The Evolution of Earth Alliance Ships | Babylon 5

One of the things I love about Babylon 5 was that not everyone was on technology parity with everyone else. That all species had their strengths and weaknesses

I always loved the space combat in B5. When the ships really went at it with lasers they cut whole chunks off of eachother. Big thumbs up to the Narn ship for actually cutting a limb off the shadow Battle Crab before getting trashed - just goes to show that building your ship around a really, really big set of guns can sometimes pay off, for a few minutes at least.

I absolutely loved the Hyperion/Midwinter classes but the Omegas looked so fricking cool with their spinning sections and the red beam weapons in the front

The Earth Alliance went from a very minor player in Galactic affairs to one of the superpowers with 300 years. It took the other alien governments 5 or more times that time period to achieve the same galactic power status. This is quite impressive.

One thing seen in one of the movies was that Hyperions and Novas were fielding enough firepower to destroy minbari vessels. They just never got into range before being blasted.

From the series itself, you get the impression that raw firepower was only rarely a weakness for Earth Alliance warships. Their relatively pedestrian sensor technologies, on the other hand, meant that while EA ships might have had good guns, they struggled to actually target enemy ships running any serious stealth or jamming systems. Given how huge space is, that inability to aim accurately put them at a huge disadvantage despite their impressive firepower. Pretty much the only time anyone using EA equipment complained about a lack of punch was when Starfuries were staring down the Thirdspace swarmers - but in fairness, those monsters could shrug off multiple direct hits from White Star beam cannons, so pretty much everyone was outgunned in that encounter. Earth Alliance ships' armor protection and maneuverability also tended to be decent, but rarely anything special - hence their reliance on highly articulated turrets so they could always have at least some guns tracking the target, and interception systems to shoot down incoming enemy ordnance rather than outmaneuver it or tank the hit. One aspect I would suggest that also hurt the EA Navy's battle performance is that the general lack of artificial gravity meant any damage control efforts were that much less effective. Humans can learn to do plenty of things in microgravity, of course, but an awful lot of tasks are just easier when conditions are a bit closer to Earth-normal.

It's a shame tech limitations at the time didnt allow for the full capabilities of these ships as thought by their creators to appear on screen, because if anything B5 as some of the most detail rich designs for their ships, human ones at least.

Damn, the Warlock is ageing nicely. Hope the reboot comes together and they show it or some version of it.

You had a ship called the Tigerclaw. Reminded me of the Wind Commander ship the Tigers Claw.

I do love Babylon 5. It's a one off quote from an episode in season 4 on the voice of the resistance. 'earth force carrier groups' such a sham we never got to see one

Recently started rewatching the series. Always love seeing these videos

I'm glad you are covering this. I found your channel from a short you did about the Dilgar and hoo boy the full videos are worth the watch.

Fun fact. The B5 art creators of the Omega class destoyer admitted to borrowing from the Leonov from the movie 2010

4:40 that says Tiger Claw on the side of the ship 🙂. Are we going to get some Wing Commander ship reviews? That would be really cool. Wing Commander was the game of my misspent youth

Seems like you're right about the EA always reacting vs how we try to predict how future wars are going to be when developing weapons/vehicles/aircraft. Could also be a savings measure too for the EA Either way, great video.

Seeing these vids always makes me wonder if I still have my B5 miniature game books in my closet somewhere, I loved going through the ships when I was younger.

Flying bricks. My favorite ship designs.

Now that is a good video to watch

my favorite series and my new favorite channel. I even tattooed B5 - with the sword

Interesting breakdown.