A rifle and the standard large weapon issued to Starfleet personnel, the Type III phaser of the 2360s had a 50% greater energy reserve than its Type II counterpart, although this increase allowed for longer periods of fire rather than any rise in output levels. The latest and most commonly used version of the Type III incorporates a deuterium plasma generator that can be replaced in the field, a twelve stage plasma accelerator, a five stage cascading pre-fire chamber and a transitional-phase pulse accelerator.