Disruptors are directed-energy weapons used by many powers, most famously the Klingons and Romulans, in both hand-held and starship-mounted forms.
Where Starfleet favors the phaser, a number of other civilizations arm their soldiers and ships with disruptors. Klingon warriors carry disruptor pistols and rifles alongside their bladed weapons, and Klingon vessels from battle cruisers to birds-of-prey mount disruptor cannons. Romulan forces use them as well, and Cardassian and other designs appear throughout the Alpha Quadrant.
On screen, disruptor fire is often depicted as more destructive and less precise than a phaser beam, and the weapons are associated with cultures that prize martial strength. Klingon disruptors in particular became a familiar sight in conflicts with the Federation in the 23rd century and in the Dominion War of the 2370s.
Klingon starship disruptors played a central part in the events leading to the Khitomer peace conference in 2293, when a prototype bird-of-prey commanded by General Chang proved able to fire its weapons while cloaked, a capability no one had thought possible.