<b><u>Republic Heavy Engineering BTX-385 Turbolaser Battery</u></b>

Turbolasers are supercharged laser cannons that hurl their devastating beams across great distances. Republic Heavy Engineering designed the model used by Galactic capital ships and many cruiser- and destroyer-class vessels in Galactic space. The BTX-389 consists of several turbolaser turrets organized into batteries controlled from a primary command station typically located deep within the ship's hull, well away from enemy fire. Though the command stations can act autonomously, usually the ship's Gunnery Control Officer will direct the batteries' fire to wherever it is needed.

The chief limitations of the turbolaser are its reload time and energy use, and its inability to hit small vessels like fighters. In the first case, it takes time -- approximately a second -- to recharge the capacitors (rated in the hundreds of farads, which is a considerable amount compared to the common microfarad capacitors used in high-tech applications today) required to produce the energy for this weapon. For this reason, the BTX-389 includes a dedicated auxiliary fusion generator -- otherwise the power drain would affect the ship's other combat equipment such as point-defense and shields.

In the second case, the turret is simply too heavy to turn quickly. Bending the magnetic field at the emitter tip can only adjust the beam so far before one must rotate the turret.

The term "turbolaser" was first uttered in <i>Star Wars Episode IV: A New Hope</i>, when an Imperial officer remarked to Darth Vader that the Rebel X-Wings were too fast to hit with the Death Star's defensive armament (intended against a full scale attack involving capital ships). It's such an appropriate term for such a weapon, however, that two other sci-fi universes that I know of have used it.

This component debuted on the <i>Orion</i>-class assault cruiser, and was also used in the Orion <i>Haladar</i>-class frigate. In the case of most other ships that are mounted with it, the ship is too big to have the weapon visible in the model at sprite scale.

<i>Download Links:</i>
<ul><li><acronym title="Download the single turret component">single turret</acronym>
<li><acronym title="Download the Turbolaser Battery component">Turbolaser Battery</acronym>