Starfleet weapons: Phaser. Part 5. History. The 24th century saw many new advanced forms of phaser weaponry for the Federation, such as the ever more powerful phaser arrays that made use of multiple phaser emitter segments, the rapid-fire phaser cannons and new compression phaser rifles. Sources: Star Trek: The Next Generation, all; DS9: "The Search, Part I"; VOY: "Caretaker". As a historical note, the regenerative phaser was chosen instead of the TR-116 for development. Source: DS9: "Field of F