Torpedo Launch Bay

A torpedo launch bay houses a torpedo launcher aboard a ship or station, along with accompanying equipment. This includes torpedo fuel and warhead reactant tankage, elevator/conveyors from the Torpedo Magazine, piping for gas injectors, trunking for tactical sensor inputs, and spare parts. As with most space-based weaponry, it is heavily automated. Since the torpedos are armed here, the bay is surrounded by a reinforced mesh of foamed vac-whisker silicon-copper-duranite insulation sandwiched between heavy sheets of duranuim. This, coupled with containment fields, is designed to reduce damage to the rest of the ship in case of an accident or malfunction involving the tube or its torpedos.

The bay is manned by Tactical personnel, and on Starfleet vessels is overseen by a Gunner's Mate. Sufficient room to allow maintenance and servicing is designed into the bays, but on some classes of ship this can only be done using Jefferies tubes. There is also a small monitoring room which allows constant watch over the system. It is tied into the ship/station's tactical sensor grid, allowing the torpedomen to see the same information that is relayed to and from the Bridge Tactical station.