Editing Battery
From Battlestar Wiki, the free, open content Battlestar Galactica encyclopedia and episode guide
More actions
The edit can be undone.
Please check the comparison below to verify that this is what you want to do, and then publish the changes below to finish undoing the edit.
| Latest revision | Your text | ||
| Line 1: | Line 1: | ||
==Colonial Fleet== | |||
On Colonial warships, a '''battery''' is a group of | On board Colonial warships, a '''battery''' is a group of large gun turrets working together or in concert. A battery may consist of any number of gun turrets, usually four ([[The Captain's Hand]]). <ref name="battery">''Pegasus''<nowiki>'</nowiki> bow battery can be seen to consist of four gun turrets when she engages a Cylon basestar.</ref> | ||
[[Image:Flakfield.jpg|thumb|right|The flak field from ''Galactica''<nowiki>'s</nowiki> large turrets ([[Scattered]])]] | |||
[[Image:PegasusForeBatteries.jpg|thumb|right|Pegasus firing her forward batteries]] | |||
===Ammunition=== | |||
=== Ammunition === | |||
The large turrets found on Colonial [[battlestar|battlestars]] fire large-caliber flak ammunition ([[Scattered]]). These shells are too large to be loaded quickly and efficiently by crew members, and as such are loaded by mechanical hoists ([[33]]). <ref name="flak">These have been referred to as railguns by some fan sources, but there is substantial evidence to the contrary. See [[Railgun]] for more.</ref> | |||
The massive recoil caused by firing these flak rounds makes it impossible for the cannon to have a fast rate of fire like the point-defense turrets also found on battlestars. | |||
===Firing Solution=== | |||
When engaging enemy targets over any kind of distance, a '''firing solution''' must be obtained. This requires several pieces of information to be input to a battery's fire-control computer, including the target's speed, course, and range; and the firing platform's speed and course. The velocity of the shells would be known, and is constant, given that there is no air friction in the vacuum of space. The resulting computation would allow the gun captains to accurately aim their weaponry to such a degree that firing will result in a probable hit. | When engaging enemy targets over any kind of distance, a '''firing solution''' must be obtained. This requires several pieces of information to be input to a battery's fire-control computer, including the target's speed, course, and range; and the firing platform's speed and course. The velocity of the shells would be known, and is constant, given that there is no air friction in the vacuum of space. The resulting computation would allow the gun captains to accurately aim their weaponry to such a degree that firing will result in a probable hit. | ||
=== Operation === | ===Operation=== | ||
Colonial gun batteries have several modes of operation. | As with modern naval cannon, Colonial gun batteries have several modes of operation. | ||
*Salvo Fire: this calls for a battery, or elements of a battery, to fire simultaneously at a single target. | *Salvo Fire: this calls for a battery, or elements of a battery, to fire simultaneously at a single target. ([[The Captain's Hand]]) | ||
*Full Attack Mode: a battery's commander, | *Full Attack Mode: a battery's commander (Gun captain, [[33]]) will target and engage targets of oppertunity. <ref name="attack">Batteries during the [[Battle of the Resurrection Ship]] were called to "fire at will".</ref> | ||
There are likely other modes of operation for these batteries, but none have been explicitly stated on screen. | |||
===Limitations=== | |||
Since their turrets are relatively slow to traverse, a battlestar's main guns would be a poor choice for engaging [[Cylon Raider (RDM)|enemy fighters]] which are small, fast and extremely maneuverable. They would also be impractical for defending against enemy missile attacks, which would be more suceptible to attack from [[KEW|point defense weapons]] or [[Viper|Vipers]]. | |||
The turrets' slow rate of fire also means that a single turret, if left to operate alone - either due to damage, power failure or any other events - may not be a very effective method of attack. It is for this very reason that the turrets are grouped in batteries. | |||
[[Image:TheEnemysGateIsDown.jpg|thumb|right|The devastating effect Colonial batteries can have on a Cylon basestar ([[Resurrection Ship, Part II]])]] <br /> | |||
[[ | |||
==Cylon Fleet== | |||
Whereas the Colonials prefer artillery-style guns, the [[Cylon]]s appear to favor chemically-propelled missiles. Their [[Basestar (RDM)|basestars]] also use large masses of [[Raider]]s instead of gun emplacements and appear to have no point defense weaponry. | |||
[[Cylon Centurion|Centurions]] cannibalized parts of their [[Heavy Raider]] on [[Kobol]] in order to create an anti-aircraft missile battery. This was later used to attack a search and rescue mission launched from ''[[Galactica (RDM)| Galactica]]'' ([[Fragged]]). | |||
In their renewed attack on the Twelve Colonies, the Cylons chose to undermine the Colonial Fleet's defense network by adding a [[backdoor]] in the Colonial's [[Wikipedia:Achille's Heel|Achille's Heel]]: the [[Command Navigation Program]]. Otherwise, the new war may have been either a protracted or short event, as several battlestars working together with their batteries will likely shred any offensive and defensive abilities of an equal number of basestars over time. An illustrated example of this is the two-on-two battlestar vs. basestar attack in "[[Resurrection Ship, Part II]]." | |||
[[Image:Bsmissiles.jpg|thumb|left|A Cylon basestar fires a barrage of missiles]] | |||
== References == | == References == | ||
<div style="font-size:85%"><references/></div> | |||
[[Category:A to Z]] | [[Category:A to Z]] | ||
[[Category:Technology]] | [[Category:Technology]] | ||
[[Category:Technology ( | [[Category:Technology (TOS)]] | ||
[[Category: | [[Category:Technology (RDM)]] | ||
[[Category:RDM]] | |||