Babylon 5 Starship Weapon Systems

'Illegal? No… old Dilgar turrets are totally legal in say… four, maybe even five League systems nowadays!"
- Zrachuss, Drazi Arms Dealer

Weapon systems are the real worry of most shipbuilders. Too few? Too many? Blind firing arcs? These are the kinds of questions that will plague a shipbuilder, until the time comes when that awkwardly placed turret blasts an incoming enemy going for their own kill shot. The weapons systems of a ship are where a very high number of credits in the industry come and go. Replacements, retrofits, upgrades – weapons are big business indeed.

The invention, sale, re-sale and smuggling of weaponry collectively form a multi-billion credit industry in over a dozen systems. Arms companies like Pri-Wakat Solutions of the Brakiri and the Hak’uri’ool Ingenuity Guild of the Pak’ma’ra come up with new and better weaponry each and every year, with governments from all around sweeping in to take a bite of their new wares. Arms dealers fill their holds with powerful implements as they tour the spacedocks and shipyards, looking for that successful retrofitter or inquiring ship owner to unload the expensive components.

Some governments – like the Minbari and Vree, for instance – horde their weapon technologies, keeping them very close to their chests in order to have an edge over their foes. These ‘secret’ weapons always end up on the black market through postbattle salvage or other, more nefarious means; nothing stays secret forever in this galaxy.

Weapon systems are as different as the people who make, buy and use them, yet every weapon system has three main parts – the ammunition bay, the processing equipment and an emitter. Missile racks and railguns have obvious ammunition systems, and though a graviton beam’s ammunition is less obvious, it is still present. The processing section of a plasma cannon is a set of magnetic coils, while it is a series of lenses in a laser cannon. The emitting portion of a pulse cannon is a simple recoiling barrel but the partially shielded hurling ports of an antimatter shredder perform the same function.

This section is dedicated to the myriad weaponry that is available to shipbuilders throughout the galaxy in some fashion or another. They are divided up into their base technology types, in the ascending order of technological advancement from simple ballistics to the devastating theoretical science of molecular weapons.

Weapon Systems
Ballistic Weaponry
Missile Weaponry
Matter Weaponry
Plasma Weaponry
Particle Weaponry
Pulse Weaponry
Laser Weaponry
Harmonic Weaponry
Energic Trauma Weaponry
Gravitic Weaponry
Antimatter Weaponry
Neutron Energy
Electromagnetic Weaponry
Molecular Weaponry

The Weapons Systems Master Table

Source
Babylon 5: Ship Builder's Manual (pages 45-61)
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