2340s.

Phaser settings Edit

The Star Trek: The Next Generation Technical Manual (pages 135 - 137) lists various settings for Type-1, Type-2 and Type-3 phasers, some of which have not been mentioned on screen and some which have been given a different effect.

• Type 1 phasers have the first eight settings; Type-2 and -3 phasers have all sixteen settings:
  1. Light Stun - causes central nervous system impairment on humanoids, unconsciousness for up to 5 minutes. Long exposure by several shots causes reversible neural damage.
  2. Medium Stun - causes unconsciousness from 5 to 15 minutes. Long exposure causes irreversible neural damage, along with damage to epithelial tissue.
  3. Heavy Stun - causes unconsciousness from 15 to 60 minutes depending on the level of biological resistance. Significantly heats up metals.
  4. Thermal Effects - causes extensive neural damage to humanoids and skin burns limited to the outer layers. Causes metals to retain heat when applied for over five seconds.
  5. Thermal Effects - causes severe outer layer skin burns. Can penetrate simple personal force fields after five seconds of application.
  6. Disruption Effects - penetrates organic and structural materials. The thermal damage level decreases from this level onward.
  7. Disruption Effects - due to widespread disruption effects, kills humanoids.
  8. Disruption Effects - causes a cascade disruption that vaporizes humanoid organisms. Any unprotected material can be penetrated.
  9. Disruption Effects - causes medium alloys and structural materials, over a meter thick, to exhibit energy rebound prior to vaporization.
  10. Disruption Effects - causes heavy alloys and structural materials to absorb or rebound energy. There is a 0.55 second delay before the material vaporizes.
  11. Explosive/Disruption Effects - causes ultra-dense alloys and structural materials to absorb or rebound energy before vaporization. There is a 0.2 second delay before the material vaporizes. Approximately 10 cubic meters of rock are disintegrated per shot.
  12. Explosive/Disruption Effects - causes ultra-dense alloys and structural materials to absorb or rebound energy before vaporization. There is a 0.1 second delay before the material vaporizes. Approximately 50 cubic meters of rock are disintegrated per shot.
  13. Explosive/Disruption Effects - causes shielded matter to exhibit minor vibrational heating effects. Approximately 90 cubic meters of rock are disintegrated per shot.
  14. Explosive/Disruption Effects - causes shielded matter to exhibit medium vibrational heating effects. Approximately 160 cubic meters of rock are disintegrated per shot.
  15. Explosive/Disruption Effects - causes shielded matter to exhibit major vibrational heating effects. Approximately 370 cubic meters of rock are disintegrated per shot.
  16. Explosive/Disruption Effects - causes shielded matter to exhibit light mechanical fracturing damage. Approximately 650 cubic meters of rock are disintegrated per shot.

The Star Fleet Technical Manual gives the effective ranges for different settings. On the Type 1 phaser they are: stun - 30 meters, heat - 2 meters, disrupt - 20 meters, dematerialization - 10 meters. On the Type 2 phaser the ranges are: stun - 90 meters, heat - 6 meters, disrupt - 60 meters, dematerialization - 30 meters. Setting dials on the hand phasers indicate 9 settings on the Type 1 phaser and 15 on the Type 2 phaser, of which all above 10 are labeled by the letters A to E. The letters might be a reference to the Disruptor-B setting mentioned in "Obsession", which would make it setting 10B. According to Mr. Scott's Guide to the Enterprise, the hand phasers used during the first four movies had only three preset levels: stun, disrupt and dematerialize.

Commenting on phaser firepower, Ronald D. Moore said: "The weapons are way too powerful to present them in any realistic kind of way. Given the real power of a hand phaser, we shouldn't be able to show ANY firefights on camera where the opponents are even in sight of each other, much less around the corner! It's annoying, but just one of those things that we tend to slide by in order to concentrate on telling a dramatic and interesting story." (AOL chat, 1997)

Other types of starship phasers Edit

• Type V phaser is used on auxiliary craft. In Star Trek: The Next Generation Technical Manual it is stated that type 7 shuttlecrafts and type 9A cargo shuttles use phaser emitters of this type during special operations. According to Star Trek: Starship Spotter the Chaffee shuttlepod and the Delta Flyer also uses this phaser type.

• Type VI phaser is used on auxiliary craft and runabouts. According to the Star Trek: Starship Spotter the Aeroshuttle and Danube-class starships phaser arrays are of this type.

• Type VII phaser is used on starships. According to the Star Trek: Deep Space Nine Technical Manual and Star Trek: Starship Spotter the twin phaser banks on Miranda-class starships are of this type.

• Type IX phaser is used on starships. According to the Star Trek: Deep Space Nine Technical Manual the Ambassador-class, Centaur-type, Curry-type, and one type of Excelsior-class variant uses them. The phaser emitters in the rotary weapon arrays of the weapon sail towers of Deep Space 9 are of this type.

• Type X phaser is used on starships. According to Star Trek: The Next Generation Technical Manual this is the type name of the phaser arrays used on the Galaxy-class starships. According to the Star Trek: Deep Space Nine Technical Manual the Akira-class, Norway-class, Nebula-class, Saber-class, Soyuz-class and one type of Constitution-class variant also use them. The fixed phaser emitters in weapon sail towers of Deep Space 9 are of this type. According to Star Trek: Starship Spotter the Intrepid-class and Nova-class also use them.

• Type X+ phaser is used for planetary defense. According to Star Trek: The Next Generation Technical Manual this is the designation of some large dedicated planetary phaser defense emitters.

• Type XI phaser is used normally for planetary defense. According to the Star Trek: Deep Space Nine Technical Manual the emitters were designed to minimize atmospheric blooming of the beam. The phaser emitters in the carriages, embedded into the habitat ring of Deep Space 9, are of this type, modified for use in space.

• Type XII phaser is used on starships. According to Star Trek: Starship Spotter this is the type designation of the phaser cannons of the Defiant-class starships and the standard beam phaser arrays of the Prometheus-class and Sovereign-class starships.

None of these type designations have been mentioned on screen.

Phaser technology
Tools: phaser bore • phaser drill
Weapons: Automatic bridge defense system • Bajoran phaser • Bajoran phaser rifle • compression phaser rifle • Ferengi phaser • Galor-class phaser bank • hand phaser • Kzinti phaser • particle phaser • phaser array • phaser bank • phaser cannon • phaser emitter • phaser pulse • phaser type-1 • phaser type-2 • phaser type-3 • phaser type-4 • phaser type-8 • plasma phaser • Regalian phaser rifle • regenerative phaser
Other: phaser adapter • phaser coil • phaser coolant • phaser coupling • phaser range • phaser relay • phaser room • phaser sweep