WordNet
n. any military structure or vehicle bearing weapons [syn: platform]
Wikipedia
A weapons platform is generally any structure or system on which a weapon can be mounted. For example, a fighter jet is a weapons platform for missiles, bombs or autocannons. Other vehicles such as the Humvee are considered weapons platforms as well, such as for grenade launchers, machine guns and some missile launchers.
The term can describe a naval vessel, or an actual firearm system. In more general use, a weapons platform could be structured around a gun, such as a gun turret on a ship, or bracing on an aircraft. In addition, space satellites have been proposed as potential weapons platforms. These satellites could carry an arsenal of weapons, such as to threaten other countries with the possibility of a nuclear strike. (See Rods from God)
The earliest weapons platforms were chariots, followed by war- wagons. The ancient Greek Helepolis, a massive siege tower which mounted catapults, could also be considered a weapons platform. The next attempt to mount weapons on platforms was made at sea, with catapults and eventually cannon mounted on their final form as ships of the line before the advent of ironclad warships mounting turrets.
On land, the attempt to mount weapons on mobile platforms in the modern period was first made with railway guns. These, as forms of artillery, were the last vestiges of development of the super-weapon thinking before the advent of the tanks that changed the use of weapons platforms in warfare, although the largest railway guns were still used during the Second World War on the Eastern Front.
Usage examples of "weapons platform".
In your haste to disperse your political opposition by using a mobile nuclear weapons platform, did you bother to consider the size of Unit-0045's warhull and treads, as compared with the size of Jefferson's streets?
They built a weapons platform in space, thinly disguised as a colony -- enough to fool visitors on the guided tours.
It was an Orion flying weapons platform, skimming two to three meters off the ground.
She barely remembered Cy urging her to step onto the largest weapons platform with Chinchee and the hivebinder.
On the map table, the schematics of the weapons platform were replaced by a chart of the Loki System.
But even a Ferengi should know that there was no possible way that a weapons platform of this magnitude could be used for any good purpose.
But there was a major difference even there, for that orbital weapons platform was designed to stay exactly where it was.
It was, as its very name suggested, a fixed weapons platform, a fortress, armed and armored to fight to the death at need in defense of a specific planet or warp point.