The term rifle is used to refer to a type of weapon, a hand-held weapon that has been specifically manufactured to fire in an extremely accurate straight line. The term originates in projectile weapons, which had a "rifled" pattern inscribed in their barrels, to create a spinning projectile that was extremely accurate and powerful due to the specific motion imparted upon it by the rifling controlling and harnessing the weapon's firing force.

In later usage, the term rifle has become much more generalized, and can refer to directed energy weapons that have similar modifications to ensure accuracy and power of their discharges.

Since the term "rifle" refers to a modification to a projectile-firing gun barrel, it is not clear how it could refer to an energy weapon.

Types of riflesEdit

• automatic rifle (projectile weapon)
  • AK-74
  • M16 assault rifle
• blast rifle
• disruptor rifle
• Federation assault rifle
• infinity modulator
• laser rifle
• M1 Garand
• Minosian rifle
• net rifle
• phase disruptor rifle
• phaser rifle
  • compression phaser rifle
• Pipe gun
• plasma rifle
• polaron pulse rifle
• Scavenger rifle
• sniper rifle (projectile weapon)
• TR-116
• TR-120

LinksEdit

• Rifle article at Memory Alpha, the wiki for canon Star Trek.
• Rifle article at Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia.