3.9 Weapons and Tactics
This memo describes a defensive shield penetration technique in which heavy phaser fire dimples a target's deflector shields so that a precisely timed photon torpedo can detonate trapped within the shield layers.
Weapons and Tactics
Defensive Shield Penetration Technique — This involves a method by which it may be possible to penetrate a ship's shielding in a rather dramatic and heretofore untried fashion. The actual mechanics of the exercise were proved out in a Starfleet live-fire test on an obsolete cruiser, specially upgraded with the latest deflectors.
It is well known that the fields produced by Starfleet standard deflector grids, and those produced by alien “Threat” vessels, can be disturbed by various outside forces. Phaser bolts will interact with these fields, and it has been seen that even when a shield layer is not disabled, it does become thinner, dimpling inward. Heavy phaser exposure will compress all shield layers toward the tritanium hull.
At the point of maximum dimpling, one targets a photon torpedo. The torpedo, a controlled mixture of matter and antimatter, would be affected by the adjacent phaser fire, but only slightly during the short flight to the target.
If timed correctly, the phaser is extinguished at the moment the torpedo hits the dimple. The shield rebounds, trapping the torpedo within the outer shield layers. When it detonates, the force of the explosion will be confined (if only for a split-second) within the shield. Bye-bye ship.