Vorlon Warships
    The Vorlon fleet numbered in the thousands of ships.  The fleet consists of battleships, light cruisers, fighters, and at least three planet killers.

    Vorlon battleships appeared to be the most powerful of the fleet before the planet killers came into public view.  At that time, the battleships took on a destroyer role, escorting the larger vessels as they spread destruction across a planet's surface.  They appear very small against the full length of the planet killer.  Since the planet killer is 3-4 miles wide, these battleships must be no more than several hundred meters long each.


    While the planet killers make up a respectable percentage of the entire fleet's firepower, the battleships are the workhorses.  They are dispatched to deal with most problems, such as confronting Babylon 5 in The Gathering, or killing a Dilgar female in Deathwalker.  Since some missions battleships are sent on could be done as easily by a light cruiser, it is likely that the Vorlons have an abundance of these heavier vessels, with little need to conserve them.

Vorlon battleship destroys a Minbari flyer carrying a Dilgar nicknamed Deathwalker.
    Vorlon warships must be less powerful than the planet killer by default.  If a group of battleships were capable of causing an extinction level event, the planet killer would be superfluous and an unnecessary risk of resources.  According to NASA, asteroid impacts on the order of 100,000,000 megatons are required to cause an extinction level event planetwide.  For example, if the entire Vorlon fleet (minus the Planet Killer) were capable of this level of destruction within a reasonable time frame of ten to twelve hours (estimated duration of Planet Killer bombardment, and to allow Ivonova to return to Babylon 5), the level of firepower for this fleet would be on the order of nine to twelve million terawatts.  Since at least two planet killers were used, a Vorlon battleship has significantly less firepower than the tens of millions of terawatts range (thousands of megatons per second).  This is not surprising, as nuclear bombs in the hundreds of megatons range are capable of destroying Shadow warships, and even the Vorlons have some degree of difficulty with the same task.
    Battleships are resilient to enemy fire.  One Shadow warship hit one arm of the weapon emplacement of a battleship in Interludes and Examinations.  The Shadow beam shot completely through this arm, but apparently did not significantly hinder the vessel's performance.  However, more serious damage was inflicted to several vessels by the Shadows in Into the Fire.  Nevertheless, these are the only objects to survive fire from a Shadow warship onscreen.

Note the purple beam at the bottom of the image, proving that the beam penetrated all the way through.

Vorlon battleship withstands fire from a Shadow warship.
    In the same episode, a battleship used it's own weapons to defend against a Shadow warship's beam.  The beams collided and canceled out similar to the effect of Earthforce interceptors.

Vorlon beams and Shadow beams cancel out.

    Vorlon light cruisers are seen less often than other types of warships in battle, and are sometimes referred to as transports.  Since this type of vessel has never shown the ability to carry more than two beings, or much cargo, they do not really fit the description of a transport.  This, combined with the vessel's powerful weapon, leads to the tentative classification of the ship as a light cruiser.  They are on the order of 100 meters long, its width varying with the position of 4 appendages of unknown function.  Both Vorlon ambassadors to Babylon 5 were transported in vessels of this type.

    In Interludes and Examinations, one of these vessels destroys a Shadow warship by damaging it heavily with its weapon, then ramming it.  During the several seconds of weapons fire required, the scene changed twice.  Total time with the Shadow vessel in view with the beam striking it was 5.5 seconds.  The scene showing the Vorlon ship was approximately 2 seconds.  If the beam was only striking the Shadow vessel for 5.5 seconds, then this light cruiser has an upper limit of around 40,000 terawatts of firepower.  This calculation is generous, as the weapon may have been firing longer, the Vorlon ship rammed the Shadow vessel to shatter it, and it is based on the upper limit of Shadow warship defenses.

    These vessels have shown individual intelligence on various occasions.  They have navigated themselves independently, with and without instruction to do so.  In one instance, the second Vorlon ambassador to Babylon 5 was attacked by the command staff.  When this happened, his transport left the station violently.  In another episode, one Human was allowed aboard one of these vessels in an unconscious state to avoid capture from authorities.  He reported that the ship "sang" to him during this brief trip.  Ambassador Kosh remained aboard Babylon 5 during this event, and when the station sensors scanned the ship, the computers reported one alien lifeform - the ship itself.  In another instance, after Kosh died, his ship independently cremated itself in the local star.

    The hull of this type vessel is very flexible.  At times, weapons project from the hull, arms reach out to move objects, etc.  On at least two occasions, writing has appeared on the port side of the hull, once for Kosh and once for Sheridan during a space walk.

   Vorlon fighters were only seen in fleet operations. None were seen operating independently during the series.  They are much less resilient to enemy fire than their larger counterparts, as at least one was destroyed by a single volley from an Earthforce Thunderbolt starfighter in Into the Fire.

Vorlon fighter is destroyed by Earthforce Thunderbolt starfighter.
    Several of these vessels were used against the Shadows in Interludes and Examinations.  A small group of them was sufficient to subdue a large Shadow warship.  The fighters fired on the warship at least 10, and possibly 11 times.  The larger warship was sent spinning out of control.  Since this small group was able to subdue the Shadow vessel, they must carry markedly higher firepower than the fighters of any of the young races.

Vorlons take the Shadows by surprise and prevail in a short battle.
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