Space Battleship Yamato VS. Executor class Star Destroyer

[Daniel_Evercroft]

I'm in a debate with a friend, he says that the Yamato would beat anything from Star Wars, so i want to use the Executor to disprove him.
Assuming that neither ship have any external or special assistance, ( No force power ) and using the Yamato's new design.
Which one of the two would win in a field of empty space?

[Skywalker_T-65]

Umm...no offense but your friend is an idiot. Even assuming the Yamato's main gun (Note, never actually seen the show) could get through shields that can take three Imperial Star Destroyers coming out of hyperspace and slamming into it...the Yamato would have to take return fire from literally thousands of turbolasers. So, even if the Yamato has the firepower needed, it would get vaporized by the Ex before it could get more than one shot in. And if your friend pulls out ROTJ to say that the Executor doesn't have that firepower, just tell him that the whole point of the Imp fleet in that movie was to hold the Rebels back for the Death Star, not destroy their fleet themselves.

[VF5SS]

Even assuming the Yamato's main gun (Note, never actually seen the show) could get through shields that can take three Imperial Star Destroyers coming out of hyperspace and slamming into it....

Is there any good example of Star Destroyer shields that isn't from some obscure comic nobody read?

[Skywalker_T-65]

Unfortunately no, but it is all we have to work with. That being said, I said that even assuming the Yamato can get through the shields (which is a big assumption even if the comic isn't used), it would get vaporized by the Ex's return fire. Unless you take the view that the Executor doesn't actually have thousands of turbolasers on its 19 kilometer hull.

[Eternal_Freedom]

How big is the Yamato? If it literally is the old battleship wreck it will be 300-400 metres long as a guestimate. The Executor could probably ram it at full speed without worrying.

[VF5SS]

The Space Battleship Yamato

The Yamato is kind of vaguely defined as being the original battleship rebuilt. It famously bursts forth from the wreckage of the WW2 version in the original show.

[SAMAS]

Having looked at a few clips of the Wave Motion Gun in action, your friend isn't entirely talking out the side of his neck.

The very first firing of the Wave motion gun was to blow up a small continent (or very large island).



Since then, they have refined the technology, and in the last series, the Yamato has six separate WMG charges, and can (barely) fire all six at once, which it used to blow up something that I'm not certain is a black hole threatening to swallow the Solar System, but is doing a good impression of one.



So your friend is probably right in that the Wave Motion Gun probably could blow up 80-90% of the ships in Star Wars (and might even take out the Death Star), there is the matter of it surviving long enough to get the shot off. That, I don't know enough about yet.

[Enigma]

The big problem is charge time and distance to target. From what I saw from the first clip the range is in between 8 Kilometers (5 miles) to 100,000 Kilometers (over 62,000 miles).

While the SBY may have somewhat superior firepower, it'll never fire off a shot before it gets blown to quark sized pieces.

Saw the two Youtube clips and the trigger of the WMG is the shape of a handgun? WTF? All you need to fire is at least a button, it isn't like the guy is actually aiming the WMG.

[SAMAS]

Yes, but the trigger is more dramatic.

[Lord Revan]

Btw what kind of defences the Yamato has, since if it's just 1940s battleship armor, there's no way in hell it's get the Wavemotion gun off before it's blow to space dust by the Executor (it simply takes too long for the Wavemotion gun to charge up based on the clips), how ever if the Yamato has defences strong enough to ward off turbo-laser fire until the main gun is ready, it could go either way.

the Wiki article mentioned some sort of shields but it didn't say anything usefull about their power.

[Johonebesus]

Btw what kind of defences the Yamato has, since if it's just 1940s battleship armor, there's no way in hell it's get the Wavemotion gun off before it's blow to space dust by the Executor (it simply takes too long for the Wavemotion gun to charge up based on the clips), how ever if the Yamato has defences strong enough to ward off turbo-laser fire until the main gun is ready, it could go either way.

the Wiki article mentioned some sort of shields but it didn't say anything usefull about their power.

It's been thirty years, but I recall no mention of force fields, and the ship was easily damaged by Gamilon weapons. She has some sort of fabrication plant on board to make whatever replacement parts are needed, and they frequently had to hide out for a few days to patch up after a battle. If a single shot from the Executor could destroy an asteroid, the Argo doesn't stand a chance.

[MrDakka]

Yes, but the trigger is more dramatic.

It's been thirty years, but I recall no mention of force fields, and the ship was easily damaged by Gamilon weapons. She has some sort of fabrication plant on board to make whatever replacement parts are needed, and they frequently had to hide out for a few days to patch up after a battle. If a single shot from the Executor could destroy an asteroid, the Argo doesn't stand a chance.

So the SBY is a glass cannon compared to the Executor?

[Eternal_Freedom]

It's not so much a glass cannon but a small toy glass cannon compared to an Abrams battle tank. The Executor is so much larger, more heavily armed and shielded that the Yamato has no chance except though plot-induced stupidity.

[Enigma]

Btw what kind of defences the Yamato has, since if it's just 1940s battleship armor, there's no way in hell it's get the Wavemotion gun off before it's blow to space dust by the Executor (it simply takes too long for the Wavemotion gun to charge up based on the clips), how ever if the Yamato has defences strong enough to ward off turbo-laser fire until the main gun is ready, it could go either way.

the Wiki article mentioned some sort of shields but it didn't say anything usefull about their power.

It's been thirty years, but I recall no mention of force fields, and the ship was easily damaged by Gamilon weapons. She has some sort of fabrication plant on board to make whatever replacement parts are needed, and they frequently had to hide out for a few days to patch up after a battle. If a single shot from the Executor could destroy an asteroid, the Argo doesn't stand a chance.

I think the shields they had were the equivalent of ST's deflectors since according to the Wiki article they used it once to ride out a space storm.

[Parallax]

The only real defence system the Yamato ever displayed was (possibly used only once) to be able to form a ring of asteroids around itself to block incoming fire. No good against a Star Destroyer.

The Wave Motion Cannon takes far too long to charge up, target and fire. By the time the crew have put their goggles on, the ship would be dust.
And I'm saying that as someone who loves the Yamato.

OTOH, you throw the Yamato into the Babylon 5 universe and you could have some interesting encounters.

[Rekkon]

How good is the Yamato's point defense? Could it handle the Executor's 144 fighter complement and the warheads they are sure to spam?

[Starglider]

As I recall the SBY's FTL system is fairly slow (about 50c in the test flight to Mars, although it gets faster) and finicky; takes a while to charge, route has to be precisely calculated, jump has to be precisely timed. If you get it wrong you don't just miss, you end up 'lost in the 4th dimension'. Both ships have horrible maneuverability, but Executor can easily hyper out if it needs to and will probably detect the SBY on subspace sensors well in advance and be able to ambush it from a favourable vector. SBY can't run or hide at FTL or sublight, whereas Executor can pull hundreds if not thousands of G of linear acceleration and disengage at will.

[tim31]

Saw the two Youtube clips and the trigger of the WMG is the shape of a handgun? WTF? All you need to fire is at least a button, it isn't like the guy is actually aiming the WMG.

I don't know if you recall Samurai Pizza Cats but they worked in a pizza shop that sent them on deliveries via a giant revolver mounted on the roof.

It's an anime thing.

[Batman]

Does the SBY have FTL sensors? Because if it doesn't there's the not inconsiderable problem of SSDs having lighthour effective ranges...

[VF5SS]

Maybe if the SSD's shields were off they could just send a Cosmo Tiger to take out the bridge.

[Lord Revan]

How good is the Yamato's point defense? Could it handle the Executor's 144 fighter complement and the warheads they are sure to spam?

I dout the Executor would launch TIEs or use its warheads against something like the Yamato, a single TL bolt would severly damaged (probably outright destroy) the Yamato if what is implied is true and bulk of it hull is made of 1940s armor grade steel

[Darksider]

If it's just the Yamato vs an SSD then the cosmo tigers are going to be outnumbered like 50 to one against the TIEs. The only reason a fighter got through at Endor was due to the chaos of the battle. Besides. Does the Yamato have anything that could take down an SSD's shields? Pitting the Yamato against a ship more than ten times it's size with more than twice the fighter complement just seems unfair. Maybe if you put it against a smaller Imperial warship like a Dreadnaught or a Carrack?

[Darksider]

How good is the Yamato's point defense? Could it handle the Executor's 144 fighter complement and the warheads they are sure to spam?

I dout the Executor would launch TIEs or use its warheads against something like the Yamato, a single TL bolt would severly damaged (probably outright destroy) the Yamato if what is implied is true and bulk of it hull is made of 1940s armor grade steel

The bulk of the Yamato's hull is not made of 1940's steel. I know they harp on it being the re-built yamato, but in the pilot you actually see the spaceship's hull come flying out of the original WWII ships' hulk. There's no way it's made of the same material.

[Parallax]

How good is the Yamato's point defense? Could it handle the Executor's 144 fighter complement and the warheads they are sure to spam?

Honestly, it's pretty rubbish.
It can create a screen of 'AA' fire that can handle small numbers of enemy fighters but that's about it - hence why the Cosmo Tigers were so often assigned ship protection/intercept duty. The arc of fire of the AA guns are pretty limited as well, strictly to the sides of the ship with basically nothing to the front or back.

Which brings me to the point that the Yamato has NOTHING defence/offence-wise on it's bottom half at all. Zip. Zilch. Nadda. Something of a glaring design flaw.



As for what the Yamato is built out of? No idea but it's not regular steel - since steel simply could come nowhere close to handling the stresses we see the ship go through with relatively little damage. Whatever the material is, it can handle increased gravity (Jupiter outter atmosphere level, minimum) and atmospheric re-entry.

[Lord Revan]

How good is the Yamato's point defense? Could it handle the Executor's 144 fighter complement and the warheads they are sure to spam?

I dout the Executor would launch TIEs or use its warheads against something like the Yamato, a single TL bolt would severly damaged (probably outright destroy) the Yamato if what is implied is true and bulk of it hull is made of 1940s armor grade steel

The bulk of the Yamato's hull is not made of 1940's steel. I know they harp on it being the re-built yamato, but in the pilot you actually see the spaceship's hull come flying out of the original WWII ships' hulk. There's no way it's made of the same material.

I'll concede on that point then.

Honestly, it's pretty rubbish.
It can create a screen of 'AA' fire that can handle small numbers of enemy fighters but that's about it - hence why the Cosmo Tigers were so often assigned ship protection/intercept duty. The arc of fire of the AA guns are pretty limited as well, strictly to the sides of the ship with basically nothing to the front or back.

Which brings me to the point that the Yamato has NOTHING defence/offence-wise on it's bottom half at all. Zip. Zilch. Nadda. Something of a glaring design flaw.

so they essentially no only did not improve on the orginal (WW2 battleship) Yamato's AA defense but also gave it a massive blind spot on the underside?