Battlestar (reimagining)

A battlestar is a battleship/carrier hybrid starship in the reimagined science fiction television series Battlestar Galactica. The reimagined series' battlestars and the series' other visual effects were designed and created by Zoic Studios for Battlestar Galactica.
The battlestars Galactica, Atlantia, Triton, Solaria and Columbia were named in the miniseries; battlestars Pegasus and Valkyrie were seen during the subsequent television series. Twelve battlestars were built at the start of the first Cylon War, one for each of the Twelve Colonies; Galactica represented the colony of Caprica. The fleet had grown by the time of the miniseries, as over thirty were confirmed to be destroyed during the opening wave of the Cylon attack, a loss which Kara Thrace describes as "a quarter of the fleet".
Design
A Colonial battlestar is an immense capital ship and is constructed as a series of discrete modules. The wedge-shaped fore section contains the CIC, among other facilities. The aft section contains both conventional (sublight) and FTL propulsion systems. The midsection is where the battlestar's flight pods are mounted, with large support pylons connecting them to the rest of the ship. There are internal transit corridors large enough to move Vipers (and presumably Raptors) from one flight pod to the other.
It is possible for Galactica to jump without retracting her pods; however, heavy damage occurs the one time the ship is seen to jump this way.
Defense
Armor
Battlestars are generally covered in smooth armor plating. Pegasus is a clear example of this, being a newer Mercury-class battlestar. Throughout the series, Galactica is shown with large portions of her armor plate removed, exposing the splinter deck and main armor bulkhead as well as structural ribbing underneath. The miniseries shows Galactica withstanding a direct nuclear detonation with little apparent damage to its command structure and fighter bays.
Armament
Main batteries
At the time of the outbreak of the Cylon attack Galactica is fitted with 40 two-gun heavy batteries; 8 1x2 dorsal, 8 1x2 ventral, 4 1x2 bow, 4 1x2 starboard & port bow (8 total both sides), but lacks the 4 fixed bow mounted cannon in the 80 cm (30-inch)range similar to Pegasus.
Battlestars rely almost exclusively on their main batteries to engage enemy capital ships. The barrels are housed in a very similar fashion to an oceangoing battleship's main batteries. The barrels are housed in a large armored turret sitting atop an armored barbette that extends below deck. They fire at least two types of ordnance: an anti-aircraft type munition where they fire explosive flak rounds, and an anti ship ordnance kinetic penetrator , which demonstrated a high effectiveness against Cylon Basestars.
Secondary batteries
In the series Blood & Chrome Galactica is shown fitted with 68 (34 port, 34 starboard) secondary batteries on her dorsal side to complement her main batteries.
Point-Defense Weapons Systems
Point-Defense is the defense of a single object or a limited area, e.g. a ship, building or an airfield, now usually against air attacks and guided missiles. Point-defense weapons have a smaller range in contrast to area-defence systems and are placed near or on the object to be protected.
A battlestar is heavily dependent in combat on a Close-in weapon system (CIWS). CIWS is intended to provide a last ditch defense against enemy assets that are able to penetrate the multi-layered defense. It is intended to be the last line of defense should the battlestar's main weapons or deployed fighters fail to defeat an incoming threat.
The primary function of these guns was an anti-fighter/anti-missile role, such as destroying incoming ordnance or Cylon Raiders. Battlestars carry hundreds of them. Adama gives Baltar one warhead for research purposes, and uses another to destroy a Cylon baseship orbiting Kolbol thereby reducing his inventory to three. By the time Galactica reaches the algae planet, her stockpile has increased to at least seven nuclear missiles, presumably more as Adama also states Galactica was resupplied by Pegasus when they first discovered each other .
Ship-to-ship missiles
Both the Valkyrie and Pegasus are fitted with ship-to-ship missiles.
Air Group
The battlestar Galactica was originally equipped with 80 Viper Mk. I fighters. During the First Cylon War these were replaced with the Mk. II, and later, the Mk. III versions. In addition to improved maneuverability, the Mk. II fighters are also equipped with two light missile racks. The arrival of Pegasus with her mostly intact squadrons and Viper production facilities were a huge boost to Galactica ' s dwindling air group. With the destruction of the Pegasus her squadrons were subsequently transferred to Galactica, giving the latter a full complement of fighters that were largely Mk VII Vipers.
Galactica was also equipped with numerous FTL jump capable Raptors, tactical multi-role spacecraft used for transportation, reconnaissance, scouting, tactical bombing/attacking, refueling, and electronic countermeasures.
Crew
Galactica ' s crew complement prior to its scheduled decommissioning was around 2,000. When the Cylons returned after the colonization of New Caprica, Galactica was manned by a skeleton crew.
; Battlestar Columbia
: The first battlestar Columbia served during the First Cylon War and was destroyed during Operation Raptor Talon, the last battle of that conflict. William Adama was involved in this action on his first mission as a Viper pilot, and witnessed the ship's destruction. This Columbia appears to belong to the same ship class as Galactica.
: The second battlestar Columbia was destroyed along with the Atlantia during the destruction of the twelve colonies. Columbia ' s executive officer some time before the events depicted in the show was William Adama, before becoming the commanding officer of the Valkyrie. Starbuck also served on the battlestar Triton once.
; Battlestar ' : Commanded by William Adama three years prior to the fall of the Twelve Colonies. Valkyrie was ordered by Admiral Corman to launch a black operation to penetrate the Cylon Armistice Zone to gather intelligence on Cylon battle readiness. The operation ended in disaster, and Adama was 'downgraded' to command of Galactica to oversee that ship's retirement (and his own). Battlestar Valkyrie was assigned to Battlestar Group 41 (BSG-41). The Valkyrie was destroyed over Caprica just prior to the fall of the Twelve Colonies, as seen in Battlestar Galactica: The Plan.
; Battlestar Yashuman : Destroyed along with battlestar Valkyrie over the planet Caprica just prior to the fall of the Twelve Colonies. Yashuman initially detects the Cylon assault force on DRADIS during the engagement, and launches its Vipers. However, after being scanned by Cylon raiders, CNP backdoors are activated and Yashuman's systems are shut down, paving the way for the Cylons to destroy her without a shot fired in return.

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