>In Star Blazers, they called the three top mounted rotating
>turrets the "main guns" (in one episode, Captain Avatar said not to
>use the Wave Motion gun and to go to the main guns). IIRC, UF calls
>them "Helix cannons". The turrets had three barrels apiece, and the
>beams from the outboard barrels spiraled around like DNA, while the
>inboard barrel kept a straight course inside the spirals.

In the ususal sort of translation snafus, they were called Main guns in some episodes, Helix cannon in others, and Turret guns in yet some others.
>
>The Yamato class is still a powerful military vessel, one of
>the best in the business. Keep in mind that things like the
>Executioner and Wayward Son are not front-line
>ships, they are obscenely powerful ships, an order of
>magnitude more powerful than the next best thing.
>
And are probobly the center of WDF action groups as well, with some light cruisers and destroyers as screen. They are probobly used in situations where there is a high chance of action but the overwhelming firepower of the SDF-23 or Executioner are not needed, such as along disuputed borders with the Kizinti; etc... I expect that ships like Wandering Child and Executor now primarily perform exploration duties, since they are capable of handling most anything without having to call for help, rather than border patrol.

>Modulo these obscenely powerful vessels (of which we've seen three or
>four, and that may be all there is), the Yamato is a
>particularly nasty enemy. It mounts a Wave Motion Gun, which is an
>Omega-class weapon. Even without that WMG, its conventional arms are
>more than capable of destroying cap ships of similar tonnage to its
>own; without the WMG, it would still be classified as a decent
>battleship. Finally, it is a starcraft carrier. Between its guns and
>its hanger bays, it is two top-of-the-line warships in one.
>
Amen, ReRob. Lets recall that this ship, in the source material, basicly took on a whole navy and won. Granted, the whole fleet didnt attack at once, but... And this versitility and power makes them a perfect ship for border patrol, epsecially as the flag of a task group.

>I'll defer to Ben as to the FTL technology on the UF Yamato;
>if we built them to original canon spec, they'd have fold drives. If
>not, I'd suspect that they had hyperdrives, simply because warp
>nacelles would look silly on them. One technology we would have added
>to the class beyond the original canon spec would be a shield
>generator, simply because we think it's stupid to build a ship without
>one.

True enough; but that was only because Shielding wasn't available in the 'source material' universe. I have a feeling that if they'd had some available, they would have added it to the class. And there was at least one case where they basicly MADE shields for themselves.

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Vaughn doesn't know I exist. I guess this explains why the rest of reality keeps ignoring me as well. >_<