Technology Comparison
Written: 1998-08-01
Last Revised: 2003-04-21
We have completed a preliminary analysis of the Federation's technology with respect to tactical and strategic strength as well as industrial and logistical capabilities, and we have determined that we should be able to easily neutralize their command and control network as well as 90% of their military shipbuilding capacity within the first 48 hours of a full-scale attack. More information follows:
Sections
Ground Combat Technology: general discussion of ground combat technology including small-arms, armour, artillery, and support equipment.
Sci-Fi Tech Myths: A collection of a few popular technology myths
Leah Brahms: our intelligence network has determined that the well-known lead designer of the Galaxy-class warp core is brought up on charges. In the process, numerous disturbing discoveries about the Federation were made :)
Overview
| Industrial Capacity and Territorial Holdings | |
| Total assets include more than one million star systems, and millions of warships including tens of thousands of standard KDY Star Destroyers. Our command craft dwarf their space stations, and our space stations are the size of small moons. We have even built artificial planets in the past. Details | Total assets include roughly one hundred and fifty star systems, and a few thousand small warships. Their fleets are so puny that they actually include fighters in their ship counts! Their largest starbases are less than a dozen kilometres in length. Details |
| Propulsion Technology: Warp Drive vs Hyperdrive | |
| Hyperdrive allows us to traverse a galaxy in hours or days. Details | Their warp drive is so slow that they require decades to cross their galaxy. Details |
| Beam Weapons: Phasers vs Turbolasers | |
| Heavy turbolasers release many gigatons of energy per shot, while light turbolasers release dozens of megatons of energy per shot. A Star Destroyer carries more than a hundred light turbolasers and dozens of heavy turbolasers. The Death Star (a massive compound turbolaser) releases more energy than the Sun produces in over seven thousand years! We also have ion cannon technology, which they lack. Details | Their phasers appear to induce some kind of chain reaction in matter. Against shields, they seem to be tactically equivalent to lasers in the range of 30,000 TW (7 megatons per second). Against dense armour, their effectiveness is much lower, in the 1-10TW range (1 kiloton per second). A typical starship has only a handful of phaser arrays. Details |
| Torpedoes: Photon/Quantum torpedoes vs Imperial missiles | |
| Our missiles are not our heaviest weapons, and are mostly used for fighter combat or attacks on "soft targets", such as starships whose shields have been disabled by turbolaser fire. Therefore, most missiles are very small, low-yield devices, although there have been notable exceptions (eg. the huge and devastating Galaxy Gun missiles or the Suncrusher's quantum resonance torpedoes). Maneuverability can be superb; Luke's torpedo executed a 72,000g turn in ANH. Details | Their torpedoes are their heaviest weapons, with an upper limit of 64 megatons for photon torpedoes and roughly twice that for quantum torpedoes. In fact, some significant battles have been fought exclusively with torpedoes. They are capable of superluminal speeds when launched from a warp-driven starship, thus making them useful for long-range first-strike actions and surprise attacks. They have good acceleration and guidance systems, but limited maneuverability. Details |
| Shields | |
| Our capital ship shields can survive direct hits from multi-megaton nuclear warheads and turbolasers. Our planetary shields are far stronger, and can withstand days or weeks of sustained fleet bombardment with multi-gigaton heavy turbolasers. Alderaan's planetary shield actually blocked the Death Star superlaser for a split-second. | Their capital ship shields can survive prolonged exposure to intense solar radiation, as well as direct hits from multi-megaton nuclear or antimatter weapons. They lack planetary shields, so they rely on orbital defense platforms and interceptors to safeguard their citizens. |
| Sensors | |
| We had subspace sensors more than 25,000 years ago, during the time of Xim the Despot. We can detect cloaked ships using focus-scans or CGT sensors. Details | They have subspace sensors which can detect sublight or warp-speed ships from light years away. Ships using hyperdrive would outrace their sensor packets. They cannot detect cloaked ships without using point to point networks. Details |
| Communications | |
| Capital ship subspace transceivers have a range of 100 light years. The Holo-Net permits real-time communication across the galaxy. | Their subspace transceivers have a range of 22 light years. Details |
| Power Generation | |
| Star Destroyers produce as much power as a small star, and Death Star hypermatter reactors produce millions of times the power of a typical main-sequence star. Details | Their unstable matter/antimatter reactors can produce power on the order of 1E19 to 1E20 watts (similar to a tiny star). Their fusion reactors are limited to the TW range. Details |
| Special Technology | |
| Virtually all of our most advanced engineering facilities are focused on the task of developing and refining more efficient, more durable, and more deadly methods of destroying or subjugating our enemies. The results of those efforts have been seen in projects such as the Suncrusher, World Devastators, and Galaxy Gun. This is not to say that we totally lack non-military technologies, but we focus our efforts differently than the Federation does. Details | They have devoted intense research efforts to the areas of health, recreation, convenience and beauty. However, they appear to have a negative attitude toward aggressive military research, so nascent technologies with potential military applications have languished. This anti-military cultural bias will only make them easier to defeat in a lightning campaign. Details |