Plasma torpedo

The Romulans launch their glowing blob of death.

A plasma torpedo is a short-ranged, high-yield weapon used by the Romulan Star Empire in the 23rd century. First seen in the TOS episode "Balance of Terror", these weapons were extremely effective against Federation starbases along the Neutral Zone.

Quote

"We're a mile deep on an asteroid. Almost solid iron. And even through our deflectors, it did this."
--Commander of Federation Neutral Zone Outpost 4

Nature

During a briefing following the initial attacks on Neutral Zone outposts, Spock described what was known about the Romulan weapon. According to Starfleet researchers, the weapon was an "enveloping plasma" that caused its targets to implode. One plasma torpedo was sufficient to destroy the shields and weapons of a Federation outpost, and a second torpedo shattered the asteroid on which the outpost was built. One torpedo also damaged the fully-shielded Enterprise, even though much of the torpedo's energy had dissipated due to range. The weapon's power is certainly impressive: the destruction of a nickel-iron asteroid of at least two miles diameter could easily require hundreds of megatons of energy, which would certainly be an achievable energy yield for a space-faring civilization.

Even though it is capable of overtaking a Constitution-class starship in full retreat, a plasma torpedo has a relatively limited range. Only cloaking technology enabled the Romulan ship to get into effective range of its targets. As noted above, a plasma torpedo lost so much energy pursuing the fleeing Enterprise that when it finally struck, it no longer had enough energy to destroy the target.

Lieutenant Sulu believed that a single phaser shot would be sufficient to detonate a plasma torpedo prematurely. He did not actually get to test his idea, however, since his ship's phasers were off line at the time.

Obsolescence

The Romulans stopped using plasma torpedoes on their starships after a technology exchange with the Klingons. In the 24th century, Romulan ships carry disruptors and photon torpedoes. The range limitations and high energy consumption of plasma torpedoes may have lead to their being replaced. The Enterprise was also able to survive multiple hits from plasma torpedoes in "The Deadly Years", indicating that Federation engineers had made significant progress in improving shield performance against them.

Plasma torpedoes continued to be used to protect ground installations and on orbital defense platforms. It is unknown if these weapons are identical to the TOS-era torpedo or a derivative design.

Internal Contradiction

The Romulan plasma torpedo was said to be a short-ranged weapon, but such a weapon was able to pursue a starship fleeing at warp speed for several minutes before losing potency. The torpedo would need to have a minimum range measurable in astronomical units, in addition to the ability to accelerate to warp speed itself and presumably maneuver to follow an evading target. See the Discussion page for speculation.