EarthForce Capital Ships

Captain John Sheridan commands the EAS Agamemnon. EarthForce consider him a war hero, but the Minbari are deeply suspicious of Sheridan. They call him Star-Killer, because his defeat of the Minbari War Cruiser Drala Fi (the Black Star) was by devious, underhand means. He may be a political liability.

Nova Class Destroyer

At the time of the Earth-Minbari War, our biggest capital ship was the Nova-class dreadnought. These ships were massive gun platforms, built at the height of pulse-cannon technology. Like the later Omega-class, the Nova-class was constructed by Rocketdyne. I guess you can see the family resemblance: the Nova has the same fighter bay, jump drive and fusion engines.

What you can't see here is any rotating mid-section - that was only introduced later, to simulate gravity in the command centre. So, you had to strap yourself into zero-g seats for the duration. They experimented with rotating sections at the time of the Earth-Minbari War, but didn't introduce them as standard until the EAS Achilles, the first ship of the Omega-class, rolled off the production line after the War. There were problems getting the rotational drive to work. But now that we've got simulated gravity, we can extend our patrols for months, maybe even years.

EAS Schwarzkopf

Here, I have a picture of the EAS Schwarzkopf, from the later J-series, when we were commemorating famous generals. Now we've gone back to naming the Omegas after figures from classical Greek mythology.

The Nova dreadnought is somewhat shorter than the newer Omega-class destroyer, at around 1.5 kilometers, more or less. It has a crew of around 250 and an armament based around phased plasma pulse discharge cannon.

You have to remember that this was before the Narns had helped us out with the more efficient particle beam weapon technology. Things like fusion X-ray lasers were unknown in the 2220s on Earth.

Nova Class Firepower

The original R-series Novas had 36 dual-mounted heavy helium plasma pulse cannon, plus some heavy projectile weapons and defense grid interceptors. The later Novas were retrofitted with six of the newer particle beam guns and had only 22 heavy pulse discharge cannon.

The heavy weapons mostly had a fairly restricted field of fire, unlike the omni-directional turrets used nowadays on the Omegas. The Nova class could launch a full complement of 36 fighters, so were more useful for getting the smaller craft into the battle than the Hyperion cruiser. They also carried fusion missiles.

Nova Class Deployment

The Nova was used basically as a stand-off gunship. I guess it made up in quantity for what it lacked in quality. By that, I mean that it didn't fare very well against those Minbari Warcruisers, ten years ago. The heavy pulse cannon are fine in a stand-off, but not very effective when the enemy are surrounding you, especially when they have better directional fire-control. We only started to match that when we got directed particle beam X-ray lasers.

Today, the Nova's basically a troop support gunship. We still use Novas for ground assault - they accompany the Condor troop transports and act as a platform for the ground attack drop-ships used by the marines. These craft can put the troops down under covering fire from the Nova's stand-off weapons. The Nova is most useful for a planetary blockade and bombardment. We've assigned most Novas over to the GroPos - that's army slang for "Ground Pounders", you know, regular soldiers.

Exit to Transport Tube

Would youl like to hear more about other EarthForce capital ships? Captain John Sheridan is off duty, and he seems willing to spend some time talking with you. Click on the Omega Class Destroyer to continue.