Plasma torpedo
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In the Star Trek fictional universe, plasma torpedoes are weapons used in starship combat. They were first employed by a prototype Romulan Bird of Prey class starship in 2266, in a strike against a string of Federation outposts along the Romulan Neutral Zone; the events of this battle were depicted in the Star Trek episode "Balance of Terror".
Plasma torpedoes require an enormous amount of energy to fire and require the attacking ship to both deactivate its cloaking device and drop to sublight speeds. The torpedo consists of a cohesive mass of high-energy plasma, possibly similar to a plasmoid. As the torpedo travels it gradually becomes more diffuse as its energy dissipates. The torpedo's guidance system is extremely limited by the difficulties inherent in operating any sensor system through a high energy plasma field, and any degree of maneuvering causes a significant drop in eventual yield. In "Balance of Terror" the USS Enterprise was not able to outrun a plasma torpedo but by the time it caught up it had already exhausted most of its destructive force. Because of these difficulties the plasma torpedo has not been very successful when used against mobile targets such as starships.
Fixed installations, on the other hand, are a different matter. When used against a Federation asteroid based outpost a single plasma torpedo collapsed the shields and caused near total destruction of the installation even through several kilometers of solid rock. This level of destructiveness was unmatched by any other weapons system at the time.
Plasma torpedoes were used in the Starflight games with similar characteristics to those in Star Trek; immensely destructive and long-ranged but very slow.
See also: Weapons of Star Trek