Valkyrie

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Valkyrie
Race	Colonial
Type	Military
FTL	Yes
Propulsion
Crew
Capacity
CO	Commander William Adama (Last Known)
XO	Colonel Saul Tigh (Last Known)
Role	carrier / battleship hybrid
Weapons	16 small dual mounted turrets, 35 heavy dual turrets capable of firing missiles, Unknown number of point defense guns, at least 6 ship-to-ship missiles silos.
Armaments	{{{arm}}}
Status	Destroyed over Caprica
Other Images	More images...
Dimensions
Length	{{{length}}}
Width	{{{width}}}
Height	{{{height}}}
Weight	{{{weight}}}
Wingspan	{{{wingspan}}}
Other	{{{otherdi}}}

Valkyrie was a Colonial battlestar, belonging to Battlestar Group 41, under the command of William Adama before the Fall of the Twelve Colonies. The ship's class is not known.

Approximately six years^[1] before the Cylon attack, Valkyrie had been ordered by Admiral Peter Corman to deploy a stealth recon ship over the Armistice Line to test Cylon resolve and gather intelligence on Cylon activities. During the mission, an unidentified DRADIS contact (presumed to have been a spacecraft) entered the area of the stealth ship piloted by Lieutenant Daniel Novacek and damaged the Stealthstar's engines before jumping away.

Two further (presumed Cylon) contacts were detected on an intercept course with the stealth ship. Rather than attempt a rescue of the disabled craft, Commander Adama ordered the stealth ship to be destroyed to prevent its discovery and capture.

In the days and years following the incident at the Armistice Line, and in particular after the Cylon attack on the Colonies, Adama came to believe that his actions had provoked the Cylon assault, having "proved" to them that humanity was aggressive and not to be trusted (Hero).

During the Cylon assault on the Twelve Colonies, Valkyrie is one of several battlestars of the same class that attempt to engage the Cylons over Caprica, only to be disabled by the CNP's backdoors. It is destroyed shortly after. (The Plan)

Debates Surrounding the Valkyrie type battlestar

One theory holds that the Valkyrie type Battlestar is an intermediate model to Galactica and Pegasus. However, it is just as possible that it is as new or a newer design as the Mercury class, but designed for a different role. The overall design shares more commonalities with the Mercury class, such as the non-retracting flight pods and the shape of the bow. In addition, the CIC is nearly identical to that of Pegasus ^[2], as are the electronics and instrumentation.

There is much debate as to the size of the Valkyrie type. One of the most widely accepted estimations is around 1200m, 2/3rds the size of a Mercury class. This was determined using a still in Razor were a Valkyrie type can be seen in the same image as the Pegasus. Another very similar method resulted in a length of 1387m, for this estimation the Valkyrie type was taken as 75% the length of Pegasus. A pixel count of the previously mentioned image gives a length of around 900-1000m, however this is not taking into account the fact that the image does not give a perfect side on view of the Valkyrie type ship or the fact that it is further away from the viewer than Pegasus. It shoud be taken into acount that this image may not acturaly be reliable, there is a Galactica type battlestar in the top right that is larger than Pegasus. When the ship is scaled so that the forwards facing launch tubes fit the size of a viper, the entire length of the Valkyrie totals at some 700m, almost twice as low as other approximations. It should be noted that this assumes the launch tubes were designed for vipers (see below). Another fact to consider would be that if the Valkyrie was really 1200m in length then that would make the 3 forward facing launch tubes around 7.8m wide which is larger than raptors. This may suggest that they were intended for a range of larger specialist craft. However, the existence of such craft was never shown or even hinted in the show; also, the entrances to the tubes are distinctly shaped to the profile of a viper. Several people have come forward on sci-fi related forums, claiming to have had access to show's materials on this ship at some point, and while contract obligations make them unable to share actual evidence, claim that the ship is indeed about as long as the Galactica's flight pod, just under 700m in total. One thing that every credible size estimation shows is that the Valkyrie is smaller than Galactica. This may indicate that it was designed as a support vessel for larger Battlestar, or that the Valkyrie type Battlestar were designed more for covert operations and stealth whereas the Mercury class was designed more as an all-out assault platform, given its size, armament and fighter strength. Another possibility is that the Valkyrie type is an advanced Battlestar that uses specialized weaponry and defence mechanisms to destroy enemy ships. The fact that it is shown firing missiles from its turrets partially support this. New information from "the Plan", however, suggests that the "Valkyrie" type is merely the mainstay of the fleet - smaller size enables it to be mass-produced more easily, and partake in missions that her huge counterparts aren't well suited for. This would suggest that massive battlestars such as the Mercury class come in smaller numbers and serve as fleet / task force leaders, with the smaller Valkyrie types taking on the roles of fleet support, patrol, etc. They would also be more suitable for covert operations since a single Valkyrie type is bound to draw less attention then a Mercury class battlestar.

The Valkyrie type has very different turrets when compared to the Galactic type and Mercury class ships. It is not clear whether Valkyrie carries missile batteries resembling gun turrets or if her guns are able to fire some type of rocket-boosted, homing munitions. Her turrets are positioned very differently from Galactica and Pegasus. The majority are located in alcoves all along the ships hull. There are 2 large turrets on top of both flight pods an 1 large turret below located behind the launch tubes, along with one small turret mounted on the undersides of the flight pods (The Plan). The rest of the guns are located in similar positions to the two previously established classes. There are 4 large guns mounted on the ship's "spine". There are also 6 large guns mounted along the axis on the ventral side of the ship. The remaining turrets are positioned similarly to Pegasus. There are 3 small turrets and 2 large turrets on the side of each flight pod plus 2 more small turrets on either side of the head. There are also 2 of the larger guns facing forwards on the heads underside. In addition, there are 5 large turrets located on each side of the main body of the ship with one additional turret located in the rear of the ship between the top two engine pods. Finally, there are a total of 4 small turrets and 2 large turrets mounted on the dorsal side of the aligator head. This adds up to a total 51 guns accounted for. There has been some speculation that there are also 6 missle silos located behind the 4 dorsal guns and just in front of the engine pods; it should be taken into account, however, that these speculations were derived from some fan-made 3d models - there is absolutely no official data to back this up, although screenshots from The Plan seem to disprove this.^[3][4][5]

The Valkyrie has six launch tubes, three located under each flight pod, facing forward in the same direction as the ship (unlike the Galactica or Pegasus whose tubes are oriented at 90 degrees from the ship's body). It is generally assumed that these are viper lunch tubes although it is possible that they are in fact intended for larger craft such as Raptors. In Razor a viper can be seen on the flight deck of a Valkyrie type. This viper is seen side on but appears to be far smaller than the launch tubes. The launch tube seems to be almost as wide as the viper is long. It should be noted that depth could make the viper look smaller than it really is although it seems to be very close to the end of the flight deck. It is possible, however unlikely, that there are more launch tubes facing outwards as there is enough space between the guns located here. Even with the most liberal estimations, it is likely that there would be no more than 20 launch tubes per pod.

There has also been some debate as to the number of engines the Valkyrie type has. Some assume that the episode "Hero" shows the ship to have six engines, however that is an easy mistake to make (see picture) on the very bottom of the picture people assume that the parts sticking out are the bottom engines, when they are really "flaps," who's purpose is presumably thrust vectoring, extending from the top engines, which means the Valkyrie has four engines in total. Footage in Razor confirms this, as a ship of this class is shown with only four engines during its destruction (missing the two on the bottom). In spite of this fact some fans still insisted that there are six engines saying that the Valkyrie type at the scorpion shipyards was still under construction. The recently released BSG movie "The Plan" shows several Valkyrie-type battlestars (Including Valkyrie herself) in much greater detail then before; the flaps on the engines that confused some people can easily be seen in those shots. "The Plan" proved that this battlestar class has 4 engines.

At least two (maybe 3) unnamed battlestars matching Valkyrie's design are docked at the Scorpion Fleet Shipyards when it is destroyed (Razor).

Notes

• The ship's hull number can't be seen. It is thus not known if it is identical to its Battlestar Group.
• The Valkyrie CIC insignia adorned David Eick's production office wall in the Vancouver Film Studios where Battlestar Galactica was produced.^[6]
• In mythology, a Valkyrie is a minor female deity who chose the most heroic fallen warriors to ascend to Valhalla where they would await Ragnarok. Valkyrie is the third (second onscreen) instance of Norse mythology being used, the first being Ragnar Station, which is a reference to Ragnarok, the Norse "twilight of the gods" (Miniseries).
  • Interestingly, the story of Ragnarok parallels with the career of William Adama, the former commander of Valkyrie. Adama, considered a fallen hero by the admiralty, is transferred from the advanced Valkyrie to command the aging Galactica about a year before the Cylon attack. Later, with the fall of the Colonies, he finds himself in the Battle of Ragnar Anchorage, the last battle within Colonial space.
• The Valkyrie-class bears a striking resemblance to the original Battlestar Galactica from TOS, especially the similar looking bow sections which are more triangular and pointed than the RDM Galactica's rounded edges.

Related Imagery

Valkyrie firing a ship-to-ship missile	One of the ship's flight pods.	A Valkyrie-type battlestar destroyed over Scorpia (Razor).	The ship's batteries.
The CIC.	Full view of CIC.	Valkyrie insignia	Valkyrie armpatch.

References