Super Star Destroyer/Legends



"Super Star Destroyer" is an official term used to refer to many Imperial warship classes larger than a Star Destroyer, from Star Cruisers up to Super Star Destroyers.

Darth Vader's command ship, Executor, was one such vessel.

Form and Function
The 19 kilometer long Executor-class Super Star Destroyer represented the apogee of Imperial warship design and military doctrine. Her basic design was based on that of the Star Destroyers developed by Walex Blissex and Lira Wessex for the Republic's military in the Clone Wars, inspired in turn by the hullforms of ancient warships like the Leviathan and Ravager of the Jedi Civil War. The arrowhead shape of the hull allowed the ship to focus most of her heavy weaponry into a single devastating salvo known as an "Alpha Strike", while a large hangar complex set on the underside of the hull gave her an impressive carrier/assault-ship capacity, with shuttle decks, starfighter hangars, deployment capabilities for whole legions of ground troops, and capture bays into which suspect vessels could be brought for interrogation. Command and control facilities, centred in the standardized bridge tower set atop the hull, allowed her to serve as a fleet flagship.

Despite these similarities, the mission profile of most "Super Star Destroyers" was different compared to that of smaller Imperial-class and Victory-class ships. A single Executor-class ship could add its firepower to a fleet of Star Destroyers, as at the battles of Hoth and Endor, or even act as a picket ship for a large battlestation like the Death Star II. "Super Star Destroyers" could also participate in high-priority planetary suppression missions, such as when Darth Vader brought Executor to Bespin in pursuit of Princess Leia Organa and the Millennium Falcon.

What set "Super Star Destroyers" apart from their design-cousins was primarily their scale: they were usually much larger than most other ships-of-the-line, capable of projecting power across entire Oversectors and serving as command-ships for Galaxy-spanning campaigns. In this, they could be seen as an expression of the Tarkin Doctrine, which argued that Galactic peace could be achieved by developing the ability to project overwhelming firepower against any enemy, rendering all resistance futile before it even began. While "Super Star Destroyers" lacked the literally astronomical scale and casual planet-destroying ability of the Death Stars, the knowledge that the Imperial Starfleet could bring even one Executor-class ship to bear was enough to strike doubt and trepidation into any of the Empire's enemies across a vast region of space.

This large leap in scale in contrast to the smaller vessels had thus resulted in a different mission concept for the Executor and her sister ships. While the ISDs could and did act as flagships for various Imperial officers, the Executor´s more sophisicated systems allowed her to coordinate vastly larger forces in direct combat. For example, the Executor directed a reinforced sector fleet at the Battle of Endor, with at least 40 odd Imperial vessels under her direct command along with the sector fleet's lesser vessels on the outskirts of the system. This massive coordination of up to a thousand warships, along with an unknown number of starfighters was at the moment beyond the capabilities of her smaller sisters, though the Executor was aided by a communications ship through much of the battle. Along with her extremely strong shielding, the Executor served exclusively as a command ship. While any vessel with a working communications and sensor array could act as a command ship, the Executor´s dedicated communications and sensor arrays, with multiple sensor globes situated on top of the bridge, and adequate space for multiple "fleet captains" to act as RTO and staff, gave her improved abilities compared to her smaller brethen.

Questions of Classification
Nevertheless, there remains some confusion about the precise role and designation of the "Super Star Destroyers." The Executor was originally identified by Rebel forces as a very large battlecruiser, but in spite of her immense firepower, a prominent part of her role was as a mobile command and control center, from where a high-ranking Imperial officer (such as Lord Vader, a Grand Admiral, another warlord, or even Palpatine himself) could coordinate Imperial forces across the Galaxy.

The situation is complicated by the semantics of the term "Super Star Destroyer", which originated as informal slang, much like "Blockade Runner" for CR90 Corellian Corvettes. There has thus been some confusion and debate as to what the correct designation for ships of this type is, particularly for the Executor-class. In design terms, they were massive up-scalings of the Star Destroyer concept, and the formal designation for the Executor and her sister ships, as used by the New Republic's military recognition systems, appears to have been Executor-class Star Destroyer. Additionally, the Executor-class was referred to as "Super-class Star Destroyers". Some sources described the Executor-class as Star Dreadnoughts instead.

These variations appeared to stem from some uncertainty as to whether the term Star Destroyer was appropriate for ships which were much bigger and orders of magnitude more powerful and massive than the Imperial-class and Victory-class designs. Their design represented an up-scaling of the Star Destroyer form, and their role as combat warships simply evolved in response to often fluid and changing military situations. Later Imperial designs, such as the Sovereign and Eclipse classes, represented further development of these concepts, and would also be described by the same terms.

Specifications & Capabilities
There is also some confusion about the size and firepower of Executor-class ships. What is certain is that they carried over 5000 weapons emplacements and multiple wings of TIE fighters, and that they were among the largest combat warships ever built.

As well as immense weapons batteries and an overpowering fighter compliment, the Executor carried a large force of ground troops, and two prefabricated garrison bases were stored onboard for rapid deployment. Her shields were said to have been able to dissipate power output equal to a medium-sized star; during the siege of Yavin, the Executor's shields protected her during a collision with three Imperial-class Star Destroyers as they left hyperspace at relativistic speed.

Service History
The most famous "Super Star Destroyer," and the name ship of its class, was the Executor, constructed at the Fondor shipyards and commissioned soon after the Battle of Yavin as the flagship of Darth Vader's Death Squadron, charged with hunting down and destroying Rebel activity in the Outland Regions. Simultaneously, however, a sister-ship was built by Kuat Drive Yards: named the Lusankya, she was secretly buried beneath the cityscape of Imperial Center, in a massive display of Palpatine's strength in the Force and the Empire's technological capabilities. Once hidden, she served as a high-security prison, secret Imperial headquarters, and ultimately, an emergency escape-craft.

Over the next few years, a steady stream of "Super Star Destroyers" left the Empire's shipyards. Many of these served as uniquely powerful flagships within designated areas&mdash;for instance, the Reaper, the flagship of Oversector Outer under Tarkin's successor Grand Moff Kaine; the Guardian, command ship for the twenty-four Imperial-class Star Destroyers of the Coruscant Sector Fleet; the Terror, which was befitted with a cloaking shield and was commanded by Admiral Sarn, who oversaw the Empire's TIE Phantom project on Imdaar; or the Iron Fist used by Admiral Zsinj. It was rare to find "Super Star Destroyers" grouped into homogenous squadrons, but the strategic reserve forces of Black Sword Command appear to have included three of them.

After the Battle of Endor
Soon after the Battle of Endor, however, production of such vast warships seems to have all-but stopped, as warlords seized control of elements of Imperial infrastructure, fleet elements were recalled to the Deep Core, and major industrial concerns such as Sienar Fleet Systems sought to negotiate an independent path between the Empire and the emergent New Republic.

In part, the abandonment of these massive ships may also have been due to their rather poor performance in fleet combat, particularly when faced with the sort of close, harrying attack favoured by the Rebels Alliance and New Republic. The Executor herself was destroyed due to the colision of an A-Wing with her bridge at Endor. The damaged Iron Fist was brought down over Dathomir by the combined efforts of squadrons from the New Republic and Hapan navies. And the Lusankya, after her dramatic breakout from Coruscant, was crippled and captured at the Battle of Thyferra by a group of rogues and irregulars equipped with a single Imperial-class Star Destroyer and some small craft and fighters.

The last Executor-class ship known to have been commissioned by legitimate Imperial forces was the Razor's Kiss, destroyed by the New Republic soon after her launch from Kuat. Meanwhile, the number of "Super Star Destroyers" dwindled as the older ships left in service were destroyed or captured. By the time that Grand Admiral Thrawn took command of the Empire five years after Endor, the Navy lacked Executor-class ships alltogether.

On a side note, a Super Star Destroyer of unknown class, the Vengeance, was under the command of the Dark Jedi Jerec. The Vengeance could be considered a Super Star Destroyer; it was over 10 kilometers long, and had an unusual elongated cone shape instead of the usual dagger shape, but it's current whereabouts are unknown. It is possible that she was one of the three Super Star Destroyers from Black Sword Command, and joined the remaining 21 ships in the Unknown Regions.

Final Evolution of the Type
In secret, however, the so-called "Dark Empire" based in the Deep Core and ruled by the Emperor's clones had laid down a number of new "Super Star Destroyers": the 15 kilometer long Sovereign-class and the 16 kilometer long Eclipse-class. In keeping with a design trend observed in the ships of the "Dark Empire", both designs were bulkier than their predecessors, lacking open hangar-bays. They also carried superlasers similar to but much less powerful than the one carried aboard the Death Star. Two consecutive Eclipse-class ships, designated Eclipse and Eclipse II, were completed to serve as fleet flagships, but the four Sovereign-class ships seem never to have been finished.



Alongside these, the "Dark Empire" and the later Deep Core warlords also owned a number of warships resembling larger cousins of the Imperial-class design. These were also described as "Super Star Destroyers". Many came from existing Imperial fleets and had been summoned to Byss to swear loyalty to the reborn Emperor. Ships representing a wide spectrum of classes in between Executors and Imperials formed an enormous procession in orbit above the throne-world.

Some of these intermediate scale vessels resembled beefed-up Imperial Star Destroyers, with approximately symmetrical dorsal and ventral hulls, three main engines, and a command tower carried well aft on a terraced superstructure. Examples included the 2.2 kilometer long Allegiance and the (unknown size) Shockwave, both of which served as command ships for respective fleets. Like the Star Destroyers at Endor, they blew up with alarming speed when unshielded, even if the opponents were numerically inferior. However, between the completion of Eclipse and Eclipse II, Executor Sedriss, acting as regent and Supreme Commander, coordinated Operation Shadow Hand from an old-fashioned Imperial-class ship.

Perhaps the last "Super Star Destroyer" to be built was Knight Hammer, constructed by the warlord Superior General Delvardus and seized after his death by Admiral Daala: like the Razor's Kiss, this was an Executor-class ship, modified with modern innovations like stealth armour and slave-rig circuits. She too was destroyed by New Republic forces soon after completion. At least one "Super Star Destroyer" was later observed in the fleet of the Imperial Remnant during the Yuuzhan Vong invasion, but there is no direct evidence that she was newly-constructed: as the later history of the known survivors of the Executor-class shows, even these behemoths could disappear for years in obscure corners of the Outer Rim.

The Last Super Star Destroyers
After the destruction of Eclipse II and Razor's Kiss, the Imperial Remnant was able to return the Reaper to front-line service, and to counter her, the New Republic retained the Lusankya. The clash of the Reaper and Lusankya at the Battle of Orinda was the only ship-to-ship duel between Super Star Destroyers, but following the Reaper's destruction the next year, the Lusankya was taken out of service and scheduled for breaking up.

Meanwhile, unbeknownst to the Galaxy at large, two more "Super Star Destroyers" had survived: the Pride of Yevetha (ex-Intimidator) had become the flagship of the reclusive and xenophobic Duskhan League, while ex-Imperial warlord Gaen Drommel was still lurking on the Outer Rim with the Guardian.

The Koornacht Crisis shocked the New Republic into action. Not only had the Yevetha used the Intimidator as the centrepiece of their fleet, but she had been unexpectedly recaptured by Imperial forces at the end of the campaign, and remained at large along with the Guardian. Two further "Super Star Destroyers" of unknown class from Black Sword Command were also apparently unaccounted for.

In response, the Lusankya was returned to active service, while the Guardian was captured, refitted and taken into the New Republic fleet. Intimidator herself disappeared into the Unknown Regions, and was discovered adrift in a battle-damaged derelict state several years later: it is possible that she may have been employed by the mysterious Empire of the Hand.

By the time of the Yuuzhan Vong invasion, the New Republic thus had two "Super Star Destroyers" in commission. The Lusankya was destroyed during the siege of Borleias, while Guardian survived the war, serving as the Supreme Commander's flagship and a mobile government HQ. Shortly after Lusankya's destruction, however, another "Super Star Destroyer," apparently an Executor-class ship, was briefly observed as a guardship at Bastion, the capital of the Imperial Remnant. This ship's origins are unknown, and it is unclear if she survived the war, but she has been speculated by some to have been named the Defiant.

Behind the Scenes
The use of the term "Super Star Destroyer" may be somewhat similar to the use of slang made by real-life military personnel to describe various vehicles. Some examples include: large American aircraft carriers being called "supercarriers" and B-52 bomber crews calling their planes "BUFF" (acronym for "Big Ugly Fat ****er"), both terms being non-technical and with no definite meaning.

A similar IU military term, is the use of the phrase "Super Battle Droid" to denote the B-2 battle droid.