Your source for great sci-fi news!
Ultimate Battle: U.S.S. Enterprise vs. A Star Destroyer – Battle Of The Ships
You really can’t get much geekier than an argument on who would win between Star Trek’s Enterprise D or E and a Star Wars Star Destroyer. I know this is all Sci-Fi and a ridiculous never-ending argument. I am a huge fan of both genres, so when I got into a friendly argument with my friend at work I reluctantly picked the side of Star Trek.
As this argument ensued at work, people around us started laughing, thinking we had both truly lost our minds. Perhaps we did a little. The argument then turned to Star Wars vs. Star Trek. These were our main arguments in a condensed and far smaller format:
Friend: Star Destroyer big, Enterprise small.
Me: Enterprise faster, more maneuverable.
Friend: Thousands of lasers.
Me: Lasers dude?! You’re kidding me. Phasers kick Lasers in any match.
Friend: Super Star Destroyer and Death Star kill the Enterprise.
Me: Agreed. I don’t think the Enterprise D or C would win those two. So I throw in the Borg.
Friend: <Pure silence ensues.>
Me: Nuff said.
I have found in my own observations that there are a lot more casual Star Wars fans than casual Star Trek fans. I have also found, again in my own observations, that there are a lot more die-hard Star Trek fans than there are die-hard Star Wars fans. This means in most “forum” based arguments on this topic, Star Wars will almost always win by sheer numbers.
Many people try to throw The Force into the mixture. I used to think this was a big deal as well, especially when watching the classic trilogy of Star Wars (ANH, ESB, ROTJ). The Force kicks trash in those movies. Then the prequel Star Wars movies came out. TPM, AOTC & ROTS have changed my mind on this. I now think The Force would be a minuscule influence in any such fight.
In The Phantom Menace we discover that Midichlorians actually dictate one’s power with the force. It’s not something you can get stronger with (except training), unless there are synthetic Midichlorians being produced and injected into the blood stream. You will also discover in Revenge of the Sith that a bunch of clone troopers can EASILY wipe out the Jedi. I can’t even begin to tell you how disappointed I was watching the Jedi get seemingly killed in seconds by a blaster!
A lot of the argumentative stats in this epic battle are taken from non-canon books, video games and other non-canon sources. This includes both sides of the argument. And let’s not throw in the Expanded Universe from Star Wars into the argument. The Expanded Universe of Star Wars books contradict themselves on every level.
I have done my own research and have found the following sites to be useful when determining who would win a U.S.S. Enterprise D/E vs. Star Wars Star Destroyer battle.
List of Ultimate Star Wars vs. Star Trek Sites:
ST-V-SW.net (Great arguments in favor of Star Trek <when looking at sheer firepower and defense capabilities>. Well researched data with sources to back it up.)
StarDestroyer.net (Great arguments in favor of Star Wars. Seems to utilize a lot of non-canon data.)
Answers.com also has a nice article on the subject that you can read here.
There are a lot of awesome ships in the Sci-Fi universe not limited to just Star Wars or Star Trek. Let’s throw an Asgard or Replicator ship into the mixture, or perhaps a Battlestar from Battlestar Galactica. The Battlestars look awesome!
TheForce.net has some great Star Trek, Star Wars and Battlestar Galactica specs, although who knows if the sources are accurate. You can find them here.
Again, I realize this argument will never come to an end, but it sure is fun!
| Print article | This entry was posted by Vrian Sinth on December 15, 2007 at 12:27 pm, and is filed under Sci Fi News, Star Trek, Star Wars. Follow any responses to this post through RSS 2.0. You can leave a response or trackback from your own site. |
about 2 years ago
Consider the following characteristics of Technology:
Propulsion – more advanced you are the faster you can go. In ST, there is plenty of reference to mankind being confined to their quadrent of the galaxy ’cause everything else is too far away. In SW, Anakin jumps in his ship and is on the other side of the galaxy in moments.
Weapons – this one is more interesting. In ST there is reference to ship battles being waged at ranges of 100,000 kms +. In SW ep.3 the ships are trading broadsides @ point blank range like the old pirate movies. Perhaps jamming technology is more advanced, requiring close range combat?
Misc. – ST takes place only a few hundred years into our future yet SW universe is supposedly 1000′s of years old re: inter-galactic travel. Hard to imagine that all of those societies could have become stagnent in techno advancement. On the other hand, they don’t seem to have figured a way of busting someone up into micro particles and reassembling them somewhere else.
On balance, I think it makes more sense that the empire has the technology edge and that the SD would pound the Enterprise.
about 2 years ago
i think st would win because in tng worf talks about laser not endangering them gob fly since sw only uses laser its fare to assume that the star destroyer couldnt hurt them
about 2 years ago
You missed the point when the clones killed the thousands of Jedi. The clones had no emotion and, therefore, an element of suprise which Jedi were unaccustomed to dealing with. In the end, the sole reason the clones could do what they did is through the extreme level of advantage gained through such a suprise attack. This point is illustrated well when Obi-Wan and Yoda are slicing effortlessly through hundreds of clones on their way back to the temple in Episode 3.
about 2 years ago
I don’t know how I feel about the Jedi not detecting the emotion of the clones. Aren’t they supposed to be able to “see” the future? Shouldn’t the other Jedi have seen this coming? Obviously Yoda is pretty good, because he killed the two clones next to him without batting an eye (on the Wookie planet). Apparently the “lack” of emotion doesn’t phase Yoda.
Anyway, borg kick them all. Yoda, you WILL be assimilated.
about 2 years ago
It’s not the lack of emotions that threw the jedi off, it’s the cloning process, that makes clones hard to detect (their intentions).Clones are like white noise in the force, disruptions. Making it much more difficult for force users to opperate at peak performance and even causeing pain to a Jedi (when facing a clone of themselves)The Grand Admiral Thrawn books explain the mechanics behind it all.
about 2 years ago
Hey, I am curious, what do you think the SW universe would do with Q unleashed into it? Also, What about Babylon 5, a Star Fury would have no trouble taking out any fighter either the Empire or New Republic can through at it.
about 1 year ago
I am a big fan of both SW and ST, and I have done tons of research for both. As much as I like Star Trek, Star Wars wins hands down. Here’s why.
Speed: Our galaxy (in ST) is 100’000 lightyears in diameter. When Voyager was brought 70’000 lightyears across the galaxy, they said it would take 70 years to get back. (Without things like wormholes, Transwarp, Q, and Slipstreams to help them)
Reference: Voyager episode “caretaker”, “Star Trek Starcharts” book
Star Wars galaxy is over 120’000 lightyears across, and can be crossed in hours or days depending on several factors.
Reference: Wookieepedia.com
Weapons and defences: ST w/d are all frequency based (photon Torpedoes, phasers)
Reference: Wikipedia
SW w/d ARE NOT lasers. (called so because no better word exists)
Lasers have no recoil, they would not need a hole at the end of the barrel to come out of, they do not make sound, they do not simply stop (lightsabers, superlaser)
Reference: Stardestroyer.net
ST shields would not defend against a turbolaser.
Also SW weapons are way more powerful.
Sorry Trekkies
about 1 year ago
okay, the Enterprise might be smaller than a star destroyer, but with Worf at the guns, those imperials don’t stand a chance. his fingers will fly across the buttons and the enterprise will cause havoc upon the star destroyer. besides, a star destroyer’s sheild generators are smack dab on the top of the dang ship, ya know, those balls on the top, target those and the star destroyer is defensless. once their gone, the imperials are history. and besides, even if the imperials send out fighters, worf will just kill them. the phasers on the enterprise are so advanced, they can target each individual fighter and destory them. and you forget, the enterprise can just get a transportor lock on the star destroyer’s captain, beam him over to the enterprise, and hold him hostage. and with that said, the enterprise can just beam in a bomb or a armed photon torpedo near the power source, and bye bye star destroyer. and they can just supercharge the phasers so they’ll punch right through the sheilds and armor of the star destroyer like a super-hot knife through butter. all that said, the USS Enterprise can so kick an imperial star destroyers ass. nuff said. STAR TREK RULES!!!!!!!!!!!!!
about 1 year ago
To make a correction in the original post, it was not Attack of the Clones in which the clones killed the Jedi, it was Revenge of the Sith. As for clones being able to kill the Jedi, Jedi are not invincible. “No one can kill a Jedi,” -Anakin Skywalker (Ep 1) “I wish that was true” – Qui-Gon Jinn (Ep 1).
As for the SD vs Enterprise, I would have to vote for the Star Destroyer. Yes, the Enterprise is faster, smaller and more precise in its weaponry. However, just watch any episode of Star Trek in which the Enterprise comes under attack. It doesn’t take long before the shields are drained to dangerous levels. Due to the ship’s small size (relative to the Star Destroyer), once the shields are down a few well placed shots to the stern of the Enterprise would cause an anti-matter containment breach, thus destroying the ship.
The Star Destroyer though, would be a little more difficult to take out. Even if the Enterprise destroyed the SD’s shields, it would have to cause a lot of physical damage to the ship in order to cause it to explode (ignoring the Super SD being destroyed in Jedi thanks to a well placed fighter craft hitting the bridge).
about 1 year ago
Ok to correct Some Kid on certan things.
1. The large orbs on tob of the control tower that is almost standard on all imperial ships over a certain size are long range sensors, Not sheild generators.
2. Transporter tech does not work as long as ST vessal sheilds are active and wihtout any official source I for one would thing that this would hold true for Imperial sheidling as well since they can shrug off both phisicall entities and radiation.
3. I think you mean Data, not Worf.
Now even though the Enterpirse can lock on and take out fighters/bombers with relative ease. If the captain decided to do so he would be ingoring the Star Destroyer allowing it to manuver into position to attack with it’s man guns. It is follish to think that the Enterprise would only be able to track the fighers and the Star Destoyer, but they would be manuvering to keep the majority of the fighters/bombers in the phaser’s firing arcs, and away from possible blind spots.
Now you can go the other way with this to. Say the captain decides to engage the Star destroyer. Now of coarse they will be rederecting some of the phaser banks to take out the small craft. It would be foolish not to, but the shear number of fighters/bombers one Star destroyer can deploy can overwhelm the that defensive fire. I’m not sure but i don’t think the Enterprise would be able to overcharge her phasers while dealign wiht the Imperials small craft. Since the Enterpise doesn’t have small craft of it’s own this would be one of her few options against a multi purpose Star Destroyer. Now since the Star Destoyer wouldn’t have to divert any of her fire to deal with small craft she can oreint herself and bring all her guns to bare on the single ship.
Please post any other possibilityis and correct anything I have incorrect in my post.
about 1 year ago
As much as i like Star Wars, i have to side with the enterprise, SD’s may have the size, and superior number of turbolasers, but ST has the edge with technology, the adaptability, manourvability, and are dead acurate with firing. Enterprise’s Sensors also are more advanced, even as early as captain Archer’s enterprise, they could read the DNA of the crew’s of enemy ships. SW ships cannot even acurately track ships at FTL speeds thus apparently would not be able to see a ship comming in at lightspeed/warpspeed until it was on top of it, making ISD’s vunerable to warp strafing. SW ships apparently from what i’ve seen from canon evidence, have only fought battles at sublight velocities making weapon ranges extremely short. Even the mighty Death star when it destroyed Alderan had to get within 80 000km.
about 1 year ago
I would also like to mention due to how much more advanced sensors of the enterprise are, as well as being able to detect one species from another, which if SW vessels had it, would have surely been able to dectect the one Wookie on the Death Star in ANH, they would be able to detect when the Death Star was preparing to fire,-which again SW ships cannot detect as proved by Lando Calrrission in RoTJ “That blast came from the Death Star; that thing’s operational!” Which was said only after the DS fired, and therefore would take evasive action accordingly-since this is a beam weapon and can only be fired in straight lines and at one target at a time. SW ship’s may have extrordinary firepower at their disposal, but if they can’t hit anything with it, it’s pretty much useless. I can certainly remember in TESB, The ISD in the space of a few seconds fired hundreds of turbolaser pulses when chasing the Millenium Falcon-but managed to hardly hit anything. Terrible.
But on a counter note, to give SW some credit, the one thing which i see that the ISD’s have an advantage on beside their firepower is their hyperdrive, though there is no canon evidence depicting actual travel times and distances-i believe it is faster than warpdrive. But again SW ships can only fight at sublight speeds and have no FTL weapons and extremely short weapons ranges of only a few thousand kilometres unlike Enterprise and other Federation capital ships which have fought battles at hundreds of thousands of KM’s and with FTL weapns. Sorry Star Wars, Enterprise wins this round.
about 1 year ago
I think you all need to go back & look at all the tech data for both ST & SW. Tech manuals for SW state the Heavy Turbo Lasers fire a laser & particle beam blast with a Max range of ONLY 25,000 KM. Thats only 15,000 miles, the earth has a circumference of just over 24,000 miles. The Ion Cannons ONLY do damage like that of a EMP effect to a ships power grid. This means SW ships use power cables like todays ships. Their shields are ONLY effective Vs. energy weapons & normal energy based radiation (X-Ray, Gamma & the like). The ships are very slow & non-maneuverable like battleships of old. The SD’s armor isn’t specified but would probably be a dense armor mix that is thick enough to with stand a pounding from close range fire. The fire control is very antiquated, a SD’s fire control for just the 8 heavy turbo lasers are the size of a 3 story town house and require a crew of 30+ per gun. Sensors can only detect a ship with in the system the ship is currently in.
The ST Tech Manuals state PHASERS fire a subatomic particle that cause the forces holding mater together to become non-existent & thus the material falls apart. The SD’s shields would NOT be able to stop this kind of attack since they do not have any knowledge of these subatomic particles. A PHASERS max range is listed for a Type-10 to be 300,000 KM or 186,000 miles with a power rating of 1 – 10 GW. A standard Photon Torpedo which is equipped with a Type-6 A/M, rated to about 120 – 150 MT yield & range is about 9 million KM.
The Quantum Torpedos have a yield of about 500 MT & the Tri-Lithium-cobalt warheads have a a standard yield of 1.2 TT (Terra Ton). In a episode of Voyager Cpt. Janeway ordered a Photon Torpedo to be loaded with a 10 ISO-Ton warhead (thats 1×10 19th power in tons) enough power to destroy a moon.
ST shields may seem week to you SW fans, but remember the MASSIVE amounts of power they are trying to absorb from all directions, but they are very tough.
For the hull armor the ST Tritianium-Durainum hulls are very dense and can take a good amount of damage. ST’s sensors can tell a ships class, probable weapons & status at a range of just over 3 parsecs (about 11 Light years).
As to WHOM would win the USS Enterprise-E Vs. a SD-II, thats simple, even if the SD’s shields do stop the PHASERS attacKs all the Enterprise has to do is stay out side of the range of the SD-!!’s weapons about a safe 100,000 KM range & pound it into scrap.
about 1 year ago
the technology is on completely different levels. ST is far advance of SW.
Take this small fact. A single modified photon torpedo could destroy a small planet. A quantumn torpedo has 8x’s the yield of a standard photon torpedo. So a single torpedo (or even a small compliment of said torpedos) has the destructive power of the Death Star. To repeat, in the Star Wars universe they spend xxx number of years, fight a long long war building a small planet that only has the power destroy a single planet which can be done in the Star Trek universe with a couple of torpedoes.
In the star trek universe, the technology exists to collapse entire stars.
Bigger is hardly better. If I have a cruise missile with a nuclear war head and you live in the largest castle in universe with a million canon firing iron balls, I’m still going to win. By a lot.
about 1 year ago
i beg to differ SW also has the interdictor craft which can stop the enemy form going into light-speed or any space bending speed what so ever because it has gravity well generators. another thing is that the interdictor also has missile jamming capabilities so all of the torpedoes that the ST ships fire would just miss.
about 1 year ago
Enterprise built for exploration but armed and capable.
Star Destroyer built for combat and so extremely well armed
Enterprise – addtional support – none
Star Destroyer – 2 Sqdn of TIE fighters
IMHO a Star Destroyer going head to head with Enterprise would win. The Enterprise would score hits and cause some quite significant damage. But the size difference and ability to absorb damage would be a telling factor Enterprise E being 685m and the Imperial II 1600m
about 1 year ago
Advanced beam weapon/targeting technology would render dog fighters pointless. This seems to be the case in star trek where space battles seem to be a battleship only type combat. Targeting a small ship in space would be too easy there is no where to hide, humans can only take so many g’s, and a small ships defenses too weak. If swarms of small ships are effective, it only means your large ships defenses are full of holes.
about 1 year ago
In ST, the technology is far more advanced then in SW. For example, ST- has transporters that can take molcecules apart and reasemble them, SW-they cant transport crap!, ST-there r phasers, SW- there is lasers and proton torpedoes, ST-the medicines are more advanced, for example Dr. McCoy would just inject the person with a damn medicine and they would be fine, but in SW they would have to be put in intensive car or just laid down on a bed!!! Overall, if the Enterprise were to be attacked by a Star Destroyer, the Enterpise would pone the SD. Against a super star destroyer it might have chance considering its amazing manuverablity and it being so nimble. Considiring a tiny A-Wing took it out, i think the Enterprise would have a chance. But against the DS, ……….BOOM CAPTAIN KIRK FLOATING IN SPACE!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! The DS would still win even against Borg. This is the reason, the DS can blow up a planet in seconds, the Borg a big floating planet spaceship. Verdict reached, Enterprise would pone SD, maybe SSD, but not the DS.
about 11 months ago
I am going for the star destroyer. I can see where the ST fans are coming from though. Phasers are powerful, maybe more powerful than a turbolaser but the shielding on any Federation ship is relatively weak. One torpedo to the enterprise causes everything in the bridge to spark injuring people whereas a star destroyer will maybe shake a bit and carry on. Another thing with the shields is they don’t just stop energy weapons. They have ray shields which stops solid matter from passing through also such as asteroids. Sensors…
Well this is a difficult one, I would say the Enterprise has better sensors but apart from telling you the status of your’s and the enemy’s ship, what good are they in a battle? Targeting system… The targeting system on both ships is good. I mean both ships can hit ships maybe 6 times smaller than them. (Enterprise with a Delta flyer and Star Destroyer with millennium falcon). Alot of people are saying distance makes a difference mainly in favour to the Enterprise. But a star Destroyer’s turbolasers have about 10-12 settings for different scenarios and distances. The Enterprise can maybe carry 4 delta flyers on board. A star destroyer has over 100 fighters and bombers on board. You think of the enterprise at the same time trying to fight off a ship twice its size firing hundreds of bolts at it and trying to shoot down all the bombers with their payload. Not even Data can do that!!!! I also found a comparison chart using canon information but I can’t remember the website =/. Anyway it showed that an Acclamator, yes, a republic troop carrier not designed for war had something like 45,000 (whatever unit it was) more energy in their turbolasers than the Enterprise E’s phasers. Well I can’t think of anything else to say lol. I love both star wars and star trek but a star destroyer would win. Sorry star trek.
about 10 months ago
the super star destroyer, which you said was defeated by a mere starfighter, withstood millions of nukes worth of damage before the shield failed. then a starfighter merely crashed through the window. turbolasers are thousands of times more powerful than phasers, imperial ships can accelerate to .99c WITHOUT their hyperdrives, and a photon torpedo cannot destroy a planet; it would take the enterprise’s entire payload of torpedoes to destroy a 5km hollow asteroid. turbo lasers can hit targets 10 light minutes away, while we only see phasers used out to 10km max. an imperial class ship is 14x the mass of a galaxy-class ship.
phasers have been proven time and time again to be absolutely horrible against metals
about 10 months ago
ok first of all: ive researched and one heavy turbolaser blast does several times the dissipation capabliity of the enterprise. also, in star wars, lasers are not lasers. they just had nothing better to call them. they are basically stuff that fires at a few terawatts and is heated to like 2000C
about 10 months ago
and beaming wud be useless. particles cant go thru shields and enterprise wont take shields down. if they managed to beam on to disable from inside guess wat: and ISD carriers 9,700 stormtroopers, bye bye assault squad. and they cudnt beam onto a TIE fighter because:
1. im not even sure u can beam onto something going that fast
2. TIE fighters have barely enough room for the pilot
3. Ties have no life support. they have artificial gravity and internal compensators so G forces dont kill driver but that about it. driver wears a full vacuum suit
4. ISD Lieutenant: o look one fighter is heading back without contact and its being flown terribly
ISD Captain: they must have taken it over, blow it up
(they wudnt even need it to blow up, just close the hangar bay).
face it trekkies: george lucas didnt want u winnning these forum battles so he made star wars have superior weapons
about 10 months ago
You don’t need to discuss over the matter. The SD would not only be able to fry the Enterprise, but the entire Federation as well. Why?
Energy figures: A SD reactor has the energy output of a 3rd of a sun-like star (enough sources exist). The entire starfleet probably doesn’t have this output in its ships.
Weaponry: The argument with lasers not being able to penetrate the E’s shields is inaccurate. Put enough power in it and any shield will fall. Besides – as stated somewhere above – a Turbolaser is no laser but actually a plasma cannon of immense power. A single hit would vaporize the Enterprise.
Shields: SW shields deflect against energy and matter witnessed in several occasions. And they must be powerful enough to deflect SW weaponry. They are actually so powerful, that the Enterprise could drain its entire energy reserve on it without even seriously scratching it.
Saying that an A-Wing punched out a (weakened) deflector of an SSD might be true, but it is a fighter with SW-weaponry. The cannons of this A-Wing would slice even through fully charged shields of the Enterprise af if they weren’t even there.
Maneuverability: Irrelevant if you can’t hurt the enemy anyway.
Timeframe: Coruscant, the capital of the SW-galaxy is a planet-wide city many miles high, which original surface last saw sunlight about 100,000 years before the battle of yavin 4. It has more inhabitants than the entire federation. FTL travel existed there almost as long for the known civilizations (Rakata and earlier).
Industrial might: The galactic empire employed millions of starships larger than corellian corvettes and was able to actually build 2 moon-sized bases in a matter of a few years in secrecy without even sending a slight shockwave through galactic economy and despite producing the millions of starships of which the SD alone went through at least 3 generations in 20 years. Given the statement, that the federation would need one year to overcome the losses of the battle at wolf 359… well use your imagination.
Size: In the SW-galaxy about one 4th of the galaxy are thouroughly explored (ca. 100 billion systems) and the galactic empire had more than one million fully developed member worlds and several dozen million colonies and outposts. The empire consisted of about 2,000 sectors and each with a sector fleet of about 1,600 to 2,400 capital ships plus an active fleet. This size even makes the Borg insignificant.
But anyway. These are two universes and so a comparison is useless for in both you have beings like Q in ST and the celestials in SW who can pretty much do anything they want.
about 8 months ago
OK Im sick of this shit we are all a big fan of both trek&wars star wars is cooler it has more fighting better skilled & star trek tng. is cool for its stuff . butt i thing the enterprise-d can destroy the stardestroyer for 3 resin 1 it has better shields 2 it can ceporate 3 make it es eyer to destroy it . and i will show you how it can be done .
about 8 months ago
You Star Wars fans make me laugh so damn hard. You keep quoting the EU. The EU is NOT canon. Only the movies are canon. Books are NOT!
Just ask Karen Traviss about this. She had everything she wrote about the Mandalorians nulified…shot out a warp core conduit…destroyed. Why? Because it wasn’t canon.
You know what Steve Sansweet (director of fan relations) said about REAL canon? And I quote” When it comes to absolute canon, the real story of Star Wars, you must turn to the films themselves — and only the films.”
You can quote laser output and shield generator figures all you want. It is all made up. One author will quote one thing, and the next author will completely nullify the previous author’s content.
If the was EU is legit, I might as well write a Star Trek book and quote the Enterprise as having a better-than-death-star cannon capable of destroying entire solar systems. It’s all bull crap.
If you go off of the movies and TV shows (canon), Star Trek easily wastes a star destroyer. Heck, a shuttle pod could waste an star destroyer. They are pieces of crap. The clunky millenium falcon proved that.
Nuff said. Star Trek KICKS Star Wars in any match up. Let me re-word that. Star Trek EASILY KICKS Star Wars in any match.
Lasers…….don’t make me laugh!
about 8 months ago
The Q
Need I say more.
about 3 months ago
The SSD is the coolest looking sci-fi warship. Heavy armor, massive weapons banks, giant TIE filled hangar bay, it should give ST ships more than a run for their money. That said, it’s a WARSHIP, all SDs are warships; why do they have an exposed bridge/CIC? ST ships are science/exploration vessels so having their bridge located at the top of the ship is kinda understandable. I know it’s all for the movies, but the command center of a combat vessel should be buried deep within the armored hull of the ship. Arrogant design flaw in my opinon.
This is all apples to oranges anyway.
about 2 months ago
I used to figure an Imperial Star Destroyer would wipe out Galaxy Class starship due purely to fire power. But that was because I didn’t really understand the Star Wars universe.
So one day I asked, “How do the computers that control targeting for Imperial Turbo-Lasers work? What do they use to sense their targets?”
The answer I got was “Turbo-Lasers are targeted manually.”
?!?!?! WHA…. ?!?!?!
MANUALLY?!?!? MANUALLY?!?!?! Even WE don’t target artillery MANUALLY any more?!?! And M1 tank uses a computer to aim it’s cannon with pinpoint accuracy.
Not only do Federation Starships use incredibly powerful computers to target their weapons with flawless accuracy, but they can do so while travelling at warp speeds.
Now, I realize it’s a given that StarDestroyers have a faster hyperspace speed that Star Ships have warp speed. But that’s irrelevant.
Even at warp 1.5, a Federation starship is still travelling at WELL over the speed of light. At that speed, the computers and sub-space sensors are still perfectly capable of writing the captain’s name on the main viewport with phaser-induced carbon-scoring.
But manually targeted weapons of any sort have 0 chance of hitting anything moving at FTL speeds.
So, the Federation Starship can make absolutely sure that the ISD has no chance of inflicting any damage.
The question is, can the FSS inflict any damage on the ISD. And the answer to that is, it’s hard to say.
ISD shields SEEM to be susceptible to penetration by sheilded ships traveling at high speed. If this is the case, a FSS could conceivably streak in at low warp, fly through the sheilds, drop out of warp for 1/10 of a second, beam an anti-matter bomb (which they don’t carry but can fabricate fairly quickly) into the engine room, and re-engage warp … HIGH warp.
THAT should destroy the ISS … assuming that the hull of an ISS does not prevent beaming.