With the cuts scheduled for the Colonial Fleet by the Adar Administration it was decided to conduct a weapons test on two decommissioned battlestars, something that had not taken place in years. Previous tests were done on the smaller escort battlestars, this time the Fleet would test their weapons on two regular battlestars. In this case the Columbia-class Athena and the Mercury-class Ares were selected, as they had the least chance of being reactivated.