Star Destroyer



Kuat Drive Yards Imperial Star Destroyer

The Empire's awesome wedge-shaped Imperial-class Star Destroyers form the core of the Imperial Navy. True marvels of starship engineering, Star Destroyers are 1,600 meters long and have over one hundred weapon emplacements for deep-space combat. The mere presence of such a vessel in orbit is often enough to quell uprisings on Rebel-sympathetic worlds, and Star Destroyer commanders can engage whole Rebel fleets and still expect victory.

Standard Imperial Star Destroyers have sixty turbolasers for ship-to-ship combat and planetary assault. A Star Destroyer's sixty ion cannons are used to disable enemy ships in preparation for boarding. The Star Destroyer's superstructure features an immense command tower housing essential systems, computer controls, and the bridge. The Command tower is topped by a pair of deflector-shelid generator domes. Star Destroyers have two ventral landing bays. The aft docking bay-the main launch and landing bay for shuttles, support and cargo ships, and TIE fighters-accommodates ships at least 150 meters long. It connects to forward interior bays and storage sections, all of which connect to immense lift shafts. Ahead of the storage sections is the forward bay. The forward launch bay is used primarily to deploy assault shuttles, walker landing barges, and ground forces vehicles; it also can serve as an auxiliary launch or landing bay for TIE fighters if the main docking bay is disabled. A full wing of seventy-two Tie fighters (six squadrons of twelve ships each) is standard aboard each Destroyer. As of the battle of Yavin, a standard Star Destroyer maintained four squardrons of stndard TIE/Ins, one squadron of TIE interceptors, and one squadron of TIE bombers. (Lower-priority vessels have a squadron of TIE/gts.) By the time of the Battle of Endor, an additional TIE interceptor squadron had replaced one of the TIE/In squadrons.

Support ships, all maintained aboard the Destroyer, include eight Lamba-class shuttles, fifteen stromtrooper transports, five assault gunboats, and a variable number of Skipray blastboats and Gamme-class assault shuttles. Star Destroyers carry planetary assualt teams, with landing barges, drop ships, 20 AT-AT walkers, 30 AT-ST scout walkers, and 9,700 ground troops. For a long-term planetary occupation, the Destroyer can deploy a prefabricated garrison base with eight hundred troops, ten AT-ATs, ten AT-STs, and forty TIE fighters. Full planetary invasions often require a full fleet, normally six Destroyers, heavy and light cruiser, and carrier ships. An upgraded version called the Imperial II began appearing shortly after the Battle of Yavin, boasting a heavily reinforced hull and more powerful heavy turbolaser batteries and cannons. In addition, there are several Star Destroyer variants for specialty missions.

The star destroyer was first introduced in the the openings scenes of the first Star Wars movie and as such served as symbol of the Galactic Empire quite often throughout early Star Wars movies and other forms of fiction. Star destroyers were involved in most of the key moments of the series in one form or another - the search for R2-D2 and C-3PO on Tatooine, the Battle of Hoth, and the Battle of Endor. Following the Battle of Endor some were seized by rebel forces keen on driving away the last remnants of the Empire. Throughout the series and in fiction (both in comics and novels) the star destroyer is used often though action aboard them is often negligible.