Soooo apparently the Ninka, the Free Virgillia class Bunkerbuster (the one that looks like a modified bigger CR90) was the ship that transported the two bomber squadrons that attacked and destroyed the First Order dreadnought Fulminatrix. It is listed as 316m in length. SF-17 bombers are listed at just under 30m in length (plus being nearly as tall as long).

How is such a small ship able to transport 2! squadrons of such a chunky bomber????? This reeks of contrived convenience as not even the Raddus' hangar bays looked tall enough to accommodate the bombers. I am just hoping somebody can shed some light on how such a feat could have been managed. Thanks!

I think it was specifically designed to hold them externally? It would make sense that the bombers could dock with the front-ish part of the ship, which is why those shields are on the front between the bridge and the outside parts.

Like everything in Star Wars, they can basically make up the basis on the fly. Why did the SSD crash into the Death Star? Gravity and somehow the ship couldn’t establish control from the backup bridge. Why did they have to attack down a narrow trench that allowed no ability to maneuver? Some weird tactic to take advantage of “trench run disease.” Why don’t they just hyperspace ram against all the super weapon? Probably some reason like it’s Incredibly hard to do since you have to time it exactly between the point of max speed and transition to lightspeed.

How does the Ninka transport the bombers? It probably acts like a tender and transports the crews during long durations while a skeleton crew keeps the bombers flying. (Also I believe there’s docking ports on the Ninka ala the Nebulon B and the Falcon in ESB)

14 minutes ago, CommanderBurnham said:

I think it was specifically designed to hold them externally? It would make sense that the bombers could dock with the front-ish part of the ship, which is why those shields are on the front between the bridge and the outside parts.

So the bombers don't have hyperdrives perhaps? I thought about the external docking. I suppose a siege ship like the Bunkerbuster could make good use of the heavy bombers to support its primary mission. It is also supposed to be able to carry a squadron of A-Wings, so seems to be a pretty stuffed ship!

I feel like I read somewhere that it had external ports that could also be used to funnel power from the bombers to ship to "supercharge" it's primary bombardment laser.

But I thought it was a minimal docking space, like 2 bombers. not 2 squadrons.

Again, totally on the fly so could be absolutely wrong and someone will no doubt post links to prove/disprove it.

Could be like a gozanti?

shrug. Big shrug for explanations. That hyperspace ram scene was gorgeous, but so... unnecessary.

This thread is almost as disappointing as the bombers' screen time.

All this thread is doing is making me want to rewatch the "how it should have ended".

Sigh... It really should have been Ackbar. Would have been such a better end for the old fish man.

Because nothing Disney invents makes any sense in the already established Star Wars uinverse. They just invent things thwt look cool and don't care if it makes any sense. The goal is to pull in more people into the cinemas not to satisfy nerds with coherent logic, established background for characters or respect for the original material...

3 hours ago, Norell said:

coherent logic

This feels a bit like a “rose colored glasses” scenario. Are space wizards

3 hours ago, Norell said:

coherent logic?

Are exposed command bridges and rear-mounted thrusters coherent logic? Did the Empire use coherent logic with their two Death Star designs? I agree with you in that I’m unhappy with the sequels, that just feels like an odd claim to make.

On topic: according to the visual dictionary, it’s bombers or A-wings, but not both; the fightercraft are stored on its “reinforced pylons.”

I am also skeptical of many recent decisions those in charge have made or allowed to pass. That said, I don't really want to make a 'beat up the sequels' thread. I just found myself really surprised the bombers were launched from a small ship as opposed to the Raddus. It does stretch belief a little to think the Ninka can do it all on such a small platform, but perhaps the Alliance was able to engineer superior and focused combat vessels once they got a hold of some serious shipyards during the GCW, including the Raddus itself.

If I'm remembering correctly, they were externally mounted in a somewhat haphazard fashion. I think they teased some of those details before the movie, but the Last Jedi novelization made it pretty explicit. The novel notes that the pilots had to spend hyperspace onboard their bombers in effective isolation. Also, keep in mind, there were only 12 total bombers between Cobalt and Crimson squadrons, 7 in the former and 5 in the latter.

So let's do some basic math. The width of the bomber is what matters for external docking. The MG-100 is listed as 15.3 meters wide. If I'm interpreting the docking position correctly from what I've read, I think that back side of the front section is the docking area for the bombers. Therefore, the Ninka listed width of 242.53 meters is approximately the space available for docking. That means that if the twelve bombers were touching (which they obviously would not), you still have 58.93 meters of extra space. Now that doesn't include the middle of the ship that bisects the rear side of the front section, but it's still close enough to be 100% plausible.

Now that we're past the nitpicking stage, I'm going to start gushing about what this could mean for Armada. I would love the Ninka to have a close range carrier role, which the canon has set up nicely for us. I can't wait for the day we get the Ninka, MC85, and Resurgent. It's gonna awesome.

6 hours ago, Norell said:

Because nothing Disney invents makes any sense in the already established Star Wars uinverse. They just invent things thwt look cool and don't care if it makes any sense. The goal is to pull in more people into the cinemas not to satisfy nerds with coherent logic, established background for characters or respect for the original material...

Yes, because stuff made sense in the Star Wars Universe before Disney. The goal has never been to satisfy "nerds with coherent logic", it is to tell a story about A long time ago in a Galaxy far, far away..

Go watch any film, and tell me if it makes 'sense' when something looks cool. The whole idea is that, this is fantasy fiction (no, not even science fiction) and thus comprised of spectacle. It is, afterall known as a space opera (i.e melodramatic). If you want clear-cut, factual material I suggest you try some non-fiction.

They've inherited a beautiful mess that I'm confident they will attempt to clean up for audiences who value the little things. Give them time.

6 minutes ago, Admiral Litje said:

Yes, because stuff made sense in the Star Wars Universe before Disney. The goal has never been to satisfy "nerds with coherent logic", it is to tell a story about A long time ago in a Galaxy far, far away..

Go watch any film, and tell me if it makes 'sense' when something looks cool. The whole idea is that, this is fantasy fiction (no, not even science fiction) and thus comprised of spectacle. It is, afterall known as a space opera (i.e melodramatic). If you want clear-cut, factual material I suggest you try some non-fiction.

They've inherited a beautiful mess that I'm confident they will attempt to clean up for audiences who value the little things. Give them time.

This. And for more evidence, back in good ol' 77 when no one was quite so bothered, the internal locations on the Falcon clearly don't fit inside the external specifications of the most beautiful hunk of junk in the galaxy. Did we care?

1 hour ago, Truthiness said:

Now that we're past the nitpicking stage, I'm going to start gushing about what this could mean for Armada. I would love the Ninka to have a close range carrier role, which the canon has set up nicely for us. I can't wait for the day we get the Ninka, MC85, and Resurgent. It's gonna awesome.

Thanks for the legit explanation. I guess it just seemed like the Ninka was closer to a corvette in size since that's the scale we had previously. The new canon has doubled or tripled the size of everything so what would have been a corvette in the previous scale is now a small cruiser. It was hard to wrap my head around something that small carrying more than a handful of bombers, even via external clamps. If the Ninka is nearly as wide as modern carriers are long it makes sense they could rack them in. I don't like the new scale that much but that's a different topic.

The Ninka could be either a small or medium base assault carrier. Seems like a cool niche that would play well with a lot of the rebel bombers, like the B.

the bombers dock on the fins everyone says serve no purpose.

28 minutes ago, TheBigLev said:

Thanks for the legit explanation. I guess it just seemed like the Ninka was closer to a corvette in size since that's the scale we had previously. The new canon has doubled or tripled the size of everything so what would have been a corvette in the previous scale is now a small cruiser. It was hard to wrap my head around something that small carrying more than a handful of bombers, even via external clamps. If the Ninka is nearly as wide as modern carriers are long it makes sense they could rack them in. I don't like the new scale that much but that's a different topic.

The Ninka could be either a small or medium base assault carrier. Seems like a cool niche that would play well with a lot of the rebel bombers, like the B.

The Ninka is still about Gladiator size, so it still fits comfortably on a small base. Double the size of a CR90 is still a pretty small ship. It helps that the Ninka concept and aesthetic is one of my favorites of both the old and new designs. The Lib is still my all time favorite, but I think the Ninka might be next for me. And I also love the bombers. I really dig the WWII flying fortress vibe they've got going.

10 hours ago, cynanbloodbane said:

Sigh... It really should have been Ackbar. Would have been such a better end for the old fish man.

The end with Ackbar would have been a perfect closure for such a fan favorite. It also would have let Holdo play a role in the future. Instead of being overly secretive annoying commander who I had zero emotion attachment to.