Minbari Warcruiser
    Warcruisers are the most powerful vessels used by the Minbari, and possibly by any of the young races.  They are certainly the most powerful vessels in production (the Excalibur is a prototype).  Warcruisers have a "tactical center" in place of a bridge, where the vessel's command staff observes a full 3D CGI view of the space surrounding the vessel.  This reduces the vessel's overall response time during battle, as the command staff needs only respond to what they see.  In a "bridge" setting, the command staff must wait for officers to interpret the course of battle, report this, issue their orders, wait for the officers to comply, and for the vessel to maneuver.  A Minbari tactical center removes the "middle man" which is the bridge officer in other vessels.  Captain Sheridan commanded an entire fleet from the tactical center of a Warcruiser in Shadow Dancing.  He simply spoke orders, and the fleet followed them.

Tactical center on a Minbari Warcruiser.
    These powerful warships are powered by fusion reactors housed in the main body of the ship.  We learn in Matters of Honor that Minbari engines are "based partly on magnetic and gravitational principles" when Delenn describes the Whitestar.  That describes the drive systems themselves, which actually propel the ship, and are powered by the fusion reactors.

Warcruiser's fusion reactors explode, destroying the ship in Points of Departure.  The reactors are in the main body of the ship, as the rear fin had been severed moments before.  The fin houses the engines themselves, which actually propel the ship.
    These huge vessels carry several heavy guns which can fire in wide arcs - at least 90 degrees from the barrel's direction.  In Legacies, a Warcruiser approached Babylon 5.  Sinclair and Garibaldi observed a terminal which displayed tactical information about the vessel.

    This image indicates that the Warcruiser has 12 fusion lasers, 6 neutron cannons, and 6 missiles having a yield in the megaton range.  While the Minbari have sensor stealth, it is unlikely this stealth system was active at this time.  We know from Points of Departure that the system can be active or inactive.  When active, the ship could not be scanned and only a silhouette would be detected.  Thus, when the above scan was performed, the stealth system was inactive.  Another possibility is that the computers aboard B5 simply opened a file of known information about Minbari Warcruisers.
 

    The large weapons on these powerful vessels are very effective against most targets fired upon during the series.  In Points of Departure, a Warcruiser fired on a sister ship, which had invaded Babylon 5 space and engaged in hostile action.  Only one of the ship's primary weapons fired, and in seconds had completely severed the rear fin on the hostile ship.  This area of the Warcruiser is several hundred meters in height and dozens of meters in width; and apparently houses the vessel's jump engines, as the hyperspace vortex could no longer be maintained.  In moments, the vessel exploded as a result of the fusion reactors going critical (probable suicide by the crew).
Firepower Calculator

Minbari Warcruiser severs the attacking ship's engines.  This causes the jump point to break down.  Note the fusion reactors still in the ship's main body.
    This same weapon was fired on at least one Shadow vessel in Shadow Dancing.  The weapon's power caused the Shadow vessel to halt its forward motion upon contact.  This beam was in contact with the Shadow vessel for at least 3 seconds without destroying it, giving the weapon's firepower an upper limit of 85,000 terawatts (using the upper limit on Shadow defenses).  Since the Shadow vessel was not destroyed in this sequence before the scene changed, and the fact that the calculation is based on another upper limit, this upper limit is generous.  It is not known how many of these weapons can be fired simultaneously, and at what percentage of total firepower each can output.

Minbari Warcruiser fires on a Shadow vessel.
    The beam weapons of Warcruisers are powerful enough to shoot all the way through Earthforce warships and space stations lengthwise in one second or less.  Their weapons greatly outclass those of the other young races in the known galaxy.  They also carry at least one squadron of fighters, each of which being superior to those of other known young races.

Warcruisers make quick work of Earthforce warships and space stations.
    Warcruisers can also use their jump engines as a weapon, if the exact location of enemy ships is known.  In In the Beginning, the Black Star opened a jump point in the middle of an Earthforce fleet.  Several ships were destroyed almost instantly by this energy release.  This may have been done routinely during the war, because few survivors were available to tell the tale.

Warcruiser opens a hyperspace vortex in the midst of an Earthforce fleet.
    In In the Beginning, it was shown that primitive weapons could damage Warcruisers if they could lock on to target.  Earthforce weapons caused much damage with the first strike, and even killed the Minbari leader, who was deep in the core of the ship.  Thus, Minbari hull materials and armor do not appear to be significantly more resilient than that of the other young races.  The first line of defense is the active stealth technology used to prevent accurate targeting by enemy weapons, as the Minbari prefer to minimize or avoid hits altogether.  Even the advanced Centauri are eluded by this stealth, and Earthforce vessels were reduced to pointing their guns in the general direction of attacking Warcruisers during the war.  Some pilots resorted to ramming Warcruisers, with notable effect.

Earthforce weapons heavily damage a Warcruiser in In the Beginning.  This attack killed the Minbari leader deep inside the ship, indicating that the armor is not particularly strong.

Dr. Franklin tells us that the Earthforce task force that first made contact with the Minbari "destroyed two Minbari vessels."

Starfury rams a Warcruiser's top fin, penetrating all the way through, indicating that the armor is not particularly strong.
    This stealth is not simply a by-product of the vessel's hull materials.  Minbari vessels can be detected well when they wish, as in Points of Departure.  Sheridan stated that Babylon 5 was using the same type sensors as Earthforce used during the war, and "we shouldn't be able to track them at all."  Also, Earth warships were easily able to detect Warcruisers at some distance when the two cultures first contacted, as seen in In the Beginning.  If the hull materials were simply difficult to detect, as with the modern "Stealth" fighters and bombers, the Minbari would be unable to "turn it off."

    Another possibility is that the Minbari could have emitted an active signal to give away their location.


Lennier checks that his stealth mode is "on" in his fighter.  This is presumably the same system used by the Warcruiser.
    Sheridan masterminded a plan to destroy a Warcruiser using mines.  He mined the asteroid field between Jupiter and Mars, then sent a distress signal to lure the attacking Warcruiser in, as the Minbari had become known for destroying crippled vessels.  When the vessel was in range, he detonated the bombs and destroyed the Black Star, a Minbari flagship.

Sheridan plans the mining of the asteroid field in In the Beginning.
Sheridan discusses his strategy.
Sheridan tells about the destruction of the Black Star in Points of Departure, 12 years later.

Ivonova gives Sheridan shrapnel from the destroyed Black Star for Christmas.
    This mine field consisted of 3 bombs, each of which having a yield of 2 megatons.  At 2 megatons, these bombs were capable of releasing approximately 8370 terajoules (8.37x10^15 joules) of energy each.
 
      Two of the three bombs were used to destroy the Black Star.  The first bomb damaged the starboard side of the ship.  It is not known how heavily the ship was crippled, but it was able to maneuver and attempt an escape from the asteroid field.  The second bomb completely destroyed the Warcruiser, suggesting that this second bomb caused more damage than the first.
    This image appears to show the Black Star being engulfed in energy from the first bomb's explosion.  The expanding energy can be represented by a sphere with a surface area of 6535 pixels, and the Black Star's broadside can be generously represented by a circle with an area of 5809 pixels.  Thus, the Black Star absorbed no more than 43% of this bomb's energy, or 3600 terajoules.  This calculation is very generous, as it assumes the Black Star is perfectly engulfed by the explosion with the bomb directly to the starboard side, instead of the explosion occurring between the Black Star and the camera; only two-dimensional measurements can be taken from an image; and the Black Star has much less frontal area than a circle as tall and wide as the ship itself.
    This image shows us that the bomb was not directly beside the Black Star, but rather off the starboard bow.  Thus, in the image above, the Black Star may or may not have been engulfed by the bomb's explosion.  It may be that the intense light from the explosion crossed between the Black Star and camera.
    This image shows the detonation of the second bomb.  The Minbari vessel is closer to the camera than the bomb, so its perceived size is exaggerated.  A bomb releases its energy in all directions: up, down, sideways, and all angles in between.  This can be related to a light bulb.  The light spreads in every direction, as opposed to a laser, which emits light in essentially one direction.  As you get farther away from a light bulb, the light you receive decreases exponentially.
Blast Intensity Calculator
    With the available information, it is impossible to determine how much energy the Black Star absorbed.  However, an upper limit on the amount of energy can be established.  We know that the ship is smaller relative to the blast than it appears to be in this image, because it is closer to the camera.  We also know that the bomb's energy is a perfect expanding sphere.

    To establish an upper limit, assume that the vessel is exposing its broadside to the bomb (which it is not), and that its shape is a disk.  In actuality, energy would pass by the fins etc., never to be absorbed by the ship (note in this image how much of the circle is not filled with the ship).  The circle around the Black Star represents this broadside, and has an area of 29559 pixels.

    The bomb's expanding sphere of energy has a radius from the center of the detonation to the center of the Warcruiser.  This becomes a sphere with a surface area of 575490 pixels.  Thus, the Warcruiser can absorb no more than 5.1% of the bomb's total energy release (the area of the circle is 5.1% of the sphere's surface area).  This 5.1% is approximately 427 terajoules (102 kilotons).

    This calculation presents a generous upper limit.

    The total energy absorbed, by these scalings, cannot exceed 4027 terajoules (1 megaton).  But even if as much as half of each bomb's energy was absorbed by the vessel (a very generous assumption), an upper limit of 8400 terajoules (2 megatons) caused the destruction of the Black Star (whether by direct damage, secondary explosions from internal components, or other secondary effects).  Comments Sheridan made to Ivonova about the incident supports an assumption that the third bomb destroyed three more Minbari warships.

The destruction of the Black Star in 320x240 resolution.


The destruction of the Black Star in high resolution  for faster computers.
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