Size of torpedoes

[Chadic Garou]

I have a question. We know that not only the federation had torpedo launchers on their ships but also the romulans, klingons, cardassians and so on. When I'm looking for the size of a federation torpedo I can find it. But I've never found the size of romulan/klingon/cardassian torpedoes. Whether in technical books nor in the web. Are there any informations about the size of these torpedoes?

[Tyyr]

As far as I'm aware of we've never seen one.

[Mikey]

Didn't we see one being modified by McCoy and Spock in STVI?

Beyond that, I've always assumed that they were roughly the same size as Spock's coffin and K'ehleyr's travel pod, as both of those things were designed to be fired from a standard torp tube. Supporting this, the TNG TM, while not canon, has one at a corroborating 2.1m long.

[Tyyr]

No, he's looking for the other species.

[Captain Seafort]

We saw a Jem'Hadar torpedo in Starship Down - here. It's difficult to tell how big it is, as we don't know how much of it is still outside the hull, but it appears to be a similar diameter to a modern torpedo - about half a metre.

[Mark]

I would imagine they are of a similar size, simply because the phaser/disrupter tech of most species is so similar.

[Sionnach Glic]

Do we have any good images of the torpedo tubes on the alien ships in question? That would at least give us a diameter to work with.

[Mark]

AFAIK, only the ones from Klingon BOPs

[stitch626]

AFAIK, only the ones from Klingon BOPs

And the Ktinga's from the movies.

[Graham Kennedy]

Well one thing we can say is that whilst the torpedo launch tubes on the front of the E-refit are oblong holes about 1.4 x 0.6 metres, the one on the front of the K'T'Inga is a round hole about 4.5 metres across. So Klingon torps may well be significantly larger.

[Lighthawk]

Well one thing we can say is that whilst the torpedo launch tubes on the front of the E-refit are oblong holes about 1.4 x 0.6 metres, the one on the front of the K'T'Inga is a round hole about 4.5 metres across. So Klingon torps may well be significantly larger.

Which does make some sense. I think we've come to an agreement many times here that the klingons are less advanced than the Federation, but managed to be a threat by specializing in warfare, building rugged and tough, and using brute force in their weapons. So them having a bigger torpedo makes sense, they need the extra big warhead.

[Chadic Garou]

OK. I believe I've a problem. I'm working at the Glikar'ma Project (Glikar'ma is the andorian name for forrest spider). The Glikar'ma is a runabout similar a Danube, but with one changeable module for transport, recovery, hospital and so on. The new Glikar'ma should simulate own and foreign spaceships. A Hologenerator was used for changing designs. But who will believe that it's a klingon ship, if I'm firing federation torpedoes? The Module is L/B/H 10,0/6,0/4,5 Meters. To short for a launcher, but I could kick down a torpedo similar the Danube.

[Graham Kennedy]

Well one thing we can say is that whilst the torpedo launch tubes on the front of the E-refit are oblong holes about 1.4 x 0.6 metres, the one on the front of the K'T'Inga is a round hole about 4.5 metres across. So Klingon torps may well be significantly larger.

Which does make some sense. I think we've come to an agreement many times here that the klingons are less advanced than the Federation, but managed to be a threat by specializing in warfare, building rugged and tough, and using brute force in their weapons. So them having a bigger torpedo makes sense, they need the extra big warhead.

Whilst non canon, many of the TOS novels made the comment that Klingon ships significantly outgunned their Federation counterparts, whilst Federation ships had far stronger shielding designed to take those kinds of hits. It does fit the mentality of both sides, too.

[Sionnach Glic]

OK. I believe I've a problem. I'm working at the Glikar'ma Project (Glikar'ma is the andorian name for forrest spider). The Glikar'ma is a runabout similar a Danube, but with one changeable module for transport, recovery, hospital and so on. The new Glikar'ma should simulate own and foreign spaceships. A Hologenerator was used for changing designs. But who will believe that it's a klingon ship, if I'm firing federation torpedoes? The Module is L/B/H 10,0/6,0/4,5 Meters. To short for a launcher, but I could kick down a torpedo similar the Danube.

If I understand what you're saying correctly, such ships would be only really useful for short stealth raids.

Eg, a Glikar'ma vessel disguises itself as a Klingon Bird Of Prey with its holographics, flies casualy into a Klingon shipyard (for this they'd need knowledge of Klingon passcodes and routines), finds the biggest and juiciest target in the region, fires off a burst of torps and then slams its warp drives into action before the shipyard's defence forces realise what's happened and identified the target.
Or use the ship to get within range of a patrolling enemy cruiser and fire off a salvo of torps while its shields are down.

If you wanted it to copy a Klingon ship in a brief engagement, however (for S31-style raids intended to implicate other powers), then you've a couple of options.

1) Fit one of the holographic devices on the torpedoes. This'll make it look like a Klingon torp, but it won't stand up to a detailed investigation since it will most likely leave some evidence that it was a Fed torp.

2) Attatch an external rack to the outside of the ship, upon which are mounted a handful of actual Klingon torpedoes. When the holographic image shows the ship firing a torp, simply fire one of the torps on the rack out at the target. This is a more expensive option, but it'll appear to even the most observant of investigators that it was a Klingon ship which was responsible for the attack.

The idea actually me a good bit of the Mimic Engines used by some Dark Eldar ships in the 40K-verse. They ran into much the same problems as well.

[Chadic Garou]

Nice ideas. Officially this Glikar'ma is only a school vessel. Federation don't fire at first and so on ...
For covered actions the attacker could be a Klingon vessel and after a raid no one would think it was a Federation vessel.
For school purpose a holographic device directly fit in a torpedo is the simpliest way, thanks.
But I don't see how to install extern racks. The "standard" Glikar'ma had a maximum warp at 7,2 - to slow to imitate faster ships. So I will double the warp nacelles with a second warp core. With this power I should reach Warp 9, but there is no place for some racks. If Klingon torpedoes had a diameter of 4,5 meters, their length should be more than 10 meters (or the klingon torpedoes were fired as barrels of waterbombs ...). So the torpedoes are too long for my Glikar'ma.
The "standard" Glikar'ma with the un-tested Module "F2" had a load of 20 torpedoes on 5 racks in the module. These racks also could be installed in the new Glikar'ma.