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Armor is a physical method for a starship to survive both energy impacts and physical blows. Progressing from the 20th century plate steel and titanium alloys to 22nd century carbon-carbon force dispersal armor and micromirror coatings, these were all rendered obsolete in 2268. While perfectly adequate, and even good, against nuclear torpedos and lasers, the invention of the phaser and its associated NDF effect rendered them obsolete. In James Kirk`s day, the only known armor was called quatrobirilium, and it was more of a effect-dispersal armor; it spread out the NDF effect by partially conducting the nadion stream away from the strike zone. Improvements in phasers eventually made even this obsolete. So armor was pretty much unknown in the Federation until the Borg showed up; they then threw into development of ablative armor; it both shields the ship and blocks the effectiveness of the attacking beam by vaporizing instead of disassociating. Force hull armor, invented in late 2386, is a material version of the vector-vector cancelling effect of the inertial dampeners. In 2399 impact-shielding materials were developed to reduce the power requirements of a navigational deflector dish. Type 1 Ablative Armor: widely available double layered ablation materials for impact dissipation minimal energy costing approximately 1 meter Type 2 Ablative Armor: widely available triple layered ablation materials for enhanced control standard subsystem energy costing approximately 1 meter Type 3 Ablative Armor: limited quad layered ablation materials for dissipation, control, and survivability full system energy costing approximately 1 meter Type 1 Force Hull Armor: moderately available single layered blade of carbotanium and tungsten ytterbium minimal energy costing approximately 1.5 meters Type 2 Force Hull Armor: limited double layered blade of monotanium filaments and carbotanium minimal energy costing approximately 1 meter |
