MINBARI WAR CRUISER
SHARLIN CLASS.
CLASSIFICATION: War Cruiser (Dreadnought/Aircraft Carrier)
LENGTH: 1,420 meters (lenght front to back)
TONNAGE: 38.6 million metric tons
MANEUVERABILITY: Class B
CREW: 1,083
TROOPS: 8,000 [?]
FIGHTER(s): 30
POWER SOURCE: 1 Quantum Singularity Reactor, 8 crystaline fusion reactors - Maximum output 1 Billion Exawatts (normal output is 25 exawatts)
DURATION: 20 years before refueling & supplying
WEAPONS: 18 Gravitic Neutron Cannons (slicer beams) - 18 Fusion Beam Cannons - 24 EM Neutron Guns - 8 Electro-Pulse Guns - 5 Missile Launcher (2,000 metric tons of ordanance) - 2 Anti-Matter guns - 1 Anti-Mater Cannon - 1 Mass Driver Launcher
DEFENSES: 10 to 15 meter re-enforced poly crystalline armor - Tractor Beams - Stealth Device - Energy/Gravitic Shield Grid

The Sharlin class War Cruiser is the largest and most powerful ship in the Minbari Navy, capable of laying waste to the surface of an entire planet. Controlled by all of the three ruling casts in Minbari culture (Warrior, Religious, Worker), the Sharlin class War Cruiser can be sent into almost any tactical situation on a moment’s notice.

The Minbari War Cruiser measures approximatly 1,600 meters in length from front to back and has a crew of some 729 duty personnel and nine command level officers. In addtion to her standard crew, Sharlins carry an additional 150 security personnel, 150 gunners and 45 pilots. Maximum Troop capacity for a Minbari War Cruiser is approximately 8,000 troops.

Powered by a Quantum Singularity reactor system, the Minbari War Cruiser with virtually unlimited power. With little worry for energy, the Minbari vessels do not suffer from the limitations many of the younger races suffer from using nuclear based fusion reactors or anti-mater. This also means that the re-charge time on all Minbari weapons and Jump Engines is virtually instantaneous. In addition, the Sharlin uses the waste from the Quantum Reactor, which is anti-mater, as a secondary power source as well as a powerful weapon.

Besides a massive weapons pay-load, the Minbari War Cruiser has an advantage in speed, maneuverability and an acceleration time that makes other ships look like they are standing still. Standard cruising speed for a War Cruiser in real space has been rated at 500,000 KPH sub-light near a planetary body, with a long range attack speed of "80 BoPrills" or 0.2 C, which is made possible via the Minbari's gravimetric drive engines.

At present, War Cruisers are known to be armed with a wide assortment of weapons that include twenty Gravimetric Discharge cannons (also known as Slicer Beams), twenty heavy Fusion beam Cannons, ten Electro-Pulse guns and twenty defensive Neutron-Particle Beam weapons and one Anti-Mater cannon. The collective fire power of one Minbari War Cruiser, at maximum energy output, is nearly 2 billion terawatts in a single volley. Not including the Anti-Matter cannon, which is designed specifically for attacking planetary bodies, the average combat output of the Sharlin is roughly 2 million terawatts. Minbari War Cruisers also have five missile launcher with 2,000 metric tons of ordinance, presumably fusion or anti-mater missiles, and is outfited with a device conducive to mass-driver orbital bombardment.

Though researchers have collected extensive data on the Minbari War Cruiser, there are many tactical figures on this vessel which have only been verified recently. This is due primarily to the fact that few races have engaged a War Cruiser and lived to tell the tale and almost no one outside Minbari culture have ever set foot aboard a Minbari Cruiser.

One aspect of the War Cruiser’s workings was being debated untill recently, was the question of how many fighters are onboard a War Cruiser? During the Earth/Minbari war, the most common fighter arrangement was two fighter squadrons per War Cruiser in any given situation. However, at the conclusion of the Shadow War, it is now known that the average fighter escort for a War Cruiser is thirty fighters. Three squadrons, one commander assigned to each squadron, with another nine fighters under his/her command. As Minbari culture is based on threes and nines, and seeing as how this is the same arrangement seen in the cast system (including the Gray Council with leader), this would appear to be correct.

The Minbari War Cruiser appears to be virtually unstoppable, with no major known weakness to speak of. The ship’s armor and deflector fields make conventional weapons almost useless against Sharlin class vessels in open combat conditions. Beyond this, advanced sensors warn Minbari crews of any impending attack, jamming systems make it easy for Minbari forces to attack without warning and there are few ships that can deliver as massive weapons pay-load as a War Cruiser. Centauri sources however seem to indicate that the dreaded Sharlin class War Cruiser do have one weakness, that is nearly impossible to exploit.

It would seem that the Minbari’s gravimetric drive system, which is often the key to their victories as it is used to provide shielding and significantly enhance their weapons, is also their only true weakness. The large fins characteristic of Minbari and Centauri vessels alike, are in fact the projection system for their gravimetric drive system. Should these fins be damage or blown off, the gravimetric field used for propulsion would collapse. Minbari capital ships use gravimetric drives exclusively and do not use any other form of propulsion, such as ion or plasma engines. Thus, theoretically, if serious damage were to be inflicted upon a Sharlin’s fins the ship would be effectively disabled for several minutes. This was decisively proven in 2259 when the Minbari Cruiser Tragati had its rear gravimetric fin cut in half by another Minbari vessel.

While this tactic would be effective in combat, it would take a large number of heavily armed vessels to provide enough fire power to penetrate Minbari deflector fields and armor, let alone inflict damage significant enough to disable a Sharlin class War Cruiser’s gravimetric drive system. In theory, the combined fire power of three Earthforce Omega class Destroyers would be sufficient to do the job.

Size is estimated based on the forward launch bay which appears to be as tall as the head of an Omega class Destroyer, as well as comparison to the collision of an Omega class Destroyer as seen in the trailer for "In the Beginning" as well as the Nova collision also seen in "In the Beginning", as well as the size comparison to the Nova as seen in "End Game" S4 and the many times we have seen the War Cruiser pass by the Babylon 5 station. Click HERE to see a silhouette comparison between the Minbari War Cruiser and the Earth Force Destroyer. Click HERE to see a size comparison between the Sharlin and the Babylon 5 station.

WEAPONS - SHARLIN CLASS WAR CRUISER:
NOTE: Weapons are rated at per. second/bolt. Power can be higher depending on length/duration of fire.

All readings are in Terrawatts.

Pictures