ST weapon accuracy and range

This article will deal with demonstrated accuracy of various weapons used by major Star Trek civilizations like Federation, Borg, Dominion, Klingon Empire etc. As the examples provided below will demonstrate, all major military forces engage at ranges of several hundred meters up to several kilometers which present the upper limit of their effective weapon accuracy.

Examples

Call to arms

In the episode Dominion fleet attacks Deep Space 9 and it is revealed that even when engaging a completely immobile target ST ships need to close to several kilometers before opening fire.

Dominion fleet approaching Deep Space 9 as seen in episode "Call to arms"

The screenshot on the right shows the Dominion/Cardassian fleet approaching the Deep Space 9 to the point of it taking up a significant fraction of the field of view. Yet in the following scene Damar reports that they will not be in weapons range for another minute.[1]

Cardassian shuttle about to ram Deep Space 9

After the battle is joined the attacking fleet continues to fight at extremely close ranges however even ranges of several hundred meters appear to great for Deep Space 9 targeting sensors to achieve a reasonable accuracy. On the left we can see a Cardiassian shuttle flying straight towards Deep Space 9 central assembly. The shuttle doesn't change course nor does it attempt to evade the incoming fire yet Deep Space 9 misses it, or rather, scores a mere grazing shot thus enabling the craft to ram the station and cause further damage to it's shields.