Movies - Cylon Raider

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	Movies - Cylon Raider

The Cylon Raider is the standard starfighter used by the Cylons, in the various Battlestar Galactica
movies and television series'.

Original Series

The raider of the original series has a crew of three cylons, and is armed with twin blasters. Raiders frequently make suicide attacks on enemy capital ships, typically attacking the fighter launch bays. While a typical Basestar held far more Raiders then a Battlestar had Vipers, it is mentioned in the second episode of the series that Cylons, as machines, cannot think on the same intuitive level and improvise as humans do, and so a single Viper pilot is a match for several Cylon Raiders.

Re-Imaged Series

In the 2003 remake of Battlestar Galactica, the Cylon Raider is the main attack fighter used by the Cylons, participating in the destruction of the Twelve Colonies and later actions.

This fighter is much different than the previous, piloted Raider used during the Cylon War (the Raider from the 1978 series). The new Raiders were originally thought to be completely mechanical, with artificial intelligence in control. However, after Starbuck managed to recover a downed Raider, it was found to be part machine, part organism. Just like the Cylon androids that look completely human, the Raiders are also capable of transmitting their memory into new Raiders after having been destroyed. This is done so that new, replacement Raiders do not have to be trained, meaning that experienced combat "pilots" that have been killed are quickly available for duty again. This provides the Cylons with a distinct tactical advantage in amount of battle seasoning a Raider will have over a replacement Viper pilot.

The Raiders have many weapons. Conventional missiles, nuclear missiles, kinetic energy weapon guns, transmitting a computer virus to a Colonial vessel using the Command Navigation Program (CNP), rendering the Colonial vessel inoperable. When transmitting the virus, its red eye activates and oscillates to the left and right repeatedly.

The Cylon Raider is also capable of makeing FTL jumps. After the Raider was captured by the Battlestar Galactica, its FTL drive system was discovered to be more efficient traveling through space than the FTL systems on the Colonial vessels. It could travel the distance of Kobol to Caprica in just one jump.

It is capable of traveling through an atmosphere, similar to its predecessor, and is far more maneuverable in spaceflight than the previous Raider.

However, as with the model in the original series, the reimagined Raiders seem to lack much of the intuitive and improvisation that humans have, as evidenced by Galactica's Viper squadon able to engage Cylons in massive numbers effectively.

Technical Specifications

Dimensions

Classic Raider (1978/1980 BSG)

Length: 26m
Wingspan: 10.7m
Height: 4m

New Raider (2003/2005 BSG)

Length: 8.94m
Wingspan: 5.59m
Height: 1.52m

Propulsion

Classic Raider (1978/1980 BSG): Two sublight engines and no FTL technology
New Raider (2003/2005 BSG): Three sublight engines and limited FTL drive system

Armaments

Classic Raider (1978/1980 BSG): Two lasers in channels on outer edges of vehicle. May also carry missiles in internal weapons bay.
New Raider (2003/2005 BSG): Sixteen Solonite APX and HE missiles in internal compartments under wings, two 30mm rail guns under leading edges of wings. May also carry nuclear warheads, as well as transmit computer viruses.

Notable Individuals

Scar

In the 2006 episode of the same name, Scar is a particularly vicious and elusive raider identified by a gash, resembling a scar, on the side of its "face." While they patrolled the asteriod field where the minning ship Majahual was operating, Scar would quickly attack and destroy Vipers in ambushes using its highly effective hit-and-run and divide-and-conquer tactics. This quickly inspired fear amongst the Viper pilots and lead both Kat and Starbuck to vow that they would personally destroy the raider. Explaining that raiders can resurrect just as humanoid-Cylons do, Caprica-Sharon proposed that Starbuck had already engaged and destroyed multiple previous incarnations of Scar and, as a result, it had both learned from the experiences to become the formidable opponent that it now was and had also developed a personal vendetta against her.

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