Compression phaser rifle
The Compression phaser rifle was a type of Starfleet phaser rifle carried on some Starfleet starships in the 2370s. ()

History
The  was equipped with compression phaser rifles as a standard part of its weapons inventory. They were first used by the away team that transported to the 's array in 2371. ()

When set to wide beam, a compression phaser rifle could take out a large group of individuals in one shot. ()

The  was also equipped with compression phaser rifles in 2371, as several were still used in 2376 shortly before the ship's destruction. ()

Starfleet security personnel boarding the  in 2374 carried compression phaser rifles. ()

Appendices

See also 
 Pulse compression wave
 Regenerative phaser

Appearances

Background information 
In the original pencil drawings by Rick Sternbach of the compression phaser rifle, it was designated as a type IV phaser.  According to , type IV phasers were normally used as ship-mounted weaponry on Type 6 shuttlecraft. 

According to , normal phaser weaponry was useless inside a dampening field. In the episode , Captain Janeway utilized a compression phaser rifle inside the , while the ship was trapped and defenseless in the Night Alien dampening field. So at least in this regard the compression phaser rifle appeared to be more advanced.

In the Star Trek: Deep Space Nine Technical Manual, the rifle was classified as type-3a. According to the book, the weapon features a durable twin power cell and a split emitter resonator for tuning and focusing the phaser beam. While the other new phaser rifle seen in  and the third and fourth season  are identified in the text as the type-3b assault rifle, an image of that weapon on page 88 presumably mistakenly identifies it as the type-3a compression phaser rifle. Both rifle types are identified in the  as compression versions of the phaser rifle. 

The other rifles first seen in First Contact are usable weapons in Star Trek: Voyager - Elite Force and Star Trek: Elite Force II and are identified as compression phaser rifles in the game.

External link 
 
Hand-held weapons
Directed energy weapons