The Starships
Explaining the starships of both franchises is such a big issue that I've split it up into more specific topics.
General Design and Purpose
Too often in a Star Wars vs Star Trek debate people will put one ship against another. This is a simple way of deciding the outcome of the debate but it is hardly a proper way to steer the debate. The purpose and design of the countless starships seen in Star Wars and Star Trek are very different and I think that desperately needs to be taken into consideration.
Let's discuss Star Wars ships first. There seem to be two types of ships that dominate the SW universe: carriers and fighters. The carriers, like the
Star Destroyer and
Trade Federation Battleship, are truly massive ships, each being over a kilometer in length (or in the case of the Battleship, diameter), carrying thousands of personnel and hundreds of fighters. These can barely be called carriers, however, since they have huge armaments with dozens and dozens of laser cannons. The immensity of the capital ships in SW is evident with the
Executor-Class Super Star Destroyer (over 17km long!) that mirrors the epic scale of the franchise and what George Lucas imagined. Basically every single starship seen in Star Wars movies is a military ship (except for the few diplomatic ships and transports). They're meant for one thing: to kick ass. This makes sense since the movies focus on the wars. Fighters are also shown a lot. We all know what
TIE Fighters and
X-Wings look like and most of the main characters get in a fighter at least once. We also see smaller ships like the
Corellian corvette (in
Ep. IV) and the iconic
Millennium Falcon but the heavily armed carriers and fighters are the focus in the movies.
Yeah, yeah, yeah. We get it, George. It's ing big!
In the ST universe 99% of the ships are less than a kilometer in length. Take, for example, the
USS Enterprise-D, that is one of the bigger starships (outside of Borg vessels) and is 642 meters in length. So it is about 40% of the Star Destroyer's length. I'll use this as an example of the relative size difference of SW ships versus ST ships (and if you're more interested in the size comparisons then check out
this handy visual aid). It's not surprising that ST ships are much smaller on average than SW ships. While size is a huge difference, so is the purpose of the ships. In the ST universe there is not a huge galaxy-wide war (for the most part). The various alien races have many different types of ships that they use like cargo freighters, science vessels, etc. I know SW has them too but they're definitely not a common occurrence and are not seen nearly as much as in ST. Most Federation starships are meant for deep-space
exploration rather than combat, although they do have significant weaponry available. I'm making a generalization here but the conclusion I've come to to is that SW = warfare and ST = exploration. Rarely do we see fighters in ST. But let's take note that ST ships do have firepower. Most every ship is equipped with either a
disruptor or
phaser weapons system and a type of
torpedo weapon. I guess ST ships could be considered to be like frigates, destroyers, cruisers, or battleships (in some ways). They are large ships with multiple weapons and defense systems, and are all similar in design and purpose yet have varying sizes depending on class.
A Federation fleet in formation.
There are three conclusions I've come to here and I hope you agree with: 1) SW ships are substantially larger in general than ST ships. 2) SW ships are mostly (heavily armed) carriers or fighters while ST ships are like destroyers/battleships (in some ways). 3) SW ships (at least those that are focused on) are purely military in use while ST ships are more for exploration. That's a general overview of SW and ST ships as well as going over their design and purpose.
But wait!!! There is one glaring subject I wish to give notice, and that is of the seemingly idiotic design of Star Destroyers, and more specifically their shield domes/towers. I mean seriously, why would you put the things that are one of the most important parts of your ship on the outside of the hull in big towers for all to see? Those huge white balls are just asking to get shot up! If I was an enemy commander I'd see those shield domes and think of the Star Destroyers like an dumb guy bent over with his balls waiting for me to hit with my foot with a hard kick. In
Ep. VI we see fighters take out a dome and thus take down the bridge deflector shields of the Super Star Destroyer. All it took to take it down was a single A-Wing hitting the bridge. Hey Star Destroyer designers, how about putting the shield domes, or whatever makes the shields,
inside the hull so they aren't such vulnerable and obvious targets?
Weapons and Defenses
I touched on the weapons and defenses of SW and ST ships a bit above, but since this debate requires discussion of a supposed conflict between the two universes, more attention is needed. I have a very good understanding of ST weapons and defenses and an adequate understanding of the same with SW so hopefully I do this well. This is where making educated comparisons becomes more difficult.
SW ships primarily use lasers as their weapon of choice. The capital ships have dozens, if not thousands, of
turbolasers at their disposal. It seems that the larger the laser weapon the bigger the target it is supposed to be fired at, like a battleship's main guns are for ship-to-ship combat while the machine guns are for taking out fighters. The large guns are used to bombard other capital ships while the smaller guns are for fighters. Other known weapons are
ion cannons and
proton torpedoes. I do not know for certain the power of these weapons, although Darth Wong does post some staggering numbers for their power on his site. If these numbers are to be considered entirely accurate and to be compared with his ST numbers without hesitation then it is clear SW wins hands down...yet as I've explained making such black and white comparisons does not make much sense. I'll explain further on that and more later.
The laser weapons seemed to be human-controlled for the most part. The only example I know of where a computer was used was in
A New Hope when the Rebel pilots used the computer to target the Death Star's exhaust port (and failed). It seems the Force is better at aiming than a computer! The torpedoes (or missile weapons) I've seen have always been controlled by a computer (as far as targeting), except for the case just explained. So, with SW weapons we have both directed energy weapons (turbolasers) and missile weapons (torpedoes). Firing arcs of most laser turrets in the SW films seem to be pretty limited but it's made up for with the sheer number of turrets. What are the ranges of SW weapons? It seems that, other than the Death Star's main weapon, every single shot fired in the movies was always done within close (relative) visual range. In
Ep. III the capital ships are firing devastating barrages of their huge turbolasers at extremely close range. Example:
Battle of Coruscant. Most of the shots fired don't seem to be further than a few ship's lengths apart (~2,500 m) at most. I do understand, however, that this was done for cinematic purposes rather than showing what space combat in the SW universe may truly be like. I will touch on this point later. I would also like to point out that the turbolaser turrets on the SW capital ships seem to be very limited in their ability to move. This makes sense since the main targets for the capital ships are other barely maneuverable capital ships. There is no real need to have their gun turrets be able to move around quickly. That's what the smaller, less powerful, anti-fighter turrets are for. The same goes for fighter-to-fighter combat. The fighters never seem to be more than ten lengths apart.
SW starship defenses are
(deflector) shields. They seem to be (nearly) invisible. In
Ep. III you can see laser hits on what looks to be shields instead of hull. I believe the shields also "hug" against the hull of ships because we never see a shield bubble like in ST. Unlike ST, it is difficult to judge how strong the shields are because we rarely hear of the shields being depleted gradually. It always seems as if the shields are either up and holding or down. As far as armor is concerned for the hull, I don't have any clue. I read the X-Wing has titanium armor though.
Quad turbolaser turrets and a Star Destroyers' destroyed shield tower and burning command tower.
Fortunately for ST there is much more source material to understand the weapon and defense systems on starships in the universe. Like SW, ST's main weapons used are directed energy weapons like disruptors and phasers. It is interesting to note that in the ST universe lasers are an old and obsolete weapon. The
Enterprise-D in one episode is fired upon with lasers and the crew finds humor in the situation even though the other ship had just fired on them. Anyway, these weapons can fire in either pulse or beam settings and to varying power levels. ST directed energy weapons can target by either a computer or be manned. The vast majority of shots taken are very accurate. In space battles individual areas of an enemy vessel will be targeted such as engines, weapon systems, etc. Directed energy weapons are often fired along with missile-like weapons such as
photon torpedoes (not to be confused with SW's proton torpedoes). Torpedoes are very accurate as well and follow their targets. Firing arcs of the DEWs are generally more than 90 degrees (and on many Federation ships it comes close to 180 degrees) but multiple weapons arrays are on each ship, usually having any starship with firing arcs covering the entire ship. Torpedo firing arcs have less coverage but there are usually two torpedo launchers, one bow and one stern, meaning the ship can fire in both directions. The majority of starships can fire in all six (bow, stern, port, starboard, ventral, and dorsal) directions. As far as range, I know ST ships can fire over 10 km but most every episode we see starships much closer than that, perhaps at around 2 km away from each other. This, just like I explained with SW, is due more to keeping the action in the camera shot than anything else. Also, since ST is mostly TV episodes the budget didn't allow for elaborate space battles.
Defensive systems in ST come in three categories:
shields,
armor (hull plating), and
cloaking technology (although this could be considered offensive too). Unlike SW where shield generators are placed in overly exposed and vulnerable positions, in ST (deflector [isn't it odd how both franchises have very similar or identical names for technologies?]) shield generators are almost always located inside of the starship. Neither matter nor energy can pass through the shields. While shields are up they also prevent enemy boarding. If the enemy does board the ship, however, it is possible to put up shields inside to trap them. Starship hull armor is made up of many different made up metals, and is undoubtedly stronger than titanium (as they can withstand explosions of multiple megatons and maintain integrity). There is not much to expand on there. As for cloaking technology, that is something absent from SW canon but very prevalent in ST canon. Even if you know what to look for when an enemy is cloaked it is still difficult to find them. In
Star Trek VI: The Undiscovered Country a Klingon Bird-of-Prey could fire while cloaked and in
Star Trek: Nemesis the
Scimitar had a virtual perfect cloak. This technology would be very useful if say...you needed to shoot some explosive torpedoes down an exhaust port.
Here is a good video of ST weapons in action (although it seems like every ship except the
Defiant has its shields offline!
)
A Cardassian Galor-class firing two of its phaser banks simultaneously and the Enterprise-D's phaser beam impacting a Klingon BoP's shields.
So, where does the advantage lie regarding weapons and defenses? If we're talking sheer numbers then SW wins. Since their starships are much larger than those of ST they have much more weaponry. Whereas the
Enterprise-E may have eight weapons arrays, a Star Destroyer will have dozens. The number of guns doesn't necessarily mean the advantage is with the numbers, however. Using what we can see on TV and in the theater from both of the franchises, there is no obvious advantage in the power of the weapons. Even Han Solo's minuscule
Millennium Falcon was able to withstand multiple hits from Star Destroyer turbolasers (I'm assuming they were turbolasers) and the Rebel X-Wings involved in the Battle of Yavin were able to withstand many turbolaser bursts from the Death Star(!!!). Lasers seem to be the dominant weapon system in the SW universe while the only ships that use torpedoes or missile-type weapons are fighters. ST uses both DEWs and missile-type weapons almost equally.
While ST ships do not have the sheer number of weapon systems that SW ships do, does that equate to SW weapons being overwhelmingly superior as well? I don't think so. As I said, there is nothing I've seen that supports that. If one takes Darth Wong's calculations of weapon power from both franchises correctly, that means everything in SW is severely overpowered compared to ST. But that really makes no sense. How could Bobba Fett's
Slave I be more powerful than the
Enterprise-D? The
Enterprise is much larger and seems far more capable. In
Ep. III Anakin fires lasers at Obi Wan's fighter (that aren't overly smaller than
Slave I and indeed we see another of Obi Wan's fighters get shot at by the
Slave I in
Ep. II) to shoot off the buzz droids and the fighter survives a couple or a few laser bursts. If SW ships are so insanely overpowered, why didn't Obi Wan's fighter simply disintegrate? This is why I take "official" SW technical information with a grain of salt. This is where common sense trumps fantasy "facts". I am sort of split on this argument. SW wins in numbers, which is expected, but I think ST wins when it comes to other points like targeting and use of weapons. In SW there seems to be no real purpose of shooting other than to...shoot. In ST there is actually strategy to it, but I'll expand on strategy and tactics later.
And then there is defense. This is even more difficult to judge than weapons since shields or armor in SW is more often referenced in passing rather than us getting to see how it all works and understand it better. On one hand I know ST ships have shields that can withstand a lot of damage (if the combating ships are comparable in strength) and the ships can orientate themselves to have a different section of shields facing the enemy so that the weakened area of shields can gain its strength back (more on that later as well). In countless ST scenes we watch as the shields are weakened so we get an understanding of how much they can take and what they mean for the ship(s). The same goes for the hull. ST often references hull plating and hull integrity. But in SW there's barely any mention of hull armor and it seems as if either the deflector shields are up or down. We have no scenes to gauge the relative strength of the hull or shields and it seems that once shields are down the ship is screwed. I can assume SW ships have better armor and shields simply because they're bigger but that is not a well-founded assumption, and is it one that makes sense to attribute to other unknowns of SW? I think not.
Again, I don't wish to knock SW for not having enough emphasis on the technicalities of its ships, weapons, etc., but if we're arguing SW vs ST it difficult to give the advantage towards SW if there is so little to base arguments on and the official publications remain equally as unfounded.
Here is a website that deals a lot with SW vs ST but is an obvious pro-ST site whereas Darth Wong's is obviously pro-SW.