 OMEGA DESTROYER
Craft: Rocketdyne Omega Class Destroyer
Affiliation: Earth Alliance/Earthforce
Type: Destroyer
Scale: Capital
Dimensions:
-Length: 1714.3m
Skill: Capital starship piloting: Omega Destroyer
Crew: 1,220
-Gunners: 46
-Troops: 120
-Skeleton: 305/+15
-Emergency Evac: 2,500/2 months (or more)
Crew Skill: Astrogation 4D, Capital ship gunnery 5D, Capital ship piloting 5D+2, Sensors 4D, Starship gunnery 5D
Passengers: 80
Cargo Capacity: 28,000 metric tons
Consumables: 4 years
Cost: Not Available For Sale
Hyperspace Jump Engine: Yes
Nav Computer: Yes (+1D Astrogation)
Maneuverability: 1D+1
Speed:
-Space: 4
-Atmosphere: N/A
Hull: 6D
Shields: N/A
Sensors:
-Passive: 40/1D
-Scan: 80/2D
-Search: 160/3D
-Focus: 5/4D
AUXILIARY CRAFT CAPACITY:
-48 Starfuries (various models)/2 squadrons of 24
-2 Work Shuttles
-2 Atmospheric Shuttles
WEAPONS:
2 Gigaton Fusion Mine Launchers
Location: Mounted front, Under launch bay
Fire Arc: 2 front
Crew: 4 (2)
Skill: Capital starship gunnery
Scale: Capital
Fire Control: 0D
Range:
-Space: 2-8/20/40
-Atmosphere: 4-16/40/80km
Speed: 9/9kmh
Damage: 10D/5D
Ammo: 4 each
Rate Of Fire: 1/4
72 Tactical Missile Launchers
Location: Mounted on sides of hull
Fire Arc: 36 right, 36 left, Indirect Fire
Crew: 2 (bridge crew)
Skill: Capital starship gunnery
Scale: Capital
Fire Control: 3D
Range:
-Space: 2-10/20/40
-Atmosphere: 4-20/40/80km
Damage: 8D
Ammo: 1 each (72 total)
Rate Of Fire: 1
Special:
-Single fire missile silos, no need for crew or ammo.
-Indirect Fire, can be fired as "turrets" outside of fire arc.
-Fire Control: 2D (when fired at different Fire Arc)
-Other missile types possible.
4 Laser Batteries
Location: Mounted front sides, rear sides
Fire Arc: 2 front, 2 back
Crew: 2 (4)/bridge crew
Skill: Capital starship gunnery
Scale: Capital
Fire Control: 2D
Range:
-Space: 3-15/30/60
-Atmosphere: 6-30/60/120km
Damage: 7D
Rate Of Fire: 1/2
6 Pulse Discharge Cannons
Location: Mounted fore/aft of hull
Fire Arc: 2 front, 4 back
Crew: 2 (6)
Skill: Capital starship gunnery
Scale: Capital
Fire Control: 3D
Range:
-Space: 2-12/24/50
-Atmosphere: 4-24/40/100km
Damage: 4D
Rate Of Fire: 2
4 52mm Plasma Pulse Cannons
Location: Mounted in middle/forward hull
Fire Arc: 4 turrets
Crew: 1 (4)
Skill: Starship gunnery
Scale: Starfighter
Fire Control: 3D
Range:
-Space: 1-3/12/25
-Atmosphere: 100-300/1.2/2.5km
Damage: 6D
Rate Of Fire: 2
8 40mm Pulse Cannons
Location: Mounted in midddle/aft hull
Fire Arc: 8 turrets
Crew: 1 (8)
Skill: Starship gunnery
Scale: Starfighter
Fire Control: 3D
Range:
-Space: 1-3/12/25
-Atmosphere: 100-300/1.2/2.5km
Damage: 5D
Rate Of Fire: 3
4 Interceptors
Location: Mounted along hull
Fire Arc: 4 turrets
Crew: 1 (4)
Skill: Starship gunnery
Scale: Starfighter
Fire Control: 4D
Range:
-Space: 1-4/16/35
-Atmosphere: 100-400/1.6/3.5km
Damage: 2D
Rate Of Fire: 4
DESCRIPTION:
The Omega class destroyer was an Earth Alliance warship, manufactured by Rocketdyne at the Neue Hanse Orbital Shipyard
in Earth orbit. Following the Earth-Minbari War, it became the most powerful and ubiquitous capital ship of the Earthforce
fleet and one of the strongest ships ever built of the younger races.
GAME NOTES:
-ROTATING SECTIONS: If the rotating sections take damage, roll 1D. On 1 they stop rotating, the ship loses gravity, and
the crew have to operate in zero-g with all the penalties that apply. Damage to rotating sections may also cause the crew
to be thrown about (roll 1D, 1-2 causes this). If so, the crew must roll Dex against Difficult Difficulty. Failure incurs
4D damage. Ships built with rotating sections in Earth Alliance/Earthforce ships have less speed (between -1 and -2) and
maneuverability (between -1 and -1D) to than if they were built without them (with their crews operating in zero-g).
-JUMP ENGINES: Instead of Hyperdrives, most ships in the Babylon 5 setting have Hypserspace Jump Engines. Instead of the
ship instantly accelerating at faster than light speeds and be partially or fully in hyperspace in an instant, this drive
opens an aperture, or "jumpgate", into Hyperspace. The ship enters Hyperspace and flies as though it were normal space,
locking onto Hyperspace beacons that mark the destination to desired coordinates (though Hyperspace has conditions of its
own that can cause hazards for ship travel). When a jumpgate is opened, the ship must still maneuver and fly into the
aperture. This can leave an opening for the ship to be attacked before leaving the area (unlike Star Wars where a ship can
leave immediately once the Hyperdrive is engaged). Instead of the ship's speed through Hyperspace being determined by the
quality of the Hyperdrive, it is the ship's own flight speed that determines how fast it travels through Hyperspace. Also,
Astrogation is used differently. Instead of doing calculations to plot Hyperspace coordinates, Astrogation is used to
locate and lock on to Hyperspace beacons. If the signal from these beacons is ever lost, a ship could wind up lost in
hyperspace forever.
Game Design Note
The weapons presented (above) in the stats of the Omega Class Destroyer may vary greatly from other sources. They are a
mix of several different sources, including: the official weapons loadout presented on the Babylon Project wiki page (4
Laser Batteries, 4 52mm Plasma Pulse Cannons, 8 40mm Plasma Pulse Cannons, Interceptors); information from behind the
scenes that was cut out and never used on screen (2 Fusion Mine Launchers, 72 Tactical Missile Launchers); and what the
ships have been seen using in the series (6 Heavy Plasma Pulse Cannons). While the first two sources have official
information to explain their presence in the stats, the last source only has footage from the series to explain it.
Specifically, in the Season 4 episode "No Surrender No Retreat", an Omega Class Destroyer is seen using four Plasma Pulse
Cannon weapons from locations at the rear of the ship that looked more like Laser Batteries (and seem like Laser Batteries
when used in the Season 3 episode "Severed Dreams"). In the same Season 4 episode, Omegas are shown to have eight Plasma
Pulse weapons along the hull just aft of the rotating section, and four more just ahead of it.
To rationalize the stats presented above, the Plasma Pulse Cannons along the hull, eight and four, are made starfiighter
scale as they're used on screen for combatting starfuries, while the six Heavy Plasma Pulse Cannons are made capital scale
as they are seen combating other capital scale ships (though the two forward hull cannons have been seen shooting at
starfighter scale ships before).
Technical Specifications
A continuation of many of the design elements from the Nova-class dreadnought, the Omega possessed a large rotating
section, allowing the crew to operate in gravity, eliminating the constant need for handholds and straps that often
hindered the older zero gravity warships. Ships of the Omega class were equipped with a DX-419 tracking system, supposedly
an improvement over the standard XB7 units used during the war, though several officers have noted that they never worked
right. By 2261 the system had at least begun to be upgraded.
The Omega class destroyer had more firepower than most imagine - it had launch bays that could launch gigaton class
mines. It also had 72 red missile hatches. Due to the budget limitations of Babylon 5, the Omega class destroyer was never
shown using its true firepower; rather it was only shown using its "light" weapons. It was stated that if one of these
ships appeared in your system, you were in serious trouble as this ship was one of the most powerful ever built by the
younger races.
During the Earth-Minbari War, Earth did not have any ships that could lock onto Minbari vessels, due to the stealth
technology the Minbari possessed. However, Earth ships still had the firepower to damage Minbari cruisers.[9] The Omega
Class Destroyer was the first Earth ship capable of locking onto a Minbari ship.[10] Another lesson learned from the
Earth-Minbari War was that the solid beam weapons used by the Minbari had proven to be deadly effective. Taking this lesson
in hand, the Omega's cannons could fire both in pulse mode and in solid beam, allowing for more precise and accurate fire.
HistoryEdit
Production of these ships started during the Earth-Minbari War, where construction was carried out at a number of
different locations to prevent them all being destroyed in one large attack. As with most older Earth designs, this type
does not possess artificial gravity; instead it relies on a rotating section to simulate normal Earth gravity. The weapons
systems on Omega-class destroyers are mostly directed either directly forward or back, requiring the destroyer to maneuver
potential targets into those positions to do the greatest damage. Though none were completed before the Battle of the Line,
the first of the new Omega-class began rolling off the construction lines shortly after the war's end.[11]
Over the next ten years, Omega-Class Destroyers were mass-produced to replace Earthforce's losses suffered during the
war. The Omegas quickly replaced the older Nova-class dreadnoughts and Hyperion-class heavy cruiser as the mainstream
capital ships of the Earth Alliance. .[6]
During the Earth Alliance Civil War and under orders of the Clark administration, the design of the Omega-class
destroyer was adapted with Shadow biotechnology to create the Advanced Omega-class destroyer.[12] Though it was later
discovered, these were not the only product of Shadow tech developed by Earthforce.
BEHIND THE SCENES
"As the script basically said 'If one of these turns up in your system, you know you're really really in trouble'"
– Paul Bryant - Interview on B5Scrolls
The Omega Class Destroyer mesh was designed and built by Computer Imaging Supervisor and Foundation Imaging Co-founder
Paul Bryant and had over 250,000 polygons, a huge model for its time. The distinctive front of the ship was inspired by the
look of an old South African steam engine and was intended to make the ship look "as un-aerodynamic as possible".
The design of the ship itself included a number of features that were never seen utilised in the show. Perhaps the most
obvious were the two very large forward cannons mounted under the forward docking bay which were intended to launch
"gigaton class mines" and in fact appear very similar, if not identical, to the energy mine launchers seen on the Narn
Cruiser in ("The Long, Twilight Struggle"). There were also rows of Starfury launch bay hatches located along the sections
of the rotating centrifuge. The idea was that the fighters would launch using the same principles of centrifugal force as
Babylon 5's Cobra Bays. Finally, all along the sides of the ship's hull were rows of little round hatches that were
intended to be missile silos, meant to evoke the look of the broadside cannons from a 19th Century sailing vessel. The
engine section was originally a more complex, counter-intuitive affair designed to compensate for the rotating centrifugal
section; however in the name of simplicity and expediency, the concept was pared down to just four large rear facing
engines.
One thing that many Sci-fi fans instantly recognised was that the profile of the centrifuge itself bore an uncanny
resemblance to the Alexei Leonov designed by Syd Mead for the 1984 film "2010". Though JMS has denied any intentional
similarity, Paul Bryant has admitted that the shape was in fact "lifted" from the Syd Mead's ship as a mischievous nod to
that design.
OTHER INFO:
Status: Active (as of 2281)
Affiliation: Earthforce
Class: Destroyer
Length: 1714.3m
Crew: 250-1000+officers and crew
Engines: 4 Beigie-Bryant 9000A Particle Thrust Engines
Jump Capable: Yes
Gravity: Rotational sections only
Weapons:
-Primary
--4 52mm Plasma Pulse Cannons
--4 Laser batteries (2 fore, 2 aft)
-Secondary
--8 40mm Pulse Cannons
Defenses: Interceptors
Auxiliary Craft: 2 full squadrons of Fighters (Starfurys or Thunderbolts)
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