The Raptor

[P-90_177]

I don't know about you guys but I'd like to know more about the history of the raptor. As well as see more of it's modifications in action.

We know from the second Razor Flashback that the raptors have been in service for 40 years at least so that must mean that it is highly modifiable to keep up to date with the latests technologies. It Has always struck me though how clunky and old they look on the inside though.

So this here is a thread dedicated to the raptor...talk, discuss.......argue if you want.

[Kick-Kinsey]

Lets assume their was a stalemate between the colonial troops vs old cylons
and a stalemate between the vipers and the raiders

I think the Raptor was going to be the edge that the colonials wanted to build, it would act as a spy ship and transport troops. It probably took part in surveillance along the peace line between the colonials and cylons. Its visual look has an A-6 Intruder or Apache feel to it

A modern Cylon ship is a match for it, the cylon ships can transport more people and a Raider looks like it totally outclasses the colonial Raptor

[P2J]

well he know there don't' handle crashing on a planet to well or getting hit my cylon raider

[P-90_177]

well we know that while they're main role is patrol and recon, they are highl adaptible to other tasks. They can transport troops, Be fitted with rocket pods and even wing mounted guns.

[TheGreatLordGeorge]

i prsonally love the raptor, although i thought they were always to mall for personell carriers.

[P-90_177]

i prsonally love the raptor, although i thought they were always to mall for personell carriers.

well they aren't really used much for personell carriers. or rather they are but not in large groups. My guess is that the colonial navy has other ships that they use for troop transports. The raptor appears to be used as a shuttle within the fleet though because they can hold a fair group of people. Was it about 10 in the miniseries? Anyway I found this picture of one of the raptors modifications which i quite like. take a look.

[P-90_177]

and yet another modification i just took a look at.......it's a shame we've never seen these things in full on combat. even in a ground assault capacity.

[Ouroboros]

and yet another modification i just took a look at.......it's a shame we've never seen these things in full on combat. even in a ground assault capacity.

Damn, that thing is loaded. I had no idea they could mount that many weapons. The fact it can kinda calls into question why they need vipers at all.

What episode is that from?

I'd say the Raptor is sort of like a helicopter/gunship analog like a russian Hind but it's also part bomber and long range recon. It can even carry nuclear missiles apparently.

I think the best way to think of it would be almost as a small warship in itself rather than just as a fighter type craft. It's got its own FTL drive, a small crew, good sensors and weapons capable of threatening more than just fighters. It also seems to have quite a bit of long range endurance for something that's launched from a battlestar.

[P-90_177]

Damn, that thing is loaded. I had no idea they could mount that many weapons. The fact it can kinda calls into question why they need vipers at all.

What episode is that from?

I'd say the Raptor is sort of like a helicopter/gunship analog like a russian Hind but it's also part bomber and long range recon. It can even carry nuclear missiles apparently.

I think the best way to think of it would be almost as a small warship in itself rather than just as a fighter type craft. It's got its own FTL drive, a small crew, good sensors and weapons capable of threatening more than just fighters. It also seems to have quite a bit of long range endurance for something that's launched from a battlestar.

It's from the episode where they board that cylon basestar. you know the one where all the cylons are infected with that virus. You see it briefly as the raptors make their approach to the baseship.

As for needing vipers......well in the end raptors are much less manuvarable and have no where near as much speed. With this in mind a cylon raider would easily out manuver and gun down a raptor. But the raptors in that configuration seem to be built for a ground assault or bombing mode. Depending on how powerful they're ordanence is they would probably cause some pretty hefty damage. But like i said they don't really have the capabilities to take on a raider. A heavy raider maybe because they seem designed for similar roles and groups of cylon raiders like we saw later on in the same episode when the raptors were being used to defend galactica. At any rate. the raptor seems to be becoming increasingly cooler.

[Ouroboros]

It's from the episode where they board that cylon basestar. you know the one where all the cylons are infected with that virus. You see it briefly as the raptors make their approach to the baseship.

As for needing vipers......well in the end raptors are much less manuvarable and have no where near as much speed. With this in mind a cylon raider would easily out manuver and gun down a raptor. But the raptors in that configuration seem to be built for a ground assault or bombing mode. Depending on how powerful they're ordanence is they would probably cause some pretty hefty damage. But like i said they don't really have the capabilities to take on a raider. A heavy raider maybe because they seem designed for similar roles and groups of cylon raiders like we saw later on in the same episode when the raptors were being used to defend galactica. At any rate. the raptor seems to be becoming increasingly cooler.

Well in theory if you could fire off a bunch of guided anti fighter missiles from all the racks that thing seems to have (assuming it has anti fighter varients and not just ground or capship attack ones) you wouldn't need manuverability or guns as much. A squad of just ten raptors or so could fire off several hundred missiles from well outside Cylon cannon range.

Of course the Cylons also have missiles of their own to fire back with. Razor shows them using huge missile waves in the shipyard attacks.

It's probably just a question of ammo availability, we know vipers can use missiles to but hardly ever do anymore. That whole end of the known world thing kinda sucks in that regard. Of course then that begs the question of why the Cylons don't just use their obviously abundant supply of missiles on the under equipped vipers and totally brutalize them in combat...

Definately getting cooler though. I'd love to see an episode where a Raptor uses all those rockets and missiles to support some infantry against a squad of toasters.

[Mefusta]

Well in theory if you could fire off a bunch of guided anti fighter missiles from all the racks that thing seems to have (assuming it has anti fighter varients and not just ground or capship attack ones) you wouldn't need manuverability or guns as much. A squad of just ten raptors or so could fire off several hundred missiles from well outside Cylon cannon range.

Except that once those missiles are expended, the Raptors are proper-fudged when the remaining Raiders are allowed to close to gun range. Not to mention that when you take electronics, housing, warheads and propulsion into account, missiles would be a heck of a lot more time- and resource-consuming for the rag-tag fleet to construct and continually replenish than simple bullets. Maybe the only reason we've only recently seen Galactica start using missiles is because they've had over a years-worth of a downtime to build up a good stock of missiles.

Of course then that begs the question of why the Cylons don't just use their obviously abundant supply of missiles on the under equipped vipers and totally brutalize them in combat...

If you'll recall, they did prefer BVR tactics early on, demonstrated when they wiped out Galactica's standing Mark VII wing in the mini. I'm thinking that, during the early days of the retreat when Galactica was being attacked every 33 minutes, enough telemetry was gained to provide the Raptors - ECM birds in every possible way - with the ability to provide a shield of relative safety against massed missile tactics. This also enters into why we've only seen Vipers use missiles in training exercises or ground combat; Cylon ECM. Every Raider seems to be a self-contained ECM platform, which would definitely sour any attempt to take them down with the few missiles Galactica has left.

I'd love to see an episode where a Raptor uses all those rockets and missiles to support some infantry against a squad of toasters.

Well, we have kinda seen Raptors supporting infantry with missiles back in 'Fragged'. While those big, honking pods mounted on top are probably air-to-air, it'd be awesome to see a Battle-Raptor let rip with those Hydra-style pods against a group of toasters on the ground.

[hoof]

From what I can tell, Raptors serve a recon/strike capability for the fleet, while vipers serve as defence and anti-small-ship craft.

If you use WW2 as an analogy, the Vipers are like the fighters on a carrier, while the Raptor is like a combo of torpedo-bomber/dive-bomber/recon plane. The more modern analogy would be that raptors are like the US Navy's A-6 intruder, which served a long time in the US fleet.

If the basic propulsion/shipbuilding tech didn't change much in 40 years (the fact Galactica-type ships were still in service indicates this may be the case), then the Raptor chassis could easily be in service for a long time (like the B-52 bomber). You swap out electronics, avionics, even engines over the years, but the need for changing the airframe (spaceframe?) would be unnecessary.

Vipers, where maneuverability and computer-assisted flying would be advantageous, could use an upgrade, like the new F-22 Raptor fighter vs an F-15 for example. Since swapping out electronic boxes in a Mk II fighter wouldn't change the flying characteristics, you need a new airframe. The difference is the airframe itself is a huge part of the Viper's mission, where it's not for the Raptor, thus the structure of the Viper itself needs to be replaced, where the Raptor can be upgraded w/o requiring a new airframe.

[jmw326]

It is funny that this thread was started. I remember talking with a couple of the Zoic guys not long after the mini series came out and how they kept calling the Raptor the Craptor. They hated the design and said how it was just something that was thrown together at the last minute. I have always kind of liked it though.

[Ouroboros]

The Raptor's got that sort of "cool ugly" thing going for it, just like an A-10.

[Cban]

its battle stars version to the puddle jumper