Galactica's missing armour plating

[Growly Bear]

I have been watching Razor again. (Just love the slow version of the BSG TOS theme)
The shots of Galactica show it already missing armour plating. Surely in the flashback they would have the Galatica with full hull plating right?

The Columbia has full plating and it was made the same time as Galactica.

Anyone? Thoughts?

[Sparrow]

There is no missing armor platting..

RDM stated that the ribs are for "stoping" any incoming fire to hit or explode against the ribs and not against the plating itself.. so unless coming straight perpendicular, any hit would have less damage..

In the flashbacks Columbia appears to have more platting.. maybe ios Galactica having more ribbing.. or simply Columbia was a slighty diferent sub-class of the Galactica type..

after all, in the miniseries Galactica is said to be the last BattleStar of its class in service.. and yet we see two more almos identical.. one destroyed in the miniseries and another one parked in the Scorpia fleetyards (seen hit in the last seconds).. maybe those are refered as a diferent class or subclass than Galactica and ircoportate diferences.. (the Battlestar in scorpia fleetyards seemed too big compared to Pegasus)

[navalspacefanatic82]

I've been tossing around the theory, since noticing the other two similar battlestars that sparrow mentioned, that Galactica is the last of her kind in her original fitting. Who's to say Columbia and the other destroyed battlestar weren't upgraded or retro-fitted to different specifications making them Constellation (at least that's what I believe the class that Galactica belongs to is called) refits or variants. Also, I feel that Galactica's lack of overall plate coverage gives it a raw, older feel that the writers and directors were looking for. If they wanted a new, shiny battlestar they would have based the show around Pegasus. Galactica's the aged, veteran battlestar that was about to be decomissioned remember...what good would covering her in armor plating be if she's going to become a floating museum in space?

[Spencerian]

Galactica is as she is mostly by tradition. Other battlestars may appear similar or identical to her in present day pre-wartime, but Galactica was never refitted internally with the advanced electronics and computer systems that doomed most of her sister ships in the second war.

The ribs, not the plates, are the battlestar's armor. RDM has made that pretty clear.

[Georgiotje]

I think that the writers have done that to create the raw old look for the Galactica and another explanation could be that it was too expensive to keep a old fully armored Battlestar in service??

[JDS]

Funny thing...the ribs actually have a real world equivalent. Some vehicles operating in places like Iraq are being outfitted with metal "cages" around them so that shaped charges detonate at the wrong distance from the shell of the vehicle, reducing their effectiveness.

The BSG crew is really very sharp :thumbsup: