History Main / TheBattlestar

Not to be confused with the 1981 game show ''Series/{{Battlestars}}'', the elite Autobot fighters from ''[[Manga/TransformersZone Transformers: Return of Convoy]]'', or [[Characters/CaptainAmericaAllies John Walker's former sidekick]].

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* ''VideoGame/KantaiCollection'':

** Both ''Archangel'' from ''[[Anime/MobileSuitGundamSEED Gundam SEED]]'' and ''Minerva'' from ''[[Anime/MobileSuitGundamSEEDDestiny Gundam SEED Destiny]]'' pack a serious punch, complete with integrated {{Wave Motion Gun}}s.
** Most recent CoolShip from ''[[Anime/MobileSuitGundam00 Gundam 00]]'' is clearly more of a carrier since it can barely defend itself without Gundams.

* There are, many, many examples in ''Franchise/{{Gundam}}'', starting with the original ''Anime/MobileSuitGundam'' and its ''White Base''. Basically, any CoolShip in the saga ''has'' to be a carrier to launch titular HumongousMecha (and normal fighters) but, depending on the series, can have more or less firepower to make it a battleship. Most recent CoolShip from ''[[Anime/MobileSuitGundam00 Gundam 00]]'' is clearly more of a carrier since it can barely defend itself without Gundams. However, both ''Archangel'' from ''[[Anime/MobileSuitGundamSEED Gundam SEED]]'' and ''Minerva'' from ''[[Anime/MobileSuitGundamSEEDDestiny Gundam SEED Destiny]]'' pack a serious punch, complete with integrated {{Wave Motion Gun}}s.
** It should be noted, however that in most ''Gundam'' series, these types of ship are usually limited to very short production runs. The original series's Pegasus class had less than ten ships of the line. In later series, we see the carrier elements becoming more prominent in ship design. Only two ships were built of ''[[Anime/MobileSuitGundamSEED Gundam SEED]]'''s Archangel class.
** Also notable is the fact that TheFederation from the original series followed the traditional "you can only have one or the other" mentality, with older ships even being forced to carry HumongousMecha ''strapped to their hulls'' when the latter were introduced. This was the primary reason they came so close to being trounced by Zeon early in the series.

** Later we get introduced to the human battleplates, which are equally well-fitting. They are in fact rather large mobile cities, with not just fleets of fighters and frigates but also room for thousands of crew members and self-grown food stores that will last indefinitely. They were originally designed to prevent {{Colony Drop}}s, but could still be used for military defense in their home systems (they were too big for [[PortalNetwork wormgates]]). With the advent of the [[{{Teleportation}} teraport]], battleplates could escape their home system, putting them at the front line of most major conflicts. All human battleplates are named for major asteroid impacts, since those were the events they were designed to prevent. The ''Tunguska'' was the first one shown in the series.

*** And all the WWII era USN destroyers undergoing the FRAM upgrade programs had thier torpedo armaments removed to be replaced in part by landing pads for dron helicopters (intended for recon purposes, they could not be armed).

* In the MassiveMultiplayerCrossover ''[[FanFic/SovereignGFCOrigins Origins]]'', one of the characters from [[ALongTimeAgoInAGalaxyFarFarAway a galaxy far, far away]] (taken quite literally -- ''Franchise/StarWarsLegends'' is far in this fanfic's past) wonders why [[Franchise/MassEffect everyone]] [[VideoGame/{{Borderlands}} else]] doesn't build these (her ''Revenant''-class [[MileLongShip Star Dreadnaught]] is 35km long and houses thousands of [[SpaceFighter starfighters]]). Turns out she just needs to look further -- [[spoiler:Franchise/{{Halo}}]] does this as per its canon. The single-purpose ships of the previous story (''FanFic/{{Fractured}}'') come in for some verbal abuse as ''not'' being battlestars (and thus, useless in this universe where [[LensmanArmsRace battlestar-type ships are common everywhere else]]).

* Played with a little in ''VideoGame/EveOnline''; many ships of all sizes and shapes are capable of launching and operating unmanned combat or utility drones, whether those ships are frigate-sized asteroid miners or kilometer-long warships packing high-powered beam lasers. But only ''true'' carriers (which cannot carry ''any'' ballistic, beam, or missile weaponry) can launch '''manned''' fighters, which are significantly more powerful than the unmanned drones and can be sent off to escort other players whilst carriers sit far away from trouble. Carriers can still mount some pretty formidable defenses, though, and their ability to repair and restore the shields of other ships can make them a fairly significant passive threat even without their fighters in play.
** Then there's the Mothership/Supercarrier and the even bigger Titan. They can carry ''players.''
*** Supercarriers had their ability to carry clone vats dropped and titans had their ability to carry drones dropped as well. The Titan could still be considered this trope taken to logical extremes.

** Protoss carriers are also shown to have formidable weapons in ExpandedUniverse and the intro of the original game. Not so much in the game. A fan-made video shows the ''Ganthritor'' (Tassadar's flagship) OneHitKill several ''Behemoth''-class battlecruisers withotu even launching its interceptors.
** ''Videogame/StarcraftIILegacyOfTheVoid'' reveals that the Protoss have an even better example than Carriers: the Arkships. Three arkships were created by the Protoss at the height of their civilization as safeguards against extinction. An arkship contains the following: a Protoss Grand Preserver who has the memories of nearly every generation of Protoss before them, an army of Templar warriors kept in stasis, factories capable of producing advanced war machines, weapons capable of destroying planets, and a ''miniature sun'' to power it all. By the time ''Legacy'' rolls around, only one arkship is left, the ''Spear of Adun''. This ship serves as the mobile base of operations during the game. By they way, these ships are '''74 kilometers long''', and it dwarfs even a ''Zerg Leviathan''.

* Another never finished project was Nazi Germanies ''Graf Zeppelin.'' Like other World War II German surface ships, all their carrier designs were focused on hunting merchant ships. For some reason though, it was thought that carrier ''itself'' should engage merchant vessels and keep the bulk of it's airwing spotting and ready to attack any warships that might intervene. As a result, ''Graf Zeppelin'' would have had a pretty substantial array of guns if completed.

* Played with a little in ''VideoGame/EveOnline''; essentially every ship class is capable of launching and operating unmanned combat or utility drones, whether those ships are frigate-sized asteroid miners or kilometer-long warships packing high-powered beam lasers. But only ''true'' carriers (which cannot carry ''any'' ballistic, beam, or missile weaponry) can launch '''manned''' fighters, which are significantly more powerful than the unmanned drones and can be sent off to escort other players whilst carriers sit far away from trouble. Carriers can still mount some pretty formidable defenses, though, and their ability to repair and restore the shields of other ships can make them a fairly significant passive threat even without their fighters in play.

Not to be confused with the 1981 game show ''Series/{{Battlestars}}'', the elite Autobot fighters from ''[[Manga/TransformersZone Transformers: Return of Convoy]]'', or [[ComicBook/CaptainAmericaAllies John Walker's former sidekick]].

Not to be confused with the 1981 game show ''Series/{{Battlestars}}'', the elite Autobot fighters from ''[[Manga/TransformersZone Transformers: Return of Convoy]]'', or [[ComicBook/USAgent John Walker's former sidekick]].

Not to be confused with the 1981 game show ''Series/{{Battlestars}}'', the elite Autobot fighters from ''[[Manga/TransformersZone Transformers: Return of Convoy]]'', or [[Characters/CaptainAmerica John Walker's former sidekick]].

* The Equinox from ''VideoGame/StarlinkTheBattleForAtlas'' houses and transports the player's various space fighters.

* Every ''VideoGame/SuperRobotWars'' game, virtually every mission, has you launching from some battleship or other. They both join in the fray as lumbering, slow (but rather durable) ships of the line, and provide a place for weakened mechs to dock and repair/refuel. The above examples from ''Franchise/{{Gundam}}'' and ''Anime/{{Macross}}'' are common, as well as originals such as the ''Hagane'' and ''Shirogane''. The ''Kurogane'' even has a giant ''[[ThisIsADrill drill]]'' on the front to ''[[RammingAlwaysWorks ram things]]''.

* In ''VideoGame/{{Stellaris}}'', [[SpaceFighter Strikecraft]] hangars are huge-sized components that take up the same slots as weapons, so only cruisers and battleships are large enough to carry them. They can be pretty well-armed, and armor and shields take up different slots (point-defense are weapons though), but still not to the same degree as purely weapons-carrying ships.

** Frigates, which carry no fighters and instead operate in "wolf-pack" flotillas. They lack batteries of broadside guns and, while they do possess a spinal gun, they're too small (on average 200-ish meters) for said guns to have either the length or power generation to penetrate the shielding of bigger ships (per the codex, all ships including frigates have spinal guns that can spam the equivalent of nukes every two seconds, it's just that "nuke" [[ShownTheirWork is a rather broad range]]). As a result, their main weapons are their point-defense lasers (frigates are often deployed as anti-fighter escorts for the more heavily armed cruisers) and their torpedo tubes (which launch masses of "disruptor torpedoes", which tear apart targets on a space time molecular level via TechnoBabble).

Instead, the flagship of the future becomes something that encompasses both artillery and piloting tropes: a [[MilitaryMashupMachine hybrid carrier/battleship]]. It has the heavy armor and big guns of a battleship, along with the fighters and point defense weapons of a carrier. This makes perfect sense, [[SpaceIsAir assuming carrying fighters in space makes sense]], because:

* The Imperial Star Destroyers from ''StarWars'', and their Rebel Alliance counterparts, the Mon Calamari Star Cruisers.

** Minor military ship types include corvettes (slightly smaller frigates, mostly used for patrol and enforcement instead of fleet combat) and destroyers (only referenced once in a novel, larger than destroyers but smaller than cruisers), but we get little information on them.

** Frigates, which carry no fighters and instead operate in "wolf-pack" flotillas. They lack batteries of broadside guns and, while they do possess a spinal gun, they're too small (on average 150 meters) for said guns to have either the length or power generation to penetrate the shielding of bigger ships (per the codex, all ships including frigates have spinal guns that can spam the equivalent of nukes every two seconds, it's just that "nuke" [[ShownTheirWork is a rather broad range]]). As a result, their main weapons are their point-defense lasers (frigates are often deployed as anti-fighter escorts for the more heavily armed cruisers) and their torpedo tubes (which launch masses of "disruptor torpedoes", which tear apart targets on a space time molecular level via TechnoBabble).

This trope is named for the Battlestar[[note]]a portmanteau of '''''battle star'''ship''[[/note]] class of warships from ''Series/{{Battlestar Galactica|1978}}'' (1978), one of the [[TropeCodifier first such depictions to reach widespread audiences.]] Often part of a StandardSciFiFleet. May also have a "little brother", the AirborneAircraftCarrier. Naturally comes hand-in-hand with the SpaceFighter; given that strikecraft are an important part of a Battlestar, see also [[Analysis/SpaceFighter their Analysis page]] for some arguments on their use or lack thereof, which may have knock-on effects on the feasibility of Battlestars.