Pegasus Fleet Forums

Can't say I realised that tank was from Halo. I've never played it, I'm afraid to say.

However, I'm willing to concede these points while taking my thinking into account and I'd be willing to work with Williams and anyone else who's interested on something that's a little more refined.

I think something heavier than the Argo would be welcomed. I know with 218 having to help fight a ground action to support a marine base thats being blockaded while dealing with our own problems it sure would speed things up on that Planet.

As a captain of an Excelsior and a member of the R&D Tech Team, I don't feel that tanks really fit with Trek. Then again, I'm not a big fan of the Argo either. I believe that, knowing there are atmospheric shuttles, the closest thing to a "tank" would perhaps be a specially-equipped atmospheric shuttle.

Let's cover a few ground concepts everyone seems to have missed:

A few points.

1: in the 24th century, we have evidence that there are anti-gravity vehicles. Thusly, roadside IEDs would not be a concern.

2: As they are anti-gravity(IE: Not touching the ground), they'd be high enough OFF the ground, to have shielding. If it were a tank, as Mister Gifford suggests, it would be rather well powered, and thus, have a VERY rigid shielding system. It'd also be rather 'quick' to deploy. The problem with Shuttlecraft, Fighters, and Runnabouts, is that, eventually, they'd have to leave. You could, in theory, build these things to be mobile Marine Command centers, capable of being left behind by a starship, to run C&C for ground missions, if the starship is called away.

3: The concept of a fast moving, armored weapons platform, that is, more or less, a tank, with Heavy Phaser Cannons, conceivable combat mine deployers, and micro-torpedo launching is not only plausible, it's a natural extension from interplanetary fighters, and could be, in theory, as the Type IX Shuttlecraft are, replicated, in parts, and assembled, in less than 48 hours, and disassembled, and recycled, in the relative same time frame, thus disabling the need to store vast quantities of them. They could then either be dropped, by assistance of other shuttles, or simply given their own IMPulse Engines, and thus land, and re-dock themselves, as needed.

4: The idea is good, I'm just thinking that all of you could think a bit more outside the box on it. You have all the technology in the Star Trek universe. Isn't our motto 'Exploring Strange new worlds'? Anything's possible.

How about a surface based adaptation? Something that the shuttle fits 'into' or 'on' that enables them to stop using as much power for propulsion (or rather, stay afloat). Granted it'd be one adaptation per shuttle craft and it'd technically make them an 'amphibious' vehicle, something which starfleet 'could' have. A lot more likely than starfleet having a tank at the very least.

I envision something that wraps around the shuttle, affording it a certain level of protection and possibly a 'cannon' and it wouldn't be able to leave the ground as such any more than a hovercraft at least but it would mean that it would become more of a tactical deployment rather than a starships bombardment method. Of course a shuttle would be able to go wherever the 'Amphibuttle' could go but the point is, the Amphibuttle uses a lot less energy and is far more stable with regards to the deployment of weapons thus instead of fighting against a planet's gravity, they'd work with it.

Well there was talk in ds9(Episode where jake lands in a combat zone and writes about being afraid) about hoppers used for troop transport on the field. Do we have any idea what they looked like? mainly, because I think with a few adjustments it would be a good replacement.

Just to add a point of... experience. Tanks would be worse than useless. With the current guidance systems, they would only serve as simple target practice for air vehicles. Even in TOS, a Starship could use it's phasers to wide area stun entire cities, or target specific parts of enemy ships while moving! With that kind of power and accuracy, ground combat really doesn't make much sense unless under some sort of shielding system covering a large area. A target as specific, obvious and vulnerable as a tank would simply be a waste of resources unless it was to suppress an indiginous ground-bound populace, something the Federation wouldn't allow.