Star Destroyer

Venator-class Star Destroyer
A Venator-class Star Destroyer as depicted in Star Wars: The Clone Wars.
First appearance	Star Wars: Episode III – Revenge of the Sith (2005)
Last appearance	Star Wars: The Clone Wars (2020)
Created by	Kuat Drive Yards
Information
Affiliation	Galactic Republic Galactic Empire
Launched	22 BBY[lower-alpha 1]
Decommissioned	14 BBY[lower-alpha 2][lower-alpha 3]
Combat vehicles	420 starfighters, including ARC-170s, V-Wings, V-19 Torrents, and Jedi starfighters
Auxiliary vehicles	40 LAAT gunships, 20 AT-TEs
General characteristics
Class	Venator-class Star Destroyer
Armaments	8 heavy turbolaser turrets, 2 medium dual turbolaser turrets, 52 point-defense laser cannons, 4 proton torpedo tubes and 6 tractor beam projectors
Defenses	Deflector shields
Length	1,137 m (3,730 ft)
Width	548 m (1,798 ft)
Height	268 m (879 ft)

The Venator-class Star Destroyer makes its first theatrical appearance in Revenge of the Sith during the opening Battle of Coruscant. Within the Star Wars setting, these ships are regarded as the most powerful capital ships of the Republic Navy during the Clone Wars, serving double duty as battleships and starfighter carriers.[12] Manufactured by Kuat Drive Yards, the Venator-class measures 1,137 m (3,730 ft) long, with a wingspan of 548 m (1,798 ft) and height of 268 m (879 ft). However the massive ship requires only a crew of 7,400 to operate, a deliberate feature compensating for the fact that the Separatists can produce battle droids faster than the Republic can grow clone troopers.[13] Powerful ion engines and a Class 1 hyperdrive allows the Venator-class to chase down fleeing ships. Although the command tower is protected, it is a target for gunners on confederacy ships. For armament the Star Destroyer is equipped with 8 heavy turbolaser turrets, 2 medium dual turbolaser turrets, 52 point-defense laser cannons, 4 proton torpedo tubes and 6 tractor beam projectors. As a true warship, the Venator-class can feed nearly its entire reactor output (which at maximum power annihilates 40,000 tons of fuel per second) into its heavy turbolasers to devastating effect.[13] As a carrier, the Star Destroyer can deploy over 420 starfighters, including ARC-170s, V-wings, Z-95 Headhunters and Jedi interceptors, along with 40 LAAT gunships and 20 AT-TEs. These can be launched rapidly thanks to a .5 km (0.31 mi)-long dorsal flight deck with armored bow doors. While strong deflector shielding is employed around the doors, they are slow to open or close, presenting a weakness in the vessel's design.[12][13][14]

During the Clone Wars these Star Destroyers, referred to also as Republic attack cruisers and Jedi cruisers, play an important role combating Separatist fleets and providing supporting fire for ground forces.[12] Thanks to their superior firepower, the Venator-class has a strong advantage against Separatist warships, and a small flotilla of attack cruisers can easily blast through the deflector shields of a Trade Federation Battleship.[13] At the Battle of Coruscant, over a thousand attack cruisers are deployed to defend the planet,[14] one of which (the Star Destroyer Guarlara) delivers a devastating barrage to the Invisible Hand at point-blank range.[13] After the end of the Clone Wars and creation of the Galactic Empire, these Star Destroyers will continue to serve for decades in the Imperial Navy until eventually replaced with the Imperial-class Star Destroyer.[13]

The iconic Imperial-class Star Destroyer first appears in the opening scene of Star Wars, where the Imperial Star Destroyer Devastator, with Darth Vader on board, chases the CR90 Corvette Tantive IV (carrying Princess Leia) above Tatooine after have fled from Scarif.[15][16] Background literature describes Imperial-class Star Destroyers as the chief warship of the Imperial Navy and symbol of Imperial might. These enormous capital ships are used to enforce the Emperor's will, bolster Imperial-backed governments, and act as mobile headquarters for senior Imperial commanders.[15] A single Star Destroyer is considered sufficient to overwhelm a rebellious planet, though major industrialized worlds may be assaulted by a fleet of six Star Destroyers with support cruisers and supply craft.[16] Deep-crust survival bunkers are regarded as a last refuge in the event of planetary bombardment by Imperial Star Destroyers.[17]

Manufactured by Kuat Drive Yards, the Imperial I-class Star Destroyer is described as being 1,600 m (5,200 ft) long, propelled by massive Cygnus Spaceworks Gemnon-4 ion engines and a Class 2 hyperdrive, with a standard crew complement of 9,235 officers and 27,850 enlisted personnel.[15][16] Its most powerful armament are six heavy turbolaser turrets and two heavy ion cannon turrets positioned along either side of the upper deck structure.[16] These are supported by 60 Taim & Bak XX-9 heavy turbolaser batteries, 60 NK-7 ion cannons, and 10 Phylon Q7 tractor beam projectors.[15][16] For ground engagements, Star Destroyers carry 9,700 stormtroopers, 20 AT-ATs, 30 AT-STs or AT-DPs, and 15 Imperial Troop Transports.[15][16] In addition to a full wing of 72 TIE Fighters (typically 48 TIE fighters, 12 TIE bombers and 12 TIE boarding craft), Star Destroyers carry a range of auxiliary craft, including Lambda-class shuttles, Sentinel-class landing craft,[15][16] and single-walker landing barges.[18]

Darth Vader's Devastator is the last of the Imperial I-class ships to be built by Kuat Drive Yards before switching to the Imperial II-class, which take part in the Battle of Hoth.[16] Designated Death Squadron, this fleet of Star Destroyers is led by Darth Vader aboard the Executor, first in a new class of Super Star Destroyer.[19] Although the battle is won by Imperial forces, Vader orders his Star Destroyers to focus on capturing the Millennium Falcon rather than hunt down the escaping Rebel transports, allowing many to escape.[20] The Falcon manages to evade this pursuit by hiding in the sensor blind spot of the Star Destroyer Avenger.[21] At the Battle of Endor, Imperial Star Destroyers prove vulnerable to fleets of starfighters flown by skilled Rebel pilots, who exploit the ships' exposed bridges and deflector shield generators to cause damage.[15] A year after their defeat at Endor, the Empire makes a last stand at Jakku, with Star Destroyers using their tractor beams to drag New Republic ships down to the planet's surface where their wrecks form the Graveyard of Ships.[22]

Within the Star Wars universe, the term "Super Star Destroyer" is a colloquialism used to refer to any ship larger than an Imperial Star Destroyer.[23] The largest and most powerful of these is the Executor, which first appeared in The Empire Strikes Back as the personal flagship of Darth Vader.[19] The first in a line of Executor-class Star Dreadnoughts, the ship is over 19,000 m (62,000 ft) in length, propelled by thirteen colossal engines and a Class 1 hyperdrive. Its armament includes over 5,000 turbolasers, ion cannons and tractor beam projectors and it can carry more than 1,000 vessels.[23] The crew of the Executor numbers in the hundreds of thousands.[16] Its command tower, rising above the ship's technoscape on a thick stalk, is a standard model found on other Star Destroyers - including a pair of geodesic domes containing communication transceivers, sensors and deflector shield projectors - and allows for an unobstructed view of the battlefield.[24] At least twelve of these vessels were built by the Empire, including the Executor, Annihilator, Ravager and Arbitrator, but the exact number is unknown thanks to Imperial propaganda and black budgets.[24]

From the bridge of the Executor, Darth Vader leads Death Squadron during the Battle of Hoth and afterwards in pursuit of the Millennium Falcon. It later serves as the Imperial command ship during the Battle of Endor.[19] At Endor, intense bombardment by the Rebel Alliance fleet cause the ship's shields to fail, allowing Rebel starfighters to strafe the command tower. During this attack an A-wing piloted by Arvel Crynyd crashes into the command bridge, destroying the main navigation complex and causing the vessel to lose control.[24] The Executor is lost when the Death Star II's gravity well pulls the ship into its surface, destroying the vessel instantly.[23] At Jakku where the Empire made its last stand, the Super Star Destroyer Ravager is one of the wrecks which make up the Graveyard of Ships.[22]

In The Force Awakens, set 30 years after the fall of the Empire, a new class of Star Destroyer is introduced in service to the First Order. The Finalizer, the first of the Resurgent-class Star Destroyers built in secret by Kuat-Entralla Engineering, serves as the flagship for both Kylo Ren and General Hux.[25][26] Described in background literature as a clear violation of the treaties between the New Republic and the First Order, Resurgent-class Star Destroyers are 2,916 m (9,567 ft) in length with a crew of 19,000 officers and 55,000 enlisted personnel. While evoking the traditional Imperial-class Star Destroyer, the Resurgent-class incorporates a number of fixes to the former's design flaws, including a less exposed command bridge and larger fighter complement.[26] The ship is armed with thousands of turbo lasers and ion cannons, sufficient firepower to slug it out with capital ships or reduce planetary surfaces to molten slag.[26] Additional point-defense laser turrets and missile launchers are used to attack more nimble opponents.[25][26] Two wings of TIE fighters can be quickly launched from dorsal flight decks and side hangars, and for planetary assaults the ship carries a full legion of over 8,000 Stormtroopers and over a hundred assault vehicles.[25][26]

The Mega-class Star Destroyer Supremacy made its first appearance in The Last Jedi. Described as the only Mega-class Star Dreadnought in the galaxy,[27] the Supremacy is 60,543 m (198,632 ft) wide, 13,234 m (43,419 ft) long and 3,975 m (13,041 ft) high.[28] It has a crew of 2,225,000 personnel, a majority of whom are adolescents training to become officers and stormtroopers.[29] The Supremacy serves as the capital from which Supreme Leader Snoke commands the First Order. Thousands of heavy turbolasers, antiship missile batteries, heavy ion cannons and tractor beam projectors give the ship firepower equivalent to an entire fleet.[28][29] The vessel also possesses an industrial capacity that would rival most planets, with asteroid mining complexes, foundries, production lines, research labs and training centers. Six external and two internal stations allow Resurgent-class Star Destroyers to dock with the Supremacy.[28][29]

In The Rise of Skywalker, a reborn Emperor Palpatine unveils a new class of Star Destroyer as part of his Final Order. Identified by in-universe sources as Xyston-class but referred to informally as Sith Star Destroyers, these ships resemble the older Imperial I-class Star Destroyers but are larger with a length of 2,406 m (7,894 ft) and height of 682 m (2,238 ft). Built on Exegol by automated factories and with a total crew of 29,585 personnel, the distinguishing feature of these Sith Star Destroyers is an axial superlaser powerful enough to shatter a planet, made possible by a powerful reactor channeling the energy of a miniature sun through kyber crystals. Other weaponry includes 40 heavy turbolaser batteries, 40 ion cannons, 40 point-defense laser cannons, 35 warhead launchers and 10 heavy tractor beam projectors, though the space for a hangar and other storage facilities is taken up by the superlaser.[30][31]