Industrial capacity of the races of Babylon 5 very greatly but it has been clearly shown that the Earth Alliance and Narn Regime, two races lacking both gravity and teleportation technology were able to construct massive fleets in the course of only a hundred years. In this document we will take a look at the Industrial strength of the races of Babylon 5, specifically the Earth Alliance, to better understand the scope and cost associated with the space fairing empires of the Babylon universe.

Earth Alliance was founded in 2075* and between it's founding and 2150 Earth succeeded in establishing colonies on the Moon, Mars, the Sol asteroid field and the Jupiter moons of Ganymede and Europa.*

In 2156 the Centauri Republic made official contact with the Earth Alliance and, via this encounter, Earth was able to leap ahead 200 years in technological development.* Between the years of 2156 and 2245 Earth Alliance establishes it's self as a galactic super-power with a fleet of some 50,000 starship.*

At what point Earth began issuing the official hull registry numbers, as seen on Earthforce vessels, in unclear. Earth Alliance did not become a true political body until 2122*, and the military branch of Earth Alliance - Earthforce - was not formed until some time between 2122 and 2145. In addition, Earthforce was originally only an Alliance sanctioned police force and not a true military organization.

According to the "Earthforce Source Book" the Earth Alliance fleet was not formed until after Earth Alliance purchased jump technology from the Centauri and there were few space vessels in it's service until after this time, as stated in the EFSB:

One year after the defeat at Signet another race, the Ch'lonas, attacked Leonis IV, but their attack was repelled by one of Earthforce's new carrier, the EAS Avenger. Text in the EFSB state clearly that Earth Alliance's first priority in those early days of the fleet were not capital ships, bur rather fighters and it wasn't until the Starfury's debut in 2170 that the fleet began to take shape:

Statements from the EFSB as well as comments by JMS and B5 literature suggest that, between 2200 and 2230 Earth Alliance had constructed a fleet rivaling the Centauri Republics; at this time Earth Alliance consisted of 14 colonies and seven outposts. In the year 2231 Earth Alliance's fleet strength was put to the test when Earth Alliance joined the League of Non-Aligned Worlds in their war against the invading Dilgar Empire.

As the primary warship of this time was the Hyperion class Heavy Cruiser, believed by some to have been named after the first ship in her class, EAS Hyperion hull registry number 21,494-IAK. To date, the meaning of the letters in the registration number are not known, some suggesting they denote the fleet yards where the ship was built. Still, the numbers themselves speak volumes and clearly indicate that between 2170 and 2230 Earth Alliance had constructed at least 22,000 starships. This would indicate that, at minimal, Earthforce was capable of construction an average of 365 starships every year.

By the Earth Minbari War, construction of Hyperion class vessels was still high as seen by the debut of the Prometheus, which had a hull registration of 38,567-HHD. This suggests that between 2231 and 2245 the Earth fleet had grown by approximately 17,000 starships or 1200 ships built a year. This is unlikely however, it being more likely earth had 30,000 capital ships back in 2230, which would mean that the average ship construction time would have been more like 400 capital ships per year, which would be more consistent with the 8,000 ship growth rate seen between 2230 and 2245.

During the last battle of the Earth/Minbari war a fleet of 2,000 ships held the line against the Minbari Advanced. Bulk of these forces consisted of fighters and small starships, as well as several capital ships. Among these ships was a Hyperion class Heavy Cruiser with a hull registry number beginning in 48, i.e. 48,000 series. This suggests a fleet growth rate between 2245 and 2248 was some 10,000 vessels or 3,300 ships per year with all Earth Alliance's resources dedicated to the war effort. If this it to be believed, than it would clearly illustrate that Earth had a massive industrial base and supports the 50,000 starship figure asserted in the novelization of the B5 movie "In the Beginning."

Unfortunately the idea that Earth Alliance could construct 10,000 ships in three years is too outrageous a notion for one to swallow, unless the bulk of those ships were small patrol boats or gunships. This is, of course, possible but it is more likely that the aforementioned instances used to gage ship growth (registry numbers on the Hyperion and Prometheus), were flawed given that we do not know for sure exactly how many ships were in the service of the Earth Alliance in the previously stated time periods.

Still, despite the problems narrowing down the growth rate of the Earthforce fleet, the approximate total ship output between 2170 and 2248 does appear to be no less than 48,000 vessels of capital scale, suggesting an industrial capacity capable of supporting the construction of approximately 640 starships per year.

Not all of Earth Alliance's fleet however would consist of the massive Omega, Nova or Hyperion type vessels. Indeed, the bulk of Earthforce's fleet most likely consists of support vessels and medium/small scale capital ships. Using the United States navy as a basis for comparison, we can estimate the size of the Earthforce fleet and the average number of ships in a given scale type.

As of April 2000 the United States Navy had a fleet of 315 capital ships and 4,108 aircraft. Of the capital ships, some 20% qualify are large-scale capital ships similar in role to the Omega, Nova and Hyperion. 30% appear to fall into the Medium scale range, which would include Earthforce Cruiser and Frigates. Nearly 17% of the Earthforce fleet would include small ships such as Corvettes, gunships and border patrol vessels while another 33% would consist of support vessels. Note that these are approximations given that many ships in the U.S. Navy do not perform roles that would fit a one-to-one comparison with the ships of Babylon 5. Still, it does give as a rough approximation we can use to break down the E.A. fleet.

First of all, we must determine the size of the fleet. Of the Total 50,000 ships constructed in Earthforce's first 78 years, 10,000 would have qualified as heavy warships like the Nova or Hyperions'. 15,000 ships would have fallen into the medium scale range. 16,500 of E.A.'s total fleet strength would have consisted of small vessels like Corvettes and gunships and another 8,500 ships would have fallen into the support role. In addition, Earthforce would have 650,000 aircraft deployed including fighters and shuttles.

If fleet construction mirrors the size and distribution of the fleet, then of the ships constructed by Earth Alliance every year, 20% of those ships put into service would be large-scale warships. Thus, of the approximate 615 ships constructed annually, 123 of those ships would be of a scale ranging between 1,200 and 2,000 meters.

6 large ships 20%
9 medium ships 30%
10 small ships 33.3%
5 support ships 16.6%

It is also interesting to note the numerical difference of fighters in the US Navy to capital ships. In the Season Two episode of Babylon 5 titled "The Fall of Night", we clearly saw the Starfury registration number of Warren Keffer's fighter, via the rescued gun-camera footage salvaged by ISN.

Keffer's Starfury number was 4308911. If we assume that, in Earthforce's history 70% of all fighters had been destroyed or decommissioned, then Earthforce would have had a total of 61,555. If we adjust the proportion number of Earth fighters to that of US Naval fighters relative to capital ships, then Earthforce would have a fleet of approximately 4,720 capital scale ships. Of course, the statistics for the US Navy represents ships in active service, not the size of the entire US Naval fleet.

The biggest battle scene in Babylon 5, was the battle waged between the Shadows and Vorlosn in the episode "Into the Fire." In the comic book "In Valen's Name", written by JMS, we read quite clearly in the opening page, that the Vorlons and Shadows had both arived on the scene with their planet killers, supported each by over 10,000 capital ships. Ivanova goes on to state that the Army of Light had about 8,000 warships on the scene. Given that it is unlikely that Ivanova would include fighters with fleet size, the League worlds, Whitestard, part of the Minbari's fleet and one Narn Heavy Cruiser made up the total 8,000 ships scene during the battle.

It should also be noted that, given Ivanova's statement, she was talking about the part of the battle where the Shadow cloud had surrounded the entire fleet, Vorlon and the Army of Light. Thus the figure of 28,000 being present would be those ships that had survived the battle up to that point, suggesting that the fleet sizes were even greater at the beginning of the battle.

*(Founding date stated in "The Babylon Project" RPG. Data from B5 Security Manual and the B5 official time-line support this figure).
*(Exploration as stated in all available B5 resources, including the original B5 Writer's Bible).
*(Stated several times by JMS in postings, as well as published in B5 novels, B5 Security Manual and RPG's.)
*(Figure suggested by Earth hull registry numbers and comments found in B5 novels and B5 related printed media.)
*(Earthforce Source Book.)
**(Earthforce Source Book.)