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The Omega class destroyer is the primary warship used by the Earth Alliance in the science fiction series Babylon 5 in the late 23rd century.
Omega Class The Omega class is a heavy warship which serves many of the primary functions for the post-Minbari War 'Earth Alliance' military. It is a heavily-armed front line destroyer that also carries several squadrons of Starfuries for fighter support. The class was developed following the Earth-Minbari war and is based heavily on the design of the older Nova class dreadnought. However, the Omega-class destroyers are significantly longer than the dreadnought due to the addition of a central rotating section that provides a 1-g, simulated gravity environment. Built upon a hollow magnetized driveshaft, the rotating central section is used for habitation. It contains the crew quarters, medical bay, main computer systems, and the ship's three control centers. The forward and aft sections are zero-g, and consist of the Hangar (forward) and Engineering (aft) sections. Omega-Class destroyers are heavily armed with weapons developed during and after the Earth-Minbari War. Their arsenal includes 18 pulse cannon turrets and 18 X-Ray particle/lasers based on technology the Narn stole from the Centauri Republic and sold to the Earth Alliance. The two forward hangar racks have sufficient capacity to carry up to 36 Starfuries of varying types. The crew complement for an Omega Class destroyer may vary from 360 to more than 1000 (EAS Cerberus crew was 360, and in the episode End Game Franklin states they may be 1000 people on each destroyer.)Also death toll of the Roanake was stated at 547. Those variations may be crew requeriments due to mission profile (example:aditional troops). The Omega-Class was the central combat vessel to both sides of the Earth civil war, in which forces led by John Sheridan attempted to overthrow President Morgan Clark. Special Note on the Origin of the Class Although it is commonly believed that the class came into service after the Earth-Minbari War, there is a mass of evidence to the contrary. The exact quote that most fansites base their origin of the class comes from one of the season two episodes in which Captain John Sheridan states about the EAS Agamemnon, "...she was a real beauty, one of the first Omega class destroyers to come off the assembly line after the war...", obviously this statement doesn't exclude the possibility of ships being produced before the war. In the Babylon 5 movie "In the Beginning", one of the initial fleet battles against the Minbari depicted the destruction of no fewer than five Omega-class Destroyers! The EAS Churchill, a vessel shown later (chronologically) during the Earth civil war was mentioned by General Lefcourt during a briefing to John Sheridan. Now although this may not necessarily be the same ship as the Omega class shown later, it is also a distinct possibility. The EAS Pournelle, an EarthForce star cruiser, similar to the Omega-class Destroyer also shown later was equipped with blue plasma weapons instead of the standard Omega yellow pulse cannons. Most of the Omegas were named after ancient mythological and historical figures; those named after other references may have been older ships constructed sometime prior to the Earth-Minbari war and that they perhaps survived that conflict. The first vessel of the Omega-class built after the war may have been the EAS Achilles followed soon thereafter by the EAS Agamemnon. The website B5tech.com speculates that these ships are in fact a Nova-X that is an experiment that leads to the Omega rather than Omegas themselves. This is simular the later Omega-X which is also (alleged by the site) to be a prototype for the later Warlock cruiser and was pressed into service by Clark. Shadow Enhanced Omega Class Ships Referred to as the 'Omega-X' class, these warships were developed to test experimental technology acquired by President Morgan Clark's regime prior to the Earth Civil War of 2261. Excavations of ancient Shadow vessels found on Mars and Ganymede had yielded a few technological advancements far beyond standard Earth Alliance technology, although most aspects of the Shadow vessels were completely beyond the comprehension of every scientist assigned to study them. However, Fusion Beam weapons technology and new stealth technology, based on Minbari designs, as well as reverse-engineered Shadow bio-armor, were slated for testing to be used on the new Warlock class destroyers, which were still under construction. The arrival of the White Star fleet and the rebel faction's string of victories forced Clark to order his engineers to send the experimental testbed warships into action against Sheridan's forces. These ships were still incomplete, with largely inexperienced crews; however, their weaponry and new armor proved to be nearly a match for the White Stars sent up against them. The twenty White Stars completely destroyed the twenty modified Omegas, but were in turn almost totally destroyed themselves. After this engagement, no additional Omega-X destroyers were built. Following their destruction, Earth's methods of producing Shadow bio-armor were lost, but the other advancements were built into the subsequent generation of Warlock class destroyers. The understanding gained here may have been used to create a powerful bio-warship that was running wild during the exodus of the Technomages. This bio-ship destroyed the EAS Ceberus and later self destructed, the only survivor of the incident was one Ensign, Matthew Gideon later Captain of the IAS Excaliber in Crusade. Known Omega Class Vessels Notes Design Notes Although it is not commonly pointed out, the EA destroyers drew on a number of very popular science fiction capital ship designs for inspiration. First and foremost is Syd Mead's Alexei Leonov from the 1984 film 2010: The Year We Make Contact: the rotating sections of the two ships are almost identical. Second is the Rebel Cruiser (AKA Medical Frigate, AKA "Nebulon B") from Star Wars Episode V: The Empire Strikes Back: both ships share a broadly "outboard motor-shaped" hull, with a deep bow, a shallow, blocky stern, and a narrow waist. In the Babylon 5 ship, however, the waist section is the axis for the rotating section. The third significant influence is Syd Mead's Colonial Marine Transport Sulaco from Aliens: both vessels share a broadly "gun"/"rifle" shape, with prominent turrets. In all three of these cases, calling this an "influence" is a bit of an understatement... "direct copy" is an overstatement, but probably more accurate. The popular appeal of this ship design is certainly augmented by these resmblances: all three of these ship designs left a lasting impression on movie audiences, and, with the arguable exception of 2010, all were from movies which have etched themselves into the pantheon of famous screen science fiction. Other influences: | |||||||||||||||||||||||||
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