Originally posted by Uruz
What, praytell, is a "cannon" ship?
That would be warship that, instead of carrying energy weapons like phasers or guided weapons like photon or quantum torpedoes, instead attacks with ballistic projectiles fired using chemical propulsion.
They are common among pirate fleets from certain non-federation member planets which which have not developed energy weapons yet or weapons with the yeld of the aforementioned Torpedoes. The appeal of "cannon ships" consist mainly in terms of cost. Missles are expensive, and their purchase can draw unneeded attention to the head of a pirate fleet, not to mention the actual cost of the missiles. On the other hand, with a cannon ship, the only major cost required for arming the weapons is propellant.
However, "cannon" ships stand no chance whatsoever against a ship from any "modern" (as of TOS) space navy, so are not often seen. They may, however, may be a little more common during the period of "Enterprize" as the projectiles might be a little more effective against polarized hull plating than full fledged shields.
(How's that for a BS answer, eh?)
"Would you mind not shooting at the thermonucular weapons!!!"
-John Travolta in "Broken Arrow"
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Not Cannon as in a big gun 