| Tactical The combat systems department is headed by the chief tactical officer (TAC). TAC handles key parts of the offensive and defensive ship systems. |
| Tactical Star ships exist to transport personnel to places around the galaxy for the purpose of establishing and maintaining contact with other entities. Some of those encounters are not pleasant. Some of those entities are not friendly. Sometimes even old allies can turn against the federation or a part of the federation. A star ship is far removed from the center of policy and decision making. The ship's Captain has great flexibility in interpreting applicable Federation and Star Fleet policies to include the rules of engagement. Confrontation is avoided wherever possible. When that is no longer an option the Tactical officer is responsible for attacking the aggressors and protecting the ship against outside assaults. The Tactical Officer receives direction from the Captain and coordinates closely with Helm, Operations, and Science to identify target weaknesses and exploit them to the full advantage of the ship. The Tactical arm of the star ship is the last tool of diplomacy. The Tactical system is both sophisticated and simple in design and equipment. It is composed of Deflector Shields and Weapons System and the Tractor Beam. Deflector Shields The Deflector system is the primary defensive system of the star ship. It protects both the spacecraft and it's crew from natural and artificial hazards. The deflector shields are force field devices. The shields create a dense spatial distortion within an energetic graviton field. The field is emitted and shaped by a series of conformal transmission grids on the spacecraft exterior so the shield closely follows the shape of the ship. When a blow occurs the field energy is concentrated at the point of impact creating an intense special distortion. Shields are raised to defensive configurations by increasing generator power to at least 85% of rate output. Shield modulation frequencies and band widths are randomly varied to prevent a threat force from adjusting the frequency of a directed energy weapon to penetrate the shields by matching that frequency and phase. There are 4 back up generators located on each hull capable of providing twenty-four hours of service at 65% power. Under heightened Alert conditions shield output can be manually manipulated by the Tactical officer by adjusting the Deflector grinds on the lateral pylon, Saucer module dorsal and ventral position, the interhull , and engineering hull dorsal and ventral shields. Shields up and online change some of the other systems under Tactical control. The active sensor scans are minimized due to the shield interference. The random variation of shield frequency is a window of opportunity for the silent running mode used for the tractor beam. Weapons systems are interfaced so closely with the shields variations that firing phasers or torpedoes have an error potential of .01 %. Weapons Systems The weapons system is the offensive muscle of the ship. The weapons system is made up of phaser arrays and torpedo launchers. Shields and the Weapons systems are synchronized at close tolerance to prevent the need for dropping shields to fire on the target(s). Phaser Arrays There are 6 phaser array batteries on most star ships. They are located at the battle section aft, Nacelle pylon, battle section ventral, saucer module dorsal and saucer module ventral. They convey stored energy by redundant sets of trunks of the electro plasma system (EPS) thru the fire control console. The Phaser array uses power from the same plasma distributors as the nav sif. When the phaser array drops below volatile capacity from use power from the nav sif maybe rerouted to the phaser array thus providing a short term power source until the system can create necessary plasma to prefire the chambers once again. The Phaser Arrays can be fired as a single shot or multiple simultaneous bursts of all or some of the 6 batteries. The operator instructions are as simple as point and shoot. For situation where there are simultaneous adversaries the tactical computer rewrites symbolic code and displays possible options on the tactical grind. Firing duration using all banks full-uninterrupted power is less than 15 minutes while the recharge time is approximately .5 seconds. In one breaths time the banks are recharged and ready to fire. The phaser array console is the most full proof piece of equipment in fleet inventory. It requires only 10% of its system be operational in order to employ all the weapon fire control routines. Because of the sensitive nature of its application there is a retina scan and voice recognition code security employed to gain access to the Offensive Fire Control Subroutines. Shields are not routinely connected to this type of security restriction however access to shields can be linked to the fire control security system at the discretion of the Tactical Officer or the ship's Captain. Torpedo Launcher Phaser Array value at warp velocity is close to null. Threats encountered at warp speed need a warp-capable offensive weapon delivery system. The torpedo was developed to carry a high charge warhead to the enemy at warp speeds for that purpose. The Torpedo Launchers are computer controlled at the Tactical Console and mechanically operated at the launching tubes forward and aft as well as mid ship on the support pylon. The Tac works in concert with engineering to repair jamming problems at the equipment sites. Firing sequence begins at the Tac console firing button. The signal is sent downstream to the launcher at the four loader stages where four torpedoes are loaded at one time. Each loader can place a torpedo into the launcher for volley firing. The field induction coils assist launch by pushing gas generated by a fire sequencer into the Launch tube propelling the torpedo to its target. Once the torpedo is fired the tube is purged of surface residue by flash sterilization the coil charges are neutralized, another torpedo is loaded into the chamber and the firing sequencer resets. The launchers can be loaded with as many as 10 torpedoes at one time for simultaneous launch. All or some of the torpedoes can be launched at one time at the discretion of the Tactical Officer. Tractor Beam The Tractor Beam is the responsibility of the Tac officer. The tractor controls are on the far right on the Tac console in both the main and battle bridge. The emitters are located on the ships exterior hull, permitting objects at almost any relative bearing to be drawn to the ship and held while the ship is in flight or stationary without placing undo stress on one portion of the hull over others. Additional emitters are located near each shuttle bay for use in shuttle landing maneuvers. Mooring tractor beam emitters are used to dock and are located at each reaction control thrust quad. The synthetic gravity field bleeds stored excess nav sif to the holding tanks of the integrity field for use by the tractor system. Towing capability is dependent on the mass of the object towed and the distance the object is to the ship. It is also dependent upon the resistant that is encountered when the tractor is engaged. A type of resistance would be the objects use of reverse thrusters in an attempt to pull away and escape from the ship as the object is being towed. When towing an object command of the helm is directed by the tactical officer in that their responsibility is to insure the object is tractored to the ship and towed safely. As a general rule Warp 5 is not exceeded when towing and sudden stops are not recommended. The towed object does not have any braking system to compliment the ships drop in warp. So reduction of warp speed and turns in whatever direction should be attempted prudently and with great restraint. The goal of the Tactical Officer is to offer the unfriendly forces an option which is unacceptable in light of the ability to defuse conflicts thru other means. And as a last resort to follow up with the pursuit of peace thru Tactical Offensive means when all other avenues to peace have been exhausted. Manual Written by: Fleet Captain Jaccob Adder Ref: Star Trek The Next Generation Technical Manual |
 |
 |
|
|
|
|
|
|