How powerful is B5?

In "Severed Dreams" the station appeared to be little more powerful than an Omega-class cruiser. In an earlier episode (The Fall of Night) it destroyed a centauri cruiser. In "Gropos" it was said to be able to "Take on a warship" or something like that. It seems the station is somewhat more powerful than an earth destroyer.
The number and type of weapons is unclear. Did the RPG material ever give any information on this?

[This message has been edited by breen (edited January 27, 2002).]

Little more powerful than an OCD?

Wasn't B5, with the two other OCDs, outnumbered? The fact that they held off the first wave as long as they did would at least seem to indicate that B5 has more firepower than an OCD.

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I'd place B5 as roughly equivlant to a OCD. Doesn't B5 have more Starfury wings than a normal OCD?
I thought that would help B5 a bit in the fight in "Severed Dreams."

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It has way more fighters than several Omegas. After the upgrade mentioned in "GROPOS", the station was supposed to hold its own against a Minbari cruiser, at least according to EarthForce wishful thinking.

As far as truth is concerned, a Minbari cruiser would simply take its time, manouver a bit, take out the fighter wings and fire some shots from afar. In half a day, the station would still fall, but you can't wish much more from Earth technology.

As for "Severed Dreams"... the station and two defected warships (already damaged) defeated a bunch of fresh and fully equipped warships. I am not sure how many. I would however suspect that B5 can face and defeat at least two Omegas.

[This message has been edited by Lennier (edited January 27, 2002).]

remember, in severed dreams B5 wasnt looking to destroy the enemy ships... they were mostly going for defense

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I believe the station has less fighters than a destroyer. It has three squadrons. Omega-class ships have at least four, based on the number of fighters launched from the docking bays in "Severed Dreams".

The only thing clear was that the upgrade mentioned in "Gropos" made Babylon 5 armed with heavy weapons. Remember before that we only saw anti-fighter batteries. Now we see a bunch of cool and mean looking cannons sticking out of Babylon 5. It wasn't upgraded to take on a Minbari Warcruiser. It was merely meant the Babylon 5 could now take on a warship. In other words, has a chance against standard warships of the other races, unlike the earlier version which would have been cut down to size by any large warship.

As for being the firepower equivalent of the Omega or Centauri Primus, well, I was notified that the Centauri Cruiser was firing on 3 targets in "Fall of night" B5, fighters and Narn Cruiser. Yet it still managed to inflict considerable damage to B5, granted B5 thrashed the Centauri Battlecruiser in the end.

The OCD was already damaged by the combined attacks of B5's remaining fighters and the Alexander.

These observations point out that B5 is not as powerful as some think it is. But it doesn't mean its helpless against other Warships. Quite the contrary. It merely makes any invasion NOT worth it. 4 fighter squadrons and a fully armed station still packs a punch.

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<BLOCKQUOTE><font size="1" face="Verdana, arial">quote:</font><HR>Originally posted by breen:
I believe the station has less fighters than a destroyer. It has three squadrons. Omega-class ships have at least four<HR></BLOCKQUOTE>

I'm pretty sure, B5 had at least 4 wings. It's not practical to give more fighters to a ship containing some 800 people, than to a space station that can't move with some 250,000 people.




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"Ink on a page!" -Refa describing the moral depths of a treaty.
"Life is life, whether it's wrapped in skin, scales or feathers." -Dr. Franklin

Babylon 5 can support no more than 28 fighters. We have heard of alpha, delta, and zeta squadrons. I don't recall a number being mentioned during the series. Assuming that all 28 fighters were attached to the station, it still has no more fighters than a destroyer.

i guess i could see why B5 wouldn't need "big guns" being a station for peace and all. But it would have been cool for it to have some heavy fire power, just in maybe one ep

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<BLOCKQUOTE><font size="1" face="Verdana, arial">quote:</font><HR>Originally posted by Morden:
I'm pretty sure, B5 had at least 4 wings. It's not practical to give more fighters to a ship containing some 800 people, than to a space station that can't move with some 250,000 people.

<HR></BLOCKQUOTE>

Yes it is......the station is just a station in neutral teritory - the ship is a WARSHIP, bult for battles



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I would believe that the fighter squadrons of Babylon 5 are simply a bit larger. My purely subjective guess: the station has about 50 fighters.

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"We are the universe, trying to figure itself out.
Unfortunately we as software lack any coherent documentation."
-- Delenn

I do stand under correction but I think B5 is more defense orientated than anything else.
So in order to measure how strong it is we need to look at both the offensive as well as defensive capabilities of the station.
I would have to say that it is marginally stronger than your omega class ship, puting it on an even footing with narn and centaurie warships. It may hold it's own against a Minbari Cruiser but not likely. A shadow vessel would obliterate it without breaking a sweat! (if you exclude telepaths of course)
If I remember correctly B5 had 3 squads but that didn't max out it's docking potential for more 'furies. The starfury's would probably encompass a large portion of the stations offensive capabilities, whereas it's defense gris would inflict enough damage to make any destroyer wary. Unfortunately for B5 is that it has no moneuvering capabilities which puts it at a major disadvantage!

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<BLOCKQUOTE><font size="1" face="Verdana, arial">quote:</font><HR>Originally posted by Lennier:
I would believe that the fighter squadrons of Babylon 5 are simply a bit larger. My purely subjective guess: the station has about 50 fighters.

<HR></BLOCKQUOTE>



<table bgcolor=black><tr><td bgcolor=black><font size=1 color=white>Spoiler:</font></td></tr><tr><td><font size=2 color=black>There are only 28 fighter bays</font></td></tr></table>



[This message has been edited by breen (edited January 28, 2002).]

The station has the fire power to take down a warship, its easily destroyed the Centauri Primus destoyer as it took out the Roenoake(Omega class) but against two or more it would fail.....

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In reply to Breen:

The number of fighters is not limited to the number of launching bays. Fighters can also use standard docking bays. The "drop-down" fighter bays are only meant for quick launch. They come back through ordinary docking bays.

If you need to get all fighters out, you simply launch them one after another.

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"We are the universe, trying to figure itself out.
Unfortunately we as software lack any coherent documentation."
-- Delenn

Zeta squadron consisted of 7 fighters in when it was introduced in "Survivors".
How do we know that there are 4 squadrons? I know that the existense of a Delta squadron would seem to imply that. But then how does Zeta fit in?

Epsilon squadron would get confused with the planet below. Better to call it zeta.

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Andrew Swallow

but you dont need much when you have a fleet of white stars and minbari war ships and numerous other alien cruisers backing you up, now would you

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