Zerebrat Eightyseven true it is a good looking ship but never has much screen time which was a shame, I would have loved to see that giving the Drakh a good kicking.

if i remember correctly, that spinning bits were actually where the bridge is, isn't?

Yes most of the ships operations and crew areas were based in the centrifuge, I believe that only flight operations and the engineering sections were in the primary hull where zero-g could be used as an advantage.

@Rodney James well somebody's not a B5 fan, your loss.

Both of these franchises are amazing in my book. No bais here. There is not much to explain away the techno-babble as to see development of throughout both series (Thank You Samantha Carter). In truth out early foray into space will have ships that will be more like B5 ships - clunky, boxy, rotating sections and not easy on the eyes. Then as we (If God willing) either gaing more technology either through conquest or progression then have SG looking ships... then probably Star Trek looking ships after a while... then probably Star Wars... eventually culminating into 40K ships far down the road...

@@Palmerrip Blocky ships are impractical.

@@optillian4182 🤣 Oh this should be good... Please explain... let me guess something along the lines of spatial wind resistance and all ships have to have a smooth hull the glide and fly along in the vacuum lime in Star Trek... am I close?

@Rodney James Thats like your opinion man dude.

I’ve seen Event Horizon, all of Star Trek, all of Battlestar Galactica, and, of course, Babylon 5. There is nothing more sublime or awe-inspiring than an Omega Class charging out of a jump point.

There was also increases in range vs the Nova. The Nova class kicked butt in the Dilgar war, but proved to be too short ranged with it's plasma cannons.

Yep, Rocketdyne borrowed the idea from Karmatech’s Hyperion cruisers to use slightly less powerful but longer-ranged beams and pulse cannons.

That's a good point. Still need rails, handles, and straps though.

The beam weapons on the Omega were actually more powerful than the weapons on the Nova class, and longer ranged.

If I recall correctly, the centrifuge housed the habitat space. So yeah, much more support/logistical rather than actually affecting the direct combat capabilities. Also the armoring of the Omega was double? that of the Nova. If something could seriously damage the Omega's spine through the centrifuge, then they either royally screwed up, or were hopelessly outmatched. In fact I don't recall ever seeing on screen a Omega get destroyed from fire in that area.

I think its still here?

There are companys today that started over 100 years ago if not more. Just took a look at Husqvarna they started back in 1689 that company is old

@@jagsdomain203 Yeah, but they're Aerojet Rocketdyne now, not just Rocketdyne.

Is Karmatech real too?

Not the first time a real life company or facility was mentioned as building a starship. The Andromeda Ascendant was built in Newport News.

in the defence of the other civilizations as Londo and G'kar pointed out in the Babylon 5 film regarding the war the Minbari were so much more powerful than the other younger races that they were basically too scared to help fearing that if they did they would be next in fact this is precisely why the Narns helped as everything they gave Earth was Centari in origin and they hoped that the Minbari would see the Centari weapons now that earth and the Centari had good relations put 2 and 2 together and wipe out the Centari aswell

Maybe *maybe* if they’d all teamed up the Mimbari may have backed off just from the idea of fighting all those species at once. (Either a “dear lord that’s too many” or “if all these people are coming to their aid maybe this was all kicked off from a misunderstanding and they aren’t a terribly violent species that shoots at anyone that isn’t them....”) But I can understand why they wouldn’t take that risk.

@@TheDjbz all of these races were still recovering from the kicking the Dilgar gave them 10 years ago as they were on the verge of annihilation when Earth got involved and to be perfectly honest the other races new the golden rule of the B5 universe never fuck with Delen

Yeah, except none of the younger races stood a chance against the Mimbari. Your only other real options outside the perpetual clusterfuck that was the League of Non-Aligned Worlds were the Centauri and the Narn. The Narn weren't that far ahead of the Earth Alliance in terms of tech and arguably inferior in total strength while the Centauri knew better than to piss off the Mimbari after they got their asses handed to them every time they poked a toe across their borders. Londo said as much when he was talking to EA brass before they fucked up and killed Mimbari Jesus.

All humanity really needed was the specs for *better sensor technology* that could cope with *Minbari stealth systems.* It wasn't firepower that Earthforce lacked, it was the ability to _lock on_ to Minbari targets and apply it. [After all the war started when a Earth destroyer got a clean hit on a Minbari destroyer, when it's systems were overwhelmed by Minbari scanners]. Supplying the humans with that capability anonymously through back channels would have been _in the interest of the other young races,_ since the Minbari getting a bloody nose would have made them think twice about going on the rampage against anyone else. Earth would have still lost, but they would have made the _Minbari pay for it,_ otherwise after celebrating over the smoking remnants of Earth, the untouched Minbari might have decided to create Pax Minbar and take over the other young races. *Minbari war caste:* We create our own reality.

I think he meant Warlock Class.

I would have been happier if he took another pass on editing before uploading, then.

Plus the Omega was a destroyer, not a heavy cruiser. Which while a reflection of JMS not understanding ship designations is still canon. It has been suggested that as a plot device, the Omega class was called a destroyer to avoid insulting crew members on the Hyperion class heavy cruisers. Even though the Omega was clearly a much larger and more powerful ship that was intended to eventually replace this class. For some time, both ships remained in production as the EA was desperate to shore up the borders after the crippling war. This video has too many errors and shows a lack of detailed understanding.

@@thegeneral123 also he kept saying mm when instead of millimeter its like saying in instead of inch.

Within just the first few seconds I was cringing. Hell, calling it a "Minbari Killer" in the title was laughable. Earthforce didn't have anything that could pose any real threat to a warcruiser until the Omega X. Well at least Lore spelled Minbari right. I keep seeing people spelling it mimbari.

Yeah, that scene doesn't really make sense once you consider the physics or watch the followup episode, where you see Captain Hiroshi's ship (the Churchill I think...) burning all over and about to die with a still spinning gravity section. Unless there's something jammed that slows the rotation, such a big piece of metal will keep spinning for a long time in the vacuum of space. How long would depend on just how much friction there is where it touches the non-rotating parts of the ship.

And yet it’s not spinning nearly fast enough to provide 1g acceleration

True, but it also did a good job of showing how the EA advanced quickly in response to contact with other species.

Artificial Gravity seems to be the most tamper-resistant system on any Starfleet ship, except in Discovery season 2, when the Section 31 Station was compromised.

It's interesting that alien ships in B5 are pure scifi, but Earth ships represent (relative) realism.

@@kimnice Not really. The "realism" stems from Earth's technology being laughably behind the other races.

uf

Uff

I thought I recognized him :)

Here for this.

Yea the Mimbari Sharlin was an absolute monster of a ship.

A Sharlin probably would have won, but don't sell the Omega Class Destroyer short. I think it would put up a good fight.

Unless your name is Delen and you've got a trio of Mimbari cruisers backing up your White Star. Then the Omegas in front of you will find a damn good reason to "be somewhere else".

@@pwrserge83 Only, if they value their lives. :D Ah... love that scene. ^^

Yep, it wouldn’t be until the Warlock that EA had a ship capable of going toe-to-toe with a Sharlin, and even then one of those was shown to be blown up by concentrated fire from 3 modified Vorchans

EarthForce: The Omega-class destroyer - over one full mile of 'do NOT eff with us.' Centauri: (starts thinking of safe word) Mimbari: (smiles, reaches for condoms) Vorlons: (breaks out the lube and puts Marvin Gaye on the sound system)

Johnny Dominguez Only when they plan to screw a planet, old boy. 😉😆😆😆😆😆

@Rodney James ...they have shields, more specifically, Asguard Shields, which are powerful enough to tank a CME (Coronal Mass Ejection) to the face. While at the start, it only had Railbattries and Missiles, it did get upgraded with Energy Weapons (Asguard Plasma Beam Weapons) which are powerful enough to penetrate and destroy a Ori's shield and ship, which use to be able to tank a entire fleet of fire. As for Maneuverability, one only needs to go to Season 10 episode 20 to see that it can dodge and weave inbetween ship as it is fast and it's smaller then people think (200-225 meters long)

@Rodney James wow...someone didn't watch the series or did a lick of research....

@@HawkTheRed Little correction: Its "Asgard" not "Asguard".

@@Omega0850 ah ok, I often spell how it sounds to me and to me, it sounds like As-Guard

@Rodney James Are you confusing the 304 with something else?

I agree

I also agree with you

Best sci fi series ever

it was the best

Agreed

That’s only because Sheridan was aboard. You do not mess with Tron!

Also Delenns reaction makes it clear a bonehead warcruiser would not have survived. Aggi was already badly damaged BEFORE she went into the fireball (They had planned to ram the satellite)

Most of them ugly. Except for the New Syrtis class carrier(see historical: Unification war)

@@rifleman2c997 That is pretty nice. I like the rotating section, doesn't stand out too much, so less likely to be disabled.

The show never addressed it. The show was story based the ships were cool but did not matter really. Have there been fan fiction about any of this stuff?

While design of the Warlocks began during Clark's reign if I remember correctly, most of the work was done in a time when the Minbari were firm allies of mankind, so they are not Minbari killers. If anything fits that designation it would be the shadow-tech upgraded Omega-X variants.

@@jagsdomain203 During the Movie In The Begining, they reused footage of the omega, which was reconned as the prototypes, based on how long design approaches can take in real life the Omega would need to have been designed before the war began. The warlock is also a much closer design to the Sharlin than the Omega, it has a significant range/ power advantage.

@@Grz349 what was that blue ship that we saw in every battle nut it was never even talked about in the show? The one that was blown up by the Aggenon?

actually the omega was a standout warship well planned and sufficient for it´s role, the defense of far off colonys

I'm going off of ancient memory here, but I believe the Omegas had something like 3-6 METERS of armor plating. *Edit - the much-lighter Hyperion class had 6-8 meter plating. One can assume that the Nova and Omega classes had significantly more.

I'm not so sure about that. On our oceans there were good reasons why battleships and carriers were two seperate classes and any attempt at a combined battleship-carrier was abondoned on the planning tables or in very rare cases after a single prototype was built. Sure in zero-g you don't have to worry about whether your flight deck is long enough for take-offs and landings, but having a big gaping hangar at the front of your ship and lots of extra fuel and ammunition for the fighters sounds like something I would much rather have hanging back quite a bit behind the battlefield, with the frontline being made up of ships that trade in the hangar space or either size-reduction, more guns, more armor or a combination thereof. Having a battleship and carrier combined into one ship will result in a ship that might at best be competent in but will never excell in either role. Much better two make two seperate, specialized classes. Don't get me wrong, the Omega is great for long-range patrolling and such, but as a pure warship it does have some flaws that seperate carrier and frontliner designs would avoid. If I were to design a space navy, I would probably design something like the Omega since they would probably make for great anti-piracy long-range patrol vessels during peacetimes, but my main battlefleet would be made out of pure battleships and carriers (along with cruisers and other smaller vessels of course). Though the same goes for all the other major species as well, with the possible exception of the Centauri, who's main frontline ship seems to be the Vorchan with their bigger carrier-like Primus rarely ever being seen in direct ship-to-ship combat. One case being a Primus being sent as a symbol/bluff (until the Narn attacked them by surprise) and the other when one was sent to finish off an almost disabled Narn ship.

A good reason why everyone seems to target the rotating section is thats where the ship's command center is. Its also one of the largest sections of the ship so its 'center mass'. Something else to keep in mind is that even if you knock out the rotational motors, the sections themselves are almost guaranteed to be as frictionless as possible. The sections would continue to rotate for a sizable amount of time, potentially beyond the engagement duration. Regarding the relative power between an Omega and a Sharlin, you are greatly underestimating the Omega and GREATLY overestimating the Sharlins. Keep in mind how many Whitestars it took to effectively take on Omegas

HikaruXavier HikaruXavier White stars are far weaker than Sharlins, Sharlins can go head to head against shadow battle cruisers, and we’ve seen Sharlins cut through EA ships like paper in “ In the Beginning “, also, it takes 2 maybe 3 white stars to annihilate an Omega, and we saw 30 or so take on 6 or 7 Omegas which where heavily augmented with shadow technology.

And when the Humans joined in, they didn't exactly do it out of the goodness of their hearts either, but rather out of what G'Kar so eloquently called "enlightened self interest". Fighting with the leage did end up helping the EA a lot post-war. Not to mention that with mankind being a relatively minor nation at the time, it was rather likely that the Dilgar would have attacked them sooner or later anyway, so better join up with the others while there are still others to join up with.

I believe they were also originally going to have a counter rotating section toward the rear of the vessel, built into the engineering areas, which would counteract the force of the rotating habitat areas and provide stability when manoeuvring, but due to the budget again they decided to go with the basic engine module. Shame, I bet that version would have looked magnificent

I think they're really different ships when it comes to capabilities. As I recall, the guns on the Nova were powerful plasma canons, which are really good at short ranges but drop off at distance. That's why the initial Earth task force that made first contact with the Minbari were able to do so much damage in one salvo, they were at close range. The Minbari seldom let them get that close again, which is why those big plasma canons didn't destroy more Minbari ships. The Omega, by contrast, primarily had powerful particle beam weapons fired as beams or as pulses which gave better range and armor penetration. The Omega was overall more powerful and better in a fight, and could reach out and touch someone at range, but if you were close range with a Nova class you might be in even more trouble no matter who you were. Either way, neither of those ships are slouches.

There are four reasons I can think of why they are classified as destroyers rather then cruisers or even battleships. 1) Political reasons. This ship was clearly designed to be a heavily armored and armed mimbari killer from the start but after said race that almost genocided your species let you "win"... it might not be wise to label it as such so Earthforce might have "downgraded" it to a mere destroyer class to down play its real mission. 2) IRL, navies are simplifying their ship classes as modern tech and what for the longest time was the current political environment (which is starting to change again sadly) made having a lot of ship classes unnecessary. To that end destroyers are the largest and in some cases the only class of warship that most navies now field. Even the US cancelled its CGX project which will soon leave us with destroyers as are largest non-carrier warships (though in all reality the US hasn't had a proper cruiser since the California class got decommissioned). So it could be that by the time Earthforce came about, it was just tradition that the largest warship was labeled a destroyer. 3) Reclassification happen. From after world war II and up to the 1970's the US navy for some reason classified ships that were larger then a destroyer but not quite large enough to be considered a proper cruiser were called frigates (which during WWII would of been called ocean escorts) and then after the 1975 ship reclassification frigates got downgraded to being a ship bigger then a corvette but smaller then a destroyer and former pre-1985 frigates got reclassified as cruisers. So Earthforce might of at some point just said, "Screw it, ships with the most pew-pew are now destroyers since it sounds badass!". 4) Earthforce isn't a navy, it's a spaceforce. There is nothing that says a space force has to follow naval classification doctrine, even if inspired by it. While rare in sci-fi, there are settings that have their space force avoid a direct naval comparison. GURPS Transhuman Space RPG setting is on such example were the US Airforce beat out the navy in developing space warships (and the Navy ain't happy heh) and go so far as to refuse to call their warships "ships" preferring to call them "vessels" instead.

It's a destroyer, not a cruiser.

@@johngregory4801 Did you even read my comment?

@@ReddwarfIV Yes. And I have all five seasons of Babylon 5. There's never a single reference to the Omega class except for calling them "Earthforce Destroyers". Calling it a cruiser when it's never called that in the show is... Your choice.

+1

Technically, the pilot episode used Amigas (a few steps short of a 486 but they had a network of them) and later episodes used CGI produced with the first generation of pentium processor (which was the next CPU generation after the 486 with "pent" hinting that it's effectively the "586")

@@a-blivvy-yus there was another tv show around this time called seaquest that did a lot of intensive cgi, but it wasnt smooth like babylon 5. on seaquest whenever the picture got really busy with activity the computer would hiccup and the hiccups would show up in the final video

If I remember correctly, JMS stated that the Warlock class was a disappointment and was discontinued; so not many of them were made.

@@tasatort9778 not true at all. The Warlock was just in testing at the end of B5. In the Sequel crusade, it is specifically stated that only a handful had come off the production lines. But Warlocks are seen onscreen in both the movies " A call to arms " and in " The lost tales" . Warlocks have 2 of G.O.D cannons off of earth's defense platforms. It's widely believed that a Warlock can one shot Sharlin Cruiser. That's not to say that a Sharlin can't take out a warlock either. Both are best mode.

@@terrencejones9817 It's in the extra features of our box sets where he states that the Warlocks proved disappointing and were ultimately discontinued.

@@tasatort9778 maybe you remember the quote wrong. "while the warlock was originally intended to replace the omega destroyer, the idea was flawed and has since been dropped. instead the warlock is now designed to lead squadrons of omegas into battle. the warlock would be a dreadnaught in anyone elses fleet, and now considered an apt replacement for the aging nova class"

The Warlock was the best EA had(besides the Victory class destroyers). It was originally scheduled to have shadow bio armor installed on every ship. Warlocks have 2 GOD cannons. The GOD cannon's power output rivaled the Shadow and Vorlon death rays. Nothing survives a direct hit. Above 64 megatons per pulse. Capable of destroying the entire eastern seaboard of the United States with a single sweep.

Funnily enough Rocketdyne is a company that exists as it has been said in other comments.

The Omega is great. Only improvement I can think of is to have the whole ship (or at least everything other than the engine compartment) rotate.

Hmm, armor generators, transphasic torpedoes, quantum slipstream, spore drive, phasing cloak, pulse phasers, repair droids, primary and secondary shields

I love the irony that when it became know that Babylon 5 would use only CGI, the Star Trek producers said "We will never use anything other than models" or somesuch, only for later Star Trek series to hire the very people who made the effects of Babylon 5. :D And the funny thing is they did all that not on some fancy specialist computers, but on regular machines you could buy at any consumer-level electronic store.

Exactly. Someone else considered the physics of rotation!. Regarding the 'banking' fighters, it may be due to pilot health (blatantly ignoring TV's required Rule-of-Cool). Blackouts are far more preferable to redouts and the banking maneuvers would potentially keep the pilots more combat effective for longer engagement durations.

I agree on the momentum of the gravity block, but I disagree (mostly) on the show not using realistic science. Whenever you see a Starfury "bank" you see the manouvering thrusters fire. They aren't making the turn with flaps and aerodynamics, but by firing one or more thrusters in the opposite direction. I suppose it's possible that such a small thruster wouldn't have enough output for the manouvers they do in the show... but that's the kind of math question that's deeeeep in nerdy nickpick territory. The basic principle is though holds up well enough for even NASA engineers to praise the show and they surely know better about these things than either of us I imagine. The only exception to that are fighters of advanced species with gravity drives like the Minbari and Centauri (which includes the White Stars which have a hybrid system utilizing both gravity drives and visible engines with exhausts). As for sound in space... yeah, the show creators were aware of the issue, but basically felt that going without sound just wouldn't land well with the majority of the audience... which is probably true. Not even the re-imagined BSG goes full quiet in space.

@@Norbert_Sattler There's no banking in space. There's nothing to bank on. That's pure fantasy. Aircraft in an atmosphere bank because of wings and flaps versus the atmosphere ... but there's no atmosphere for this effect in space. There's also no "maximum speed" ... if you keep your engines on and aimed in one direction, you will continue to accelerate for as long as you have fuel. Objects in space don't fly like planes in an atmosphere, period. If you put your engines on full steering toward something, then change direction and fire your engines in the new direction, you will only slowly begin to alter your path from your old path to the new one.

@@howardagnew8471 Did you even read my comment? Here, let me repost a key sentence again: "They aren't making the turn with flaps and aerodynamics, but by firing one or more thrusters in the opposite direction." I am well aware that this is not banking, which is the reason why I put the word in quotation marks. You'll see plenty of examples where Starfury's will turn around their own axis, while they keep flying in the same direction. Starfuries have powerful thrusters in every direction and furthermore those thrusters are as far away from the center of mass as it's possible on the ship. That gives them great manouverbility and enable them to make turns that look like they are banking, even when it isn't actual banking.