Fleet of Blackbirds - Why not use it?

[McSwift]

Purpose
- To build new fleet of ships w/ similar capabilities to a Viper
- To have a stronger advantage against Cylon Raiders

Background Information
In 2x09, "Flight of the Phoenix", the Blackbird was being built. Because of the exterior metals used in the construction, the ship is very stealthy and is not detectable by DRADIS

In 2x11 & 2x12, "Reserection I & II", both Cylon Radiers and Basestars were unaware of a ship jumping so close into range.

Assumptions

1) Cylon Raiders use Dradis as means of targetting ships; they do not have eyes

2) If a blackbird was to shoot at any ships, they will have a "first strike advantage"

3) Blackbirds carrying nukes will not be possible. "Radiological Detection" will cause the blackbirds not to be stealthy.

Discussion

--> If 1 Blackbird was designed well over a course of several days on a hangar deck, why not design several more? I don't see the difficulty in designing such ships.

If would give a perfect advantage when going up against raiders. They wouldn't know what hits them!

[ata_beckett]

Purpose
- To build new fleet of ships w/ similar capabilities to a Viper
- To have a stronger advantage against Cylon Raiders

Background Information
In 2x09, "Flight of the Phoenix", the Blackbird was being built. Because of the exterior metals used in the construction, the ship is very stealthy and is not detectable by DRADIS

In 2x11 & 2x12, "Reserection I & II", both Cylon Radiers and Basestars were unaware of a ship jumping so close into range.

Assumptions

1) Cylon Raiders use Dradis as means of targetting ships; they do not have eyes

2) If a blackbird was to shoot at any ships, they will have a "first strike advantage"

3) Blackbirds carrying nukes will not be possible. "Radiological Detection" will cause the blackbirds not to be stealthy.

Discussion

--> If 1 Blackbird was designed well over a course of several days on a hangar deck, why not design several more? I don't see the difficulty in designing such ships.

If would give a perfect advantage when going up against raiders. They wouldn't know what hits them!

Why not?

Ummmm how about because they don't have the materials to build a whole new fleet from scratch?

[Freek]

As they are being more activly chased since New Caprica the fleet can only stay in one sector ever so long. Enough time to resupply the fleet and get materials to repair broken vipers and raptors, but not enough to get the materials needed to build a lot of blackbirds.

[AvatarIII]

they could just put the carbon plateing on the current vipers?

[deathskull]

they could just put the carbon plateing on the current vipers?

they only had enogouth for for ship beside on galactica and pegaus the don't have the caberbilites to make more carbon composite

[Freek]

Besides, I didnt get the impression that it was any good as armor... the blackbird got blown up prettly easily. Besides, Vipers have all sorts of equipment that would make them detectable easily.

That and vipers get shot down or shot at and they would need to replace all that very expensive carbon composite.

[Maj.Tahn]

Great Idea. However, the RTF has limited resources. You guys know Admiral Adama; if he had the resources, he definitely would've built more of them.

[P-90_177]

also as a combat craft it really isn't very good. remember how tough it was for starbuck to control it.

[Trek_Girl42]

also as a combat craft it really isn't very good. remember how tough it was for starbuck to control it.

Yup, and it was also mentioned that it didn't have much maneuverability, it was really built for speed.

[Deckard07]

I beleive the "stealthyness" of the Blackbird is debatable. Galactica didn't have a problem detecting the Backbird when is jumped into their vector during the viper engagment with Pegasus at the beginning of Resurrection Ship Part I. Athough it showed up on dradis as an unknown ship it still detected it none the less.

[Zatarc]

I beleive the "stealthyness" of the Blackbird is debatable. Galactica didn't have a problem detecting the Backbird when is jumped into their vector during the viper engagment with Pegasus at the beginning of Resurrection Ship Part I. Athough it showed up on dradis as an unknown ship it still detected it none the less.

Well, as they were in radio contact with the ship, finding it wouldn't be an issue in that particualr situation

[Freek]

I beleive the "stealthyness" of the Blackbird is debatable. Galactica didn't have a problem detecting the Backbird when is jumped into their vector during the viper engagment with Pegasus at the beginning of Resurrection Ship Part I. Athough it showed up on dradis as an unknown ship it still detected it none the less.

They detected it because Starbuck and Apollo were sending eachother text messages (logging in to MSN Messenger makes you detectable on DRADIS FYI.)

[McSwift]

they could just put the carbon plateing on the current vipers?

Thats a good point too.

I just realized that the second disadvantage is that if Viper A shoots at Raider B while being a stealth ship, B can know where A is using the DRADIS (weapons fire is visible on DRADIS).

also as a combat craft it really isn't very good. remember how tough it was for starbuck to control it.

True, but Starbuck was the one who wanted the Black Bird be faster.

"We're going for speed not manuverbility" (Conversation with Lee Adama on the Hanger Deck)

I beleive the "stealthyness" of the Blackbird is debatable. Galactica didn't have a problem detecting the Backbird when is jumped into their vector during the viper engagment with Pegasus at the beginning of Resurrection Ship Part I. Athough it showed up on dradis as an unknown ship it still detected it none the less.

it might be because she was communicating on wireless to the Raptor that Lee was on. Besides, she was transmitting a signal. That would easily give away her position as an "unknown" object.

[anotherquestion]

One other advantage of the blackbird was that it had a jump drive, unlike the other vipers, old and new. Why that enhancement hasn't been more widely adopted is very much a mystery. Such a capability would allow the Galactica to jump away to a predetermined 'recovery destination' instead of taking a beating while recovering vipers and raptors.

Also a mystery is no more use of the tactic of rapidly jumping in and out of locations to launch vipers, which was so successfully employed in the liberation of New Caprica. I know the Galactica wields some heavy firepower with its big guns, but a "shoot and scoot" strategy would seem to do more with less.

Why not go 'minimalist' and rig smaller unmanned vessels, like outfitting a simple nuke with a jump drive ? Surely the paranoia against Cybernetic control isn't that great. Or booby trap a raptor that might be easily detected by the Cylons, as in the last episode, with a nuke that detonates upon detection ?

[P-90_177]

One other advantage of the blackbird was that it had a jump drive, unlike the other vipers, old and new. Why that enhancement hasn't been more widely adopted is very much a mystery. Such a capability would allow the Galactica to jump away to a predetermined 'recovery destination' instead of taking a beating while recovering vipers and raptors.

Probably because jump drives are bulky, heavy and take up a lot of power. My guess is that the blackbird didn't actually have any guns on it. Only missile racks. Why? Because there was no more room.

They detected it because Starbuck and Apollo were sending eachother text messages (logging in to MSN Messenger makes you detectable on DRADIS FYI.)

I don't think it was even that. Apollo knew that they needed to do something to stop the two sides fighting eachother so i suspect he told starbuck to make herself noticed. Most likely via a radio transmission to be sure but they did not pick up starbuck immediately after she began talking to lee.