Lucrehulk-class Droid Control Ship

Lucrehulk-class Droid Control Ship "Their deflector shield is too strong! We'll never get through it!"

- Ric Olié during the attack on the Droid Control Ship

The Lucrehulk-class Droid Control Ship was one of the many warships used by the Trade Federation and the CIS Navy, and arguably the most important weapon in their arsenals. Droid Control Ships were used to coordinate battle droid armies.

Characteristics


The ship was similar in appearance to the standard Lucrehulk-class battleship&mdash;a flattened ring shaped hull with engines in the stern, docking claws at the bow, and a detachable core ship in the center.

The major addition to the Droid Control Ship was an array of transmitters and broadcasting equipment, which allowed it to control a large battle droid army on a planetary surface.

Equally important, the Droid Control Ship was equipped with 16 signal receiver dishes, located around the perimeter of the vessel, to pick up transmissions from droid units. The ship was fitted with an extremely powerful Central Control Computer to sort through and process incoming information, formulate commands, and broadcast them to the surface.

To compensate for this additional power drain, Droid Control Ships were equipped with additional reactor units; providing more energy but also increasing the vessel's vulnerability to internal explosions, which was exploited by Anakin Skywalker during it's attack on Naboo.

This vulnerability would ultimately prove to be the downfall of early Trade Federation military strategy: with all commands emanating from a central control ship, destruction of that ship would essentially shut down every droid under its control. Enemy forces would capitalize on this weakness, destroying the orbital platform and thereby leaving the planetary-bound droid armies helpless.

History
During the Battle of Naboo, Bravo Squadron - led by Ric Olie - launched from Theed in the hopes that they could take out the orbital warship. All their efforts proved to be for naught since the ship's deflector shield was too strong for the Naboo starfighters to break through.

Eventually, however, the Droid Control Ship was destroyed when Anakin Skywalker&mdash;escaping from a number of droid fighters&mdash;flew into the ship's hangar, and inadvertently hit one of the reactors. The ship went down after a short while, but Anakin Skywalker still managed to steer his starfighter out of the hangar, and escape with the rest of the Naboo pilots.



After the Battle of Naboo, the Trade Federation modified the Droid Control Ship, along with the standard battleship, so that its core ship could detach and land on a planet's surface. This was part of a ruse meant to trick the Republic into thinking that the Federation was dismantling all its warships.

They would be used in the Clone Wars as the Trade Federation was assimilated into the CIS. Unlike the main battleship variant, the Control Ships did not get any weapons upgrades. A modified ship with jamming capabilites was used and destroyed at the Battle of Balamak.

Appearances

 * Star Wars Episode I: The Phantom Menace novel
 * Star Wars Episode I: The Phantom Menace
 * Star Wars Episode I: The Phantom Menace comic
 * Star Wars Episode I: The Phantom Menace junior novel
 * Episode I: The Phantom Menace ½
 * Star Wars: Starfighter
 * Jedi Quest: Path to Truth
 * Outbound Flight
 * Star Wars Episode II: Attack of the Clones
 * Star Wars: The Clone Wars (film)
 * Republic HoloNet News Core Edition 14:2:12
 * Hero of Cartao
 * Honor Bound
 * Republic HoloNet News Core Edition 14:2:12
 * Hero of Cartao
 * Honor Bound


 * Star Wars: Cloak of Deception
 * Star Wars: Republic Commando
 * Jedi Trial
 * Labyrinth of Evil
 * Star Wars Episode III: Revenge of the Sith
 * Evil Eyes
 * Star Wars: The Force Unleashed

Non-canonical appearances

 * LEGO Star Wars: The Video Game
 * LEGO Star Wars: The Complete Saga

Notes and references
Lucrehulk-Klasse Droiden-Kontrollschiff Nave de Control de Droides clase Lucrehulk Lucrehulk-class Droid Control Ship Okręt kontroli droidów typu Lucrehulk