Narn Regime
Space Stations
Firepower
Size
Aftermath of the war
Fighters
    The Narns were a peaceful race of mostly farmers before the Centauri invaded their world.  Over several decades, the Narns stole Centauri weapons and learned how to use them to drive their conquerors away.  The Narn homeworld was largely stripped of it's natural resources, being turned from lush green to desert wasteland.  But having leftover Centauri weapons and spacecraft technology to study, the Narns became a recognised military power in local space.  In fact, by fifty years later they were considered one of the most powerful governments in known space.

    In Chrysalis, G'Kar stated that only Earthforce, the Centauri, Minbari or Vorlons could have completely destroyed a Narn outpost.  He did not believe that any of the other local governments had sufficient military resources to achieve such a victory.


G'Kar does not believe any local race destroyed the base in Quadrant 37.
    The Narns have at least two classes of heavy cruiser.  Na'Toth described the three warships destroyed in Quadrant 37 as "heavy cruisers."  It is not known which of these vessels is newer or more powerful.  But the class mentioned in the clip above is only seen in the first season.  The second design is seen in seasons 2-5.

Heavy cruisers from season 1.  Very limited information on this vessel, but it is apparent in this image that they are smaller than a Shadow warship.

Heavy cruisers from seasons 2-5.
    Narn space stations are very powerful.  Even the Centauri repect their defenses, as Reefa felt that one large station/base could only be defeated with a major assault in The Coming of Shadows.

    The station seen in Chrysalis appeared to be made from parts of old starships strung together.  But this was a small base, consisting of only 10,000 soldiers, and sustaining only a couple heavy cruisers and perhaps a couple squadrons of fighters.  It was significantly smaller than the more impressive base seen in The Coming of Shadows, which sustained 250,000 soldiers.

    This second base had a larger space station and a larger ground installation, that could be viewed from orbit.  And it was far from being thrown together.  At first glance it appears that the station was constructed on the top of an asteroid.  However, this is not the case.
 

    Closer inspection reveals the true nature of this impressive facility.  Not only does it have smooth, machined surfaces, it also has windows.  The surfaces are flat, round, cylindrical, etc.  Everything you don't find on an asteroid.  This station was not only constructed from top to bottom, but constructed well.

Narn fighters attempting to defend their base from the Shadows in The Coming of Shadows.
    The Narn Heavy Cruiser is a very simple design.  It is basically engine on the rear, gun on the front, and some space for people in the middle.  The forward guns are a significant fraction of the size of the ship.  This is seen in the image to the left.  The forward guns are located between the pointed objects on the sides.  They extend from just forward of the bridge, almost to the front of the vessel.
    These weapons have very wide firing arcs, despite their long-barreled appearance.  They can fire at more than 90 degrees "downward" from the direction of the barrel, firing slightly aft.

    In Walkabout, the G'Tok was dispatched by G'Kar to assist the Whitestar in fighting the Shadows.  It came out of hyperspace almost perpendicular to a Shadow vessel and opened fire with both forward guns.  The beams were powerful enough to halt the pursuit the Shadow vessel had on the Whitestar, and even cause it to gyrate noticably.  The Whitestar then added it's firepower (which was at 60% of maximum power at the time) and the Shadow vessel was destroyed.

    The scene changed several times during this event, making accurate time measurements impossible.  The Narn vessel opened fire, and we view this for 3 seconds; cut to the bridge of the Whitestar for 5 seconds, the Whitestar turns 180 degrees, and opens fire - 3 seconds; then 4 seconds of the Whitestar and Narn both firing until the Shadow vessel is destroyed.  Times are approximate.


Narn Heavy Cruiser and the Whitestar destroy a Shadow vessel.
    If we only consider the time in which beams from the Narn are seen hitting the Shadow vessel, a generous upper limit on the firepower of this vessel can be determined.  The Shadow vessel's defensive capabilities have an upper limit of 250,000 terajoules.  Thus, over more than 7 seconds the G'Tok delivered no more than 250,000 terajoules (60 megatons) with both barrels, at a rate of no more than 36,000 terawatts.  This calculation is very generous as the upper limit of the Shadow defenses is used, and the actual firing time should be greater.  The destructive energy applied by the Whitestar is not taken into account either.

    These vessels perform favorably in most cases, even against more advanced opponents.  In And Now for a Word, a Narn heavy cruiser battles a Centauri battlecruiser of the most powerful design.  The Narn vessel destroys the Centauri vessel, although it is heavily damaged as well.  When the crew attempts to escape, the jump engines detonate and the vessel explodes.

    The Narn committed the bulk of their remaining fleet to attack the Centauri at Gorash 7 in The Long, Twilight Struggle.  The fleet consisted of heavy cruisers and fighters.  They battled 4 Shadow vessels for several minutes.  All of the Narn vessels were destroyed, but they damaged one Shadow vessel as well.  This required concentrated fire from three heavy cruisers on one of the "legs" of the Shadow vessel.  This "leg" was broken away from the main body of the ship.  This is the only scene in the entire series when a Shadow vessel was damaged by any number of beam weapons in less than 1 second.


Narn Heavy cruisers shoot the leg off a Shadow vessel.
    There are few opportunities for scaling throughout the series, as few objects of known size are seen in close proximity to one of these vessels.
    In Acts of Sacrifice, a heavy cruiser defends a civilian transport from a fleet of Centauri vessels.  The cruiser is destroyed by two Centauri warships.  These Centauri warships were in close proximity to the Narn vessel for a brief period.  The most distant Centauri vessel appears to be more distant from the camera than the Narn vessel.  It approaches from the opposite side, as the Centauri surround the Narn.  This class of Centauri warship is between 150-250 meters in length, therefore the Narn heavy cruiser has a generous estimate of 500-850 meters in length.
    During Sheridan's rebellion against Earth, most of the major races in known space submitted warships to his fleet.  One brief glimpse of the fleet in hyperspace reveals a Narn heavy cruiser next to an Earthforce destroyer, but slightly closer to the camera.

    In this image, it is apparent that a Narn heavy cruiser is not as large as an Earthforce "Omega" destroyer.  A subjective impression would suggest that it is only about 1/2 the length, however the severe angles the vessels are presented to us in these images does not allow accurate measurements.

This image also implies that the vessel is about half as long as an Omega, or less.
    These two images show a heavy cruiser surrounded by Starfuries.  Some are closer to the camera and some are farther than the cruiser.  The cruiser is large, but even when viewing it's entire length or width, the fighters are visible.  This is so even with the most distant fighters.  This would not be possible if the vessel is much larger than a kilometer.
    The view closer to the stern in the image on the right gives this ship's visible portion (most of the ship) a lower limit of 80 meters and an upper limit of 475 meters in length.  This is scaled by the closer Starfury providing a lower limit, and the distant Starfuries providing an upper limit.  The distant fighters are both 5 pixels tall, and the ship, taking up the whole length of the image, is 311 pixels (measurements taken in a larger version of this image).  Since the ship is not much longer than what is seen in the image, and the fighters are very distant, the cruiser is not much longer than ~500 meters.
        After the war with the Centauri, the Narn military was devastated.  However, a few ships did remain heavily damaged rather than destroyed.  It was estimated that about 10 warships were left, but parts from some were being used to fix others.  Thus, the total number of functional Narn warships when their homeworld was freed by the Centauri was less than 10.  Probably barely enough to defend their territory.

G'Kar and an associate discuss the state of the Narn fleet after the war.
    Narn fighters are designed similarly to the most common design of heavy cruiser, with approximately half of the ship's length consisting of engines and weapons.  They are relatively large fighters, but only carry one Narn in a spacious cockpit.

    The weapons on these fighters are very large, and fire 2-3 pulses per second that propagate at obviously sublight speeds.  Unfortunately the firepower of these weapons is difficult to determine, as they rarely fired on a target during the series run other than Shadow vessels (which were not significantly damaged).
    Narn fighters, like Earthforce fighters, lack artificial gravity.  Thus, their acceleration and maneuverability performance is limited by the tolerance of the Narn pilot.  They can however, travel long distances in hyperspace with the aid of a jumpgate, as G'Kar visited a base of the Shadows on the rim of known space in Revelations.

Narn pilot in his spacious cockpit.


Narn fighter on patrol around base in Quadrant 37.  Note the design similarities to the heavy cruiser.
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