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| Type: | Cylon Troop Transport |
| Capacity: | Approximately 10 Centurions |
| Propulsion: | Unknown |
| Armament: | At least one missile launcher. Kinetic energy weapons. The main armament of the Heavy Raider seems to consist of a barbette of six cannons mounted under the cockpit area of the vehicle. (as seen here) These cannons are capable of an extremely high rate of fire. |
A Heavy Raider is a Cylon attack spacecraft.
Not much is yet known about this craft. Unlike the standard Raider, the Heavy Raider does not appear to be autonomous, instead requiring a pilot to operate the controls, although Starbuck anticipated having to "blow its brain out" in order to commandeer it.
The first Cylon Heavy Raider is seen landing near Helo and Sharon Valerii near the end of Season 1 (Colonial Day) on Cylon-occupied Caprica. A Heavy Raider is also the craft that crash landed into Galactica's unused starboard flight pod during Season 2 (Scattered). The Heavy Raider is shown during "Scattered" to have both projectile armament and troop transport capabilities.
After shooting down a Colonial scouting party over Kobol, a force of five Centurions landed near the crash site of Raptor 1 in a ship that is either a Heavy Raider or an (at the time) unidentified Cylon craft. They proceeded to dismantle its missile launcher and DRADIS assembly in an attempt to build a surface-to-air missile battery, intending to shoot down any search and rescue parties that Galactica would send to find the survivors (Fragged).
The Heavy Raider was conclusively proven to be a troop transport in "The Farm" when Sharon Valerii commandeered one and used it evacuate the resistance movement after they rescued Starbuck from a Cylon hybrid "farm".