Asgard plasma beam weapon

"...the Apollo and the Daedalus have been retrofitted with the new Asgard plasma beam weapon which—given—are very, very powerful..."

- Dr. Rodney McKay

Plasma beam weapons are a newly developed technology created by the Asgard shortly before their extinction and gifted to the Tau'ri as part of their legacy. They appear far superior to the older Asgard weapons.

Overview
Instead of firing pulses of energy like most energy weapons, Asgard plasma beam weapons release a narrow, high-intensity beam of superheated plasma. Just one of these beams is capable of overloading and penetrating even the most advanced shields and burning through the hulls and internal structures of an enemy vessel with comparative ease, causing heavy damage; if the beam hits a critical area the target can be destroyed in only two to three shots.



While there are energy weapons that can discharge more raw power at once such as the Lantean satellite weapon, they require an extended period of time and a significant amount of power to charge. In contrast, the advantage of plasma beam weapons lies in their ability to come online and charge at an incredibly rapid rate (using up relatively little power in the process) and deliver several consecutive shots in only a few seconds, overwhelming enemy defenses while they are still recovering from the previous hits.

Asgard plasma beam weapons have been proven capable of easily destroying Ori warships, Asuran Aurora-class ships, and Wraith hive ships. Hives equipped with zero point modules, however, are virtually immune to these weapons, due to the far greater density of their hull.

The weapon's power may be adjustable since it has been observed disabling a Wraith cruiser instead of destroying it. However, this may have also been managed instead by selective targeting.

History
"I want to be able to brief the President as soon as we get back. He's gonna want to know how quickly we can duplicate this new Asgard weaponry."

- Hank Landry

These weapons were placed on the Odyssey as a gift to the Tau'ri in a mass upgrade which included all the knowledge of the asgard, providing the ship with a means to effectively fight the Ori warships that had been invading the Milky Way galaxy. These weapons were eventually equipped on both the Daedalus and the Apollo, which put them to use almost immediately when they used them to rapidly destroy the Aurora-class warships that the Asurans were deploying in the Pegasus galaxy. Since then, all Daedalus-class warships have been outfitted with these weapons.

They saw action in the Battle of M2S-445, where they disabled Michael's cruiser's hyperdrive before destroying it as soon as Teyla Emmagan was rescued from the ship. They were later used in the Battle of the ZPM powered Hive Ship, but were completely ineffective against the upgraded hive due to its much-improved hull armor.

In an alternate timeline, plasma beam weapons were also equipped on the Phoenix, and used to quickly destroy several hive ships under Michael Kenmore's command.

Behind the scenes
It has been implied by both the Stargate Universe series and by Joseph Mallozzi in his blog that the shields on Lucian Alliance Ha'taks have been upgraded to resist these weapons. However, the exact degree of resistance is unknown.