Imperial-class Star Destroyer

"Oh, my. I could've sworn the hangar was down this hallway. Oh, why do they build these infernal ships so absurdly large?"

- C3PO

The Imperial-class Star Destroyer (ISD) known generally as the Imperial Star Destroyer, was a product line of massive dagger-shaped capital ships of the Imperial Navy and later the Navy of the First Order. It consisted of two variants, the Imperial I-class Star Destroyer and the Imperial II-class Star Destroyer.

History
The Imperial Star Destroyer replaced the smaller Venator-class used by the Galactic Republic during the Clone Wars and was generally the Empire's star cruiser of choice.

At the height of its power, the Galactic Empire operated over 25,000 of these ships. The distinctive profile of the Imperial-class instilled fear into the soldiers of rebelling factions, and the name of a Star Destroyer could be preceded by the ship prefix ISD (for Imperial Star Destroyer). In a report to an admiral, Senior Commander Alecia Beck referred to the ISD Vehement.

Roughly thirty years after the Battle of Endor, the new Resurgent-class Battlecruiser would be constructed to replace the aging Imperial-class by the Empire's first successor state, the First Order, and would borrow design philosophies from the highly respected ship.

Behind the scenes
While working on the Imperial-class Star Destroyers of Rogue One: A Star Wars Story, model maker John Knoll worked from Star Wars: Incredible Cross-Sections to make sure that what the audience would see inside the ship matches what was known about Star Destroyers.