Cylon Spacecraft (RDM)

Raider

Main article: Cylon Raider

• The Raider is an autonomous attack fighter with a metallic carapace and a largely organic interior; it is the successor to the Piloted Raider dating from the Cylon War. The Galactica copy of Sharon Valerii offers the following "guess" at its nature in the episode "Six Degrees of Separation":
  • "It's not really a thing, y'know? It's probably a Cylon itself. More of an animal, maybe, than the human models. Maybe they genetically design it to perform a task. To be a fighter. [You] can't treat it like a thing and expect it to respond. [You] have to treat it like... a pet. At least that's my guess."
  • Not fully realizing that she herself is a Cylon agent, Boomer would presumably have some intuition but not a complete recollection of how to treat a Raider. Starbuck captures the fighter after shooting it and rendering its organic elements "brain-dead" (Act of Contrition).

Heavy Raider

Main article: Cylon Heavy Raider

• The Heavy Raider is a crewed spacecraft that may be autonomous, like the Raider. It contains a crew compartment with life support sufficient for human comfort and room for at least 10 modern Cylon Centurions ("The Farm," "Scattered").
  • When the Resistance on Caprica plans to capture a Heavy Raider in the episode "The Farm," Kara Thrace anticipates having to "blow its brain out" before it can be commandeered. No information has been provided in an episode (as of January 5, 2006) whether a Heavy Raider has autonomous components, or whether the Caprica copy of Valerii, who commandeers a Heavy Raider for herself, Thrace and Karl Agathon, performs any procedure to disable any autonomous elements in the spacecraft or "persuade" the organics of the Heavy Raider to fly.
  • The Heavy Raider in "Scattered" and "Valley of Darkness" crashes into Galactica's starboard flight pod and deploys Cylon Centurions. If the Heavy Raider is autonomous, it performed its mission in concert with the Centurions at the battle.

Reconnaissance Drone

Main article: Cylon Reconnaissance Drone

• No information has been given in any episode (as of January, 2006) on whether the Reconnaissance Drone is manned, autonomous, or intelligent.

Transport

Main article: Cylon freighter (RDM)

• These cargo or troop carriers are seen briefly in "Kobol's Last Gleaming, Part II."

Basestar

Main article: Cylon Basestar

• A basestar is the Cylon's capital warship, counterpart to the Colonial's battlestar, but partly of biological design and much larger than a battlestar. There is no indication that this craft is autonomous other than the circumstantial evidence provided by the Raider. It contains a landing bay large enough to accompany a Raptor with life support capable of sustaining Humano-Cylons. Basestars pommel a target with missiles but do not have gun batteries, leaving them vulnerable to close-fire from a prepared battlestar.

Resurrection Ship

Main article: Resurrection Ship

• A large vessel containting the full apparatus necessary for resurrecting Cylon agents once their consciousness has left a destroyed body. The ship is created to allow humanoid Cylons to be reborn in new bodies when they are out of range from the Cylon homeworld (Resurrection Ship, Part I).