Hello, Ric here with a quick look at the Isolmagnetic Disintegrator, a Starfleet weapons designed
and deployed in 2375 during the height of the
Dominion War.
Starfleet prefers not to develop devices that solely have a military application, even
its most famous offensive gadget, the phaser is a
multipurpose device that has more going for it than the more common Disruptors, hence
its preference by the United Federation of Planets.
However this shoulder mounted launcher has no
other use aside from making things its points at go boom.
The device is usually a part of the armoury of vessels that would be expected to engage
in combat, a higher quantity for sure during the war, but
more specifically, for those who would be deployed
groundside, outside of ship to ship or boarding action combat.
The weapon was over a metre long (at 128 centimetres) and to be fired from
the shoulder while the user looked through the targeting
reticule to gage the shot.
The trigger was on the very front grip of the pipe, and the rear overhang of
the weapon was pretty much just there to provide a counterweight.
Because of its futuristic construction, it weighs a surprisingly light
3.85 kilograms and had an effective range of 5 to 145
metres.
However you really do not want to test it at only 5 metres.
Even 10 metres is still rated as dangerously close.
It also has multiple settings from low-yield to, as the name implies, disintegration.
The basic premise was to create a weapon akin to a rocket launcher or bazooka in that it
would fire and cause an explosive effect for damage to
structures or to take out a grouped enemy force.
By utilising the concussive force of an explosion,
it also stood a higher change of bypassing Borg
personal shielding.
Like all the Star Trek it is given a science fiction twist to be more than just firing
a missile.
While researching for this video however, I found several alternate interpretations
as to how this weapon worked although they do both agree
on some principles, so I’ll just recount both to you.
The first description cites that it does indeed use ammunition.
A miniaturised missile pod is slotted into the chamber which carries several missiles.
When one is fired, the next cycles into the launcher’s place until all are depleted
and the Disintegrator needs reloading.
The missiles themselves carry the explosive charge and
can be set to different levels in the chamber.
This comes with a couple of noted drawbacks however.
The first is that it requires the ammunition to be
conveyed with the weapon and that adds weight and bulk to its use.
The second option is that reloading makes you a target if done in the
open, as does quite simply shouldering and aiming the
disintegrator.
The other method is rather more in keeping with other Starfleet devices, and does not
use missiles but instead draws from a charge pack that
can be swapped out.
This pack has enough for about 40 shots and creates a bolt of isomagnetic energy.
This has the effect of disrupting the magnetic fields
of a target and on its lowest setting produces a kind of blast on impact that overloads and
stuns a target’s nervous system.
The higher settings eventually just cause a big boom in addition to this
leaving a 1 metre crater.
Because of the concussive blast however, even the stun settings carry risk
of greater injury when the target may be blasted to the floor.
Both options in how this device works agree that it does require ammunition of a form,
that is consumed far quicker than a phaser and that
different yield blasts are produced.
They also share the common feature of it being a slower, heftier
weapon to use and the fact that it does produce heavy
recoil, something again, hand-phasers do not.
Now earlier I mentioned that it was for ground engagements only, so hopefully now you can
see why, the distance you need to fire this safely and not
get caught in the blast is not conducive to combat inside the narrow corridors of a Starship,
and setting of blasts in a pressurised vessel might lead to unexpected hull breaches, even
with the durability of corridors.
Overall, it’s a weapon that does not see much use, but would provide an advantage in
field encounters in full on warfare.
Outside of attacking large structures, the rare vehicle or clusters of
enemies , it has little application and is entirely built for battle.
Therefore they are a rare sight in Starfleet, but you never know when an armoury
officer might spot the ideal use for one.
I think we would see them far more commonly if vehicular
combat was more common in Star Trek, but with how far technology has progressed, such machinery
is seldom seen outside of shuttles or maybe sub-orbital fighter craft.
Thanks for watching this breakdown on the Isomagnetic Disintegrator, I’ve
been Ric and until the next time, thanks again and goodbye!