Omega class destroyer

Omega Class Destroyer
Status	Active (as of 2281)
Affiliation	Earthforce
Class	Destroyer
Length	1714.3m
Crew	250-1000+ officers and crew
Engines	4 Beigie-Bryant 9000A Particle Thrust Engines
Jump Capable	Yes
Gravity	Rotational sections only
Weapons	Primary 4 52mm Plasma Pulse Cannons 4 Laser batteries (2 fore, 2 aft) Secondary 8 40mm Pulse Cannons
Defenses	Interceptors
Auxiliary Craft	2 full squadrons of Fighters (Starfurys or Thunderbolts)

The Omega class destroyer was an Earth Alliance warship, manufactured by Rocketdyne at the Neue Hanse Orbital Shipyard in Earth orbit. Following the Earth-Minbari War, it became the most powerful and ubiquitous capital ship of the Earthforce fleet.

Technical Specifications

A continuation of many of the design elements from the Nova class dreadnought, the Omega possessed a large rotating section, allowing the crew to operate in gravity, eliminating the constant need for handholds and straps that often hindered the older zero gravity warships. Ships of the Omega class were equipped with a DX-419 tracking system, supposedly an improvement over the standard XB7 units used during the war, though several officers have noted that they never worked right. By 2261 the system had at least begun to be upgraded.

Production of these ships started during the Earth-Minbari War, where construction was carried out at a number of different locations to prevent them all being destroyed in one large attack. As with most older Earth designs, this type does not possess artificial gravity; instead it relies on a rotating section to simulate normal Earth gravity. The weapons systems on Omega class destroyers are mostly directed either directly forward of back requiring the destroyer to maneuver potential targets into those positions to do the greatest damage. Though none were completed before the Battle of the Line, the first of the new Omega class began rolling off the construction lines shortly after the wars end.

During the Earth Alliance Civil War and under orders of the Clark administration, the design of the Omega class destroyer was adapted with Shadow biotechnology to create the Advanced Omega class destroyer. Though it was later discovered, these were not the only product of Shadow tech developed by Earthforce.

Ships of the Class

• EAS Acheron at Babylon 5
• EAS Acheron jumps into B5 space
• EAS Cadmus crippled by Sheridan's forces
• EAS Damocles engaging the White Star fleet
• EAS Hydra & Delphi engage Sheridan's forces
• EAS Excalibur on ISN
• EAS Heraclion in hyperspace with the renegade fleet
• EAS Juno at Mars
• EAS Juno at Proxima III
• EAS Nimrod and EAS Olympic withdraw from B5 space
• EAS Olympic withdraws from B5 space
• EAS Orion at Regula IV
• EAS Pournelle pursuing Abel Horn's vessel over Phobos
• EAS Talos at Babylon 5 in 2281
• EAS Theseus taking heavy fire
• EAS Zeus over Mars

1/16

• EAS Acheron
• EAS Achilles
• EAS Agamemnon
• EAS Agrippa
• EAS Alexander
• EAS Apollo
• EAS Cadmus
• EAS Cerberus
• EAS Charon
• EAS Churchill
• EAS Damocles
• EAS Delphi
• EAS Excalibur
• EAS Furies
• EAS Heracles
• EAS Heraclion
• EAS Hermes
• EAS Hydra
• EAS Juno
• EAS Medusa
• EAS Nemesis
• EAS Nimrod
• EAS Olympic
• EAS Orion
• EAS Persephone
• EAS Pollux
• EAS Pournelle
• EAS Roanoke
• EAS Talos
• EAS Theseus
• EAS Vesta
• EAS Zeus

Behind the Scenes

“

"As the script basically said 'If one of these turns up in your system, you know you're really really in trouble'"

– Paul Bryant - Interview on B5Scrolls

The Omega Class Destroyer mesh was designed and built by Computer Imaging Supervisor and Foundation Imaging Co-founder Paul Bryant and had over 250,000 polygons, a huge model for it's time. The distinctive front of the ship was inspired by the look of an old South African steam engine and was intended to make the ship look "as un-aerodynamic as possible".

The design of the ship itself included a number of features that were never seen to be utilised in the show. Perhaps the most obvious were the two very large forward cannons mounted under the forward docking bay which were intended to launch "gigaton class mines" and in fact appear very similar, if not identical to the energy mine launchers seen on the Narn Cruiser in ("The Long, Twilight Struggle"). There were also rows of Starfury launch bay hatches located along the sections of the rotating centrifuge. The idea being that the fighters would launch using the same principles of centrifugal force as Babylon 5's Cobra Bays. Finally, all along the sides of the ship's hull were rows of little round hatches that were intended to be missile silos, meant to evoke the look of the broadside cannons from a 19th Century sailing vessel. The engine section was originally a more complex, counter-intuitive affair designed to compensate for the rotating centrifugal section, however in the name of simplicity and expediency, the concept was pared down to just four large rear facing engines.

One thing that many Sci-fi fans instantly recognised, was that the profile of the centrifuge itself bore an uncanny resemblance to the Alexei Leonov designed by Syd Mead for the 1984 film "2010". Though JMS has denied any intentional similarity, Paul Bryant has admitted that the shape was in fact "lifted" from the Syd Mead's ship as a mischievous nod to that design.

Appearances

TV Movies "A Call to Arms" Babylon 5 "Points of Departure" "A Spider in the Web" "All Alone in the Night" "Messages from Earth" "Point of No Return" "Severed Dreams" "Lines of Communication" "Moments of Transition" "No Surrender, No Retreat" "The Exercise of Vital Powers" "The Face of the Enemy" "Between the Darkness and the Light" "Endgame" "No Compromises" "Sleeping in Light" Crusade "War Zone" "The Long Road" "The Path of Sorrows" "Ruling from the Tomb" "Appearances and Other Deceits"