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In "Scorpion, Part 2", the Borg reveal that they know Voyager's weapons inventory, but give an evasive answer as to how they got it:

Seven of Nine: Voyager's weapons inventory. Photon torpedo complement thirty two. Class six warhead. Explosive yield two hundred isotons.

Tuvok: How did you obtain this information?

Seven of Nine: We are Borg.

Tuvok: Naturally.

What is the most likely explanation for how the Borg actually got this information? Did they assimilate it? If so, from whom?

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    Sensors, right?
    – Ham Sandwich
    Jul 27, 2016 at 2:07
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    Why do you say "Inventory"? It can as well be the specificaition (complement 32 - i.e. capacity to carry 32 torpedoes). Unless the Voyager class has many subversions due to refits - that will be the same for all of them. Which means that knowing what class of ship the voyager is gives you the capacity. There is no indication this is a "current" load level.
    – TomTom
    Jul 27, 2016 at 6:34
  • @TomTom I say "inventory" because that's what Seven of Nine said in the episode.
    – Thunderforge
    Jul 27, 2016 at 14:48
  • Yes, but from the way she says it it can also refer to specification. Such as "a tridend nuclear submarine has a..." - which does not mean a SPECIFIC one, but one that is fully loaded. And those specs are much easier available.
    – TomTom
    Jul 27, 2016 at 14:57
  • The Borg may have assimilated or destroyed an Intrepid-class ship long before the encounter with Voyager.
    – Overmind
    Jul 28, 2016 at 9:01

2 Answers 2

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Polaron Beams

Memory Alpha explains that Borg Cubes have Polaron Beams which were :

capable of scanning through Federation shield technology

We witness in VOY 'Scorpion' this scanning occurred (we observe a green light scanning through the bridge). It is likely that the Borg determined their weapons complement using this scan they had run a very short time ago, knowing they would have detected weapons fire from Voyager given its position in Borg Space.

The designations for these weapons provided by Seven aren't made clear as to whether they are the Federation or Borg classifications, so they could have determined the yield by scanning the torpedoes' quantity of explosive material (photopic energy I believe) and categorised it based on their own scales.

Alternatively, such information could have been assimilated during Wolf 359 where several Federation ships were destroyed and many Starfleet officers assimilated. Such torpedoes likely would have at least been in development then and, considering Starfleet was facing the Borg, it is possible such torpedoes may have been fired at the cube in question, meaning relevant information may have been assimilated.

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  • It is logical to conclude they would have assimilated this information then. There's a couple of years difference between Wolf 359 and the launch of Voyager. I don't know how ship design works within the Federation or how long it takes to build one, but I imagine the schematics for the ship weren't available for just about everyone at that time. Of-course there's also the risk of the plans being revised in the mean time.
    – Mast
    Jul 27, 2016 at 7:04
  • @Mast indeed I do recall that Voyager had been equipped with several state of the art torpedoes for their mission in the badlands however I doubt that the naming conventions would have changed much since Wolf 359
    – Often Right
    Jul 27, 2016 at 7:57
  • @Mast actually, looking at the quote from the question I might change that, as it's not made clear whether class six is a Federation or Borg designation. Irrespectively, their ability to identify the weapons is likely from scans
    – Often Right
    Jul 27, 2016 at 7:58
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    Those state if the art torpedoes were also all used in the first couple of episodes and never replenished
    – user2813274
    Jul 27, 2016 at 11:41
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    @OftenRight It's definitely Federation classification. In Dreadnought, by Janeway: "Voyager wasn't in service when she did it. We're equipped with type six photon torpedoes." That's before they encountered the Borg.
    – Mast
    Aug 1, 2016 at 17:58
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IIRC a borg cube had scanned Voyager fairly recently which means Seven of Nine was most likely using the information gained in that scan.

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