The plasma drill suspended on a long chain from Nero's ship Narada, used to bore to a planet's core for red matter and jamming transporters and communications while it runs.
The drill platform is part of the Romulan mining vessel Narada in the 2009 film Star Trek. Lowered through the atmosphere on a chain many kilometres long, it fires a beam that cuts a shaft to the centre of a planet. While it operates, nearby communications and transporters do not work.
Nero uses it over Vulcan to open the way for red matter. Kirk, Sulu and Chief Engineer Olson make an orbital jump onto the platform to disable it; Olson is killed, and Kirk and Sulu fight the Romulan crew and shut the drill down, too late to save the planet.
The drill is later lowered into San Francisco Bay to do the same to Earth. Spock destroys it with the weapons of the Vulcan ship Jellyfish.