Could our armed forces with stand a cylon attack?

[akuma07]

As above,

If we discount orbital nuclear bombardment for obvious reasons, do you recon we could hold our own?

We know that BSG unvierse has no sheilds, the ammo is regular bullets and missiles.

Its fair to say that an F22 could go toe to toe witha a raider in sub orbital combat.

Tanks and other armored units could match centurions.

What do you recon?

[Pharaoh Atem]

we'd be screwed the cylons wiped out 50 billion people

6 billion would be a breeze

[talyn2k1]

we'd be screwed the cylons wiped out 50 billion people

6 billion would be a breeze

You have to remember that the vast majority of those 50 billion were wipied out by orbital bombardment, which the thread starter excluded for obvious reasons, namely that including it would make this thread very short!

Personally, I think a Cylon Raider would run rings around any fighter we've got. You've also got to take in to consideration that each Base Ship contains hundreds of Raiders, which, when you take in to account their air superiority, would make any developed country in the world with a decent air force completely outnumbered.

In terms of ground combat, we would lose a lot of people initially as it would take time to mobilise our heavy combat vehicles. However, even once mobilised, I think the Centurions would defeat our armoured vehicles, albeit while probably taking some quite significant losses.

[akuma07]

You have to remember that the vast majority of those 50 billion were wipied out by orbital bombardment, which the thread starter excluded for obvious reasons, namely that including it would make this thread very short!

Personally, I think a Cylon Raider would run rings around any fighter we've got. You've also got to take in to consideration that each Base Ship contains hundreds of Raiders, which, when you take in to account their air superiority, would make any developed country in the world with a decent air force completely outnumbered.

In terms of ground combat, we would lose a lot of people initially as it would take time to mobilise our heavy combat vehicles. However, even once mobilised, I think the Centurions would defeat our armoured vehicles, albeit while probably taking some quite significant losses.

I think both Vipers and Raiders are geared up for space combat, they have short stubby wings and rely mainly on thrusters for manveurablity, I think that an F22, which is designed for combat in atmospheric conditions which large moveable control surfaces would put up a good fight. Also regular raiders dont appear to be able to carry missiles, only those espeically equipt, F-22's, F-18E Super hornets and F-15C Eagle and the good old F-14F Tomcat can carry upto 10 air to air missiles that can be fired from 25 miles away.

I agree that a baseship could launch a heavier mass attacks given its size, but I think mordern day SAM's and especially Phalanx cannons could deal with mass raider attacks.

As for ground attacks, centruions are tough, but they seem to be able to be taken down with armor piecing rounds that closely resemble standard NATO 5.56mm ammo, and maybe even 7.62mm at a push, so I think once we trained some .50cal or 20mm vulcan electric cannons (aka minigun) in there direction they'd drop like flies.

In street to street combat centurions would easy have the advantage, but they dont seem too bright, so some creative thinking and ambush setting could deal with that.

I think that humans would win in that sense, but at almost a total desturction cost, and alas I have discounted the cylons capacity to nuke from orbit.

[Darkside_Six]

I'm gonna go with yes, they could. Cylons have few specialised units (the centurions are probably the most versatile thing they have) and that limits their battlefield capabilities.

We have lots of armor in various shapes and sizes, some well suited to taking down centurions with heavy-calibre machine guns, cannons and rockets. Also, the average NATO soldier (especially US forces) are better equipped than Colonial marines (body armour, anyone?) and use rifle calibre weapons instead of the largely pistol-calibre ones used by the Colonials.

[SoulReaver]

centurions are overrated (their "armour" is weak & can be pierced by standard gunfire) so 2 well trained soldiers with automatic rifles should be a match for a centurion
anyway withut orbital bombardment Earth definitely has a fair chance against the cylons

[garhkal]

While i too think most our modern fighters could at least go toe to toe with the raiders, they can escape into space and seem to go for longer without needing refueling/rearming.

[the fifth man]

While we might be able to hold them off temporarily, I think it would be a lost cause. They would eventually get the best of us.

[Ouroboros]

Even if you take away orbital bombardment their fighters can still fire nukes of their own. Their fighters are also drastically faster and more agile than what we've got, as proven by their ability to land and take off from planets. We need a space shuttle with rockets the size of a building to do that once. They can do it repeatedly with a single raider.

Seriously though taking away their orbital nukes is kind of like taking the guns away from a squad of marines and making them fight that way.

Their entire military strategy was built around genocidal orbital strikes following the compromise of colonial defense networks. They never intended to occupy or take territory in a conventional war so they never really prepared anything for it.

[Sci-Fi]

If there are no nukes, the Cylons would still dominate the high ground. Their rail guns can rain Mach 10+ speed projectiles down on any target and at distances far beyond our current missile or rail gun (currently accurate at 200 nautical miles) technology. Without air superiority or the ability to launch fighters and aircraft for ground support, the Cylons will overrun almost all defenses and would be hard to exterminate them all with just guerrilla war tactics and limited means of war production and related materials. The Cylons would outproduce and replace any losses from their space based production facilities. The Cylons could just build a base and production facility on the moon, plenty of raw materials there, and there's nothing we can do about it. The moon will become one big battleship or 'death star'. The level of technology and weapon systems is too great of a difference.

A BSG class ship could probably have the same effect if fully armed with a max complement of Vipers and Raptors...just take out the strongest countries and the rest would capitulate quickly.

[Aussie_86]

I think that one on one, a raider could run rings around one of our fighters. Remember the flashbacks to the first cylon war during Razor? Adama's viper was prettymuch able to turn around mid-air, in the atmosphere... i'm pretty sure a modern cylon raider would be able to do the same thing. That says something for their maneouverability.

Additionally, the raiders could 'talk' to one another much more effectively than fighter pilots could, not having to use words. This could make their group behaviour much more flexible and adaptable than ours.

Heavy raiders would probably be able to tear up ground troups, and we haven't seen if they have a air-ground system (aka bombs, missiles), so yeah, dunno about that one.

Also regarding the raiders, even in the atmosphere, i believe that they would try to put up a sheer wall of bullets, hence preventing any close in combat. If they can turn around in the atmosphere as effectively as Adama's Viper (maybe change their orientation 180* and lose velocity and altitude for a bit), they may be able to shoot down missiles too.

If they could get into our comptuer systems, we'd be screwed. Nothing on earth has the processing power of a cylon raider (i think). That, plus our reliance on networked computers = stuffed.

My two cents

[X-3-0-2]

we'd be screwed the cylons wiped out 50 billion people

50 billion self centered emo heads who hadn't fought a war in 40 years
and Cylons aren't invincible, they get taken out with an old 60s style nuke missiles or football jocks who form resistance movements
nukes?

We and the Russians got at least 10,000 of those

Cylons get owned - BADLY

[akuma07]

I'm going to rewatch Razor as I seem to have missed this scene with the viper pulling areobatics in atmosphere.

Still think an F22, Eurofighter and SU27 are more manovureable than people are giving them credit for.

[knowles2]

We do not stand a chance. The cylons wiped out the colonies with out much trouble.

They have had 150,000 years of technological developments, we are nothing more than ants to them now. Probably why they did not return to wiped us out, they knew we was not a threat but if we do not treat our robotic lifeforms correctly they might show up to teach us a lesson or two.

If there technology stays the same, unless the US, UK or Russians or anyone else got a way to take out the basestars in orbit and to take the fight to them we do not stand at chance of winning a long term war.

Short term we will run a pretty good guerrilla campaign, but with out replacement of parts and ammo it will not last long. This presuming by this time, the cylons do not even use ammo base weapons systems. Even they do the likely hood of them being compatible with our is low if not zero.

[Ouroboros]

Still think an F22, Eurofighter and SU27 are more manovureable than people are giving them credit for.

The problem is though there's little they can really do to defend themselves against a true aerospace fighter with the sort of acceleration capabilities a raider has. Even if they get the first missile locks and fire BVR all the raiders have to do is pull up and head into the upper atmosphere or space, then drop down on our planes from above and engage them with their own missiles or gauss guns.

The only way they're ever going to need to fight it out with an F22 or such is on their terms. If they ever do end up in a situation where it seems like they might actually get hit all they need to do is run back into space, and they can do that basically indefinately.

They can also likewise attack and ambush our airborne forces from space, the crucial difference being that when our guys end up in a situation where they think they'll be shot down, like massively outnumbered at close range by raiders that dropped in on them from orbit, they can't possibly escape.