Super Star Destroyer/Legends

"Concentrate all fire on that Super Star Destroyer!"

- Admiral Ackbar, referring to Executor, during the Battle of Endor

Super Star Destroyer was a term used by Imperial and Rebel/New Republic personnel about several Imperial warship types larger than Star Destroyers, going from Star Cruisers up to Star Dreadnoughts.

Darth Vader's command ship, Executor, was one such vessel, and one of the most famous Super Star Destroyers fielded, as was the even deadlier Eclipse.

Form and function
Because these dagger-shaped vessels were larger and more heavily armed than Imperial destroyers and frigates, the mission profile of most vessels in the Super Star Destroyer-range differed from that of ships like the Imperial- and Victory-classes.

For instance, a single Executor-class Star Dreadnought had enough firepower to rival a fleet of Imperial-class Star Destroyers, or to lead the defense of a massive battlestation like the second Death Star.

Super Star Destroyers also participated in high-priority planetary suppression missions, such as when Darth Vader brought Executor to Bespin in pursuit of Princess Leia Organa and the Rebel ship Millennium Falcon and when the reborn Emperor Palpatine sent out fleets in assault waves from the Deep Core during Operation Shadow Hand.



What set Super Star Destroyers apart from their smaller design-cousins was primarily their scale: they were usually much larger than most other fleets' 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.

Even though the Super Star Destroyers lacked the literally astronomical scale and casual planet-destroying ability of the Death Stars, the knowledge that the Imperial Navy 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.

One of the most famous mid-level ships, the Imperial-class acted as flagships for Naval officers and served as downscaled battleships in pacification campaigns of relatively "calm" sectors (where they were the biggest vessels present), but reverted to a destroyer-role when accompanied by larger ships, and supported cruisers, battlecruisers, and larger battleships during major campaigns.

While the Death Star concept was meant to provide centers for regional commands, Super Star Destroyers provided sector-level command bases. Since the Galactic Empire encompassed thousands of sectors, an equivilant number of Super Star Destroyers were needed. Star Cruisers, being the smallest SSDs, covered the immediate needs of the vast Imperial space, being built by the hundreds or thousands. Larger Super Star Destroyers, like the Star Dreadnoughts, were known to be used to command large, intersectorial forces, like Black Sword Command or to guard important Imperial assets, like Azure Hammer Command.

Another example of intersectorial naval organization was the Vengeance Battle Group. Noted as a battle group being used by the Dark Jedi Jerec to search for the mystical Valley of the Jedi, it was centered around the SSD Vengeance and encompassed Star Destroyers, frigates, and picket ships. Operatives in the early New Republic treated this kind of naval formation as large, but not uncommon, and expected their presence during operations of high importance to the Empire.

Classification
Representing the most documentated class, Executor was originally thought to be an abnormally large battlecruiser or a large Star Destroyer by Rebel forces, although its true role as a battleship was eventually determined.

In addition to Executor's immense firepower, a prominent part of her role was to function 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.

With Executor's more sophisticated systems, her command crew coordinated vastly large forces in direct combat. For example, 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 millions of starfighters was at the moment beyond the capabilities of most lesser ships, though Executor was aided by at least one communications ship through much of the battle. Along with her extremely strong shielding, Executor served exclusively as a command ship.

While any vessel with a working communications and sensor array could act as a command ship, Executor's dedicated communications and sensor arrays, which included multiple sensor globes in addition to the ones situated on top of the bridge, as well as the adequate space for multiple "fleet captains" to act as RTO and staff, gave her vastly improved abilities compared to smaller vessels.



The task of cataloguing most of the other classes was made difficult due to limited information being available. One complication was the extensive use of the term "Super Star Destroyer", in informal slang, much like "blockade runner" was for CR90 corvettes. Some confusion still exist about the precise role and designation of the various Super Star Destroyers.

In design terms, some classes were massive up-scalings of the Star Destroyer concept, and the formal designation for Executor and her sister ships, as used by the New Republic's military recognition systems, appears to have been a mix of Executor-class Star Dreadnought, Executor-class Star Destroyer, and Executor-class Super Star Destroyer. Additionally, the Executor-class was originally referred to as "Super-class Star Destroyer" in official Imperial documents.

All of these terms were easily explained as variations around slang and different classification-procedures used by different organizations. They were also a means of connecting Super Star Destroyers to the highly recognizable Star Destroyer-design family, the mid-level, mass-produced series most prominently championed by Kuat Drive Yards.

The Executor design represented an up-scaling of the Star Destroyer-form from multi-purpose destroyers to multi-purpose battleships, and their role as primary warships remained constant, even in the often fluid and changing military situations. Later Imperial dreadnought designs, such as the Sovereign- and Eclipse-classes, represented further development of the battleship/commandship concept, and would also be described by the same terms as the Executor-class. Additionally, their use of scaled-down superlasers as primary offensive weapons put them in a league of their own, even when compared to recent developments like the Executors.

Other classes would see less confusion surrounding their roles, as most were described in more easily understandable naval terms. For instance, the heads of the Kuat Drive Yards corporation would often refer to their capital ships in terms of destroyers, cruisers, battlecruisers, and battleships when considering the demands of the Imperial Navy.

Ships with less armor than the Star Dreadnoughts, but in the same size and power-class, would be described as either battlecruisers or Star Battlecruisers. Super Star Destroyers in size-classes below both these groups, were noted as Star Cruisers.

Specifications and capabilities
There is also some confusion about the firepower of Super Star Destroyers. What is certain is that the Executor-class carried over 5000 weapons emplacements and multiple wings of TIE/ln starfighters, and that they were among the largest combat warships ever built. The sheer amount of guns available on an Executor was enough to rival entire fleets of lesser ships.

Even more advanced Super Star Destroyers, like the Eclipse-class, would be fitted with small superlasers capable of destroying most capital ships in a single blast and even penetrating the most powerful planetary shields.

As well as immense gun batteries, 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, Executor's shields protected her during a collision with three Imperial-class Star Destroyers, as they left hyperspace at relativistic speed.

History
"From Super Star Destroyers to torpedo spheres, it has been nearly impossible to overestimate the amount of destructive force available to the average Moff or Sector Group Commander"

- Arhul Hextrophon, on the Empire's obsession with super weapons.

The history of term "Super Star Destroyer" spanned many decades, from the earliest writing in Naval budgetry documents prior to 0 BBY, to the era of the New Jedi Order, over thirty years after its original use.

Origin


Requesting funds for construction of the Executor-class, the Imperial Navy forged a profile on the vessel, calling it a Super-class Star Destroyer and making it out to be less than half its intended size. This was done to avoid arousing suspicion in the Imperial Senate about the true nature of the class.

The name was shortened to "Super Star Destroyer" in colloquial use, and remained in use even long after the real name had been revealed and the first vessel made operational. The term later carried over to different warship classes bigger than Star Destroyers, in the following decades.

Early service
The most famous Super Star Destroyer, and the lead ship of its class, was 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. Its size and firepower overshadowed even the Mandator-class Star Dreadnoughts of decades past.

Simultaneously, a sister-ship was built by Kuat Drive Yards: named 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.

Around the same time, Eclipse had also undergone construction, being fitted with a superlaser and gaining unwanted attention from the crimelord Tyber Zann, who had sent out spies to study the vessel.

After gaining access to the vessel, Zann took command of Eclipse for a short time during a battle in 4 ABY. The vessel took out Star Destroyers with single shots using the unstable superlaser, which caused it to malfunction by the time an Executor-class Star Dreadnought appeared. However, Zann managed to destroy the vessel before it destroyed him. After getting the data he wanted, Zann abandoned Eclipse, and construction on it soon resumed.

In the time between 0 ABY and 4 ABY, a steady stream of Executor-class ships and other Super Star Destroyers left the Empire's shipyards. Many of the larger vessels served as uniquely powerful flagships within designated areas&mdash;for instance, Reaper, the flagship of Oversector Outer under Wilhuff Tarkin's successor, Grand Moff Kaine; Guardian, command ship for the twenty-four Imperial-class Star Destroyers of the Coruscant Sector Fleet; Terror, which was befitted with a cloaking shield and was commanded by Admiral Sarn, who oversaw the Empire's TIE Phantom project on Imdaar; Annihilator, commanded by Admiral Gaarn, which patrolled the space around the Kuat system; or Iron Fist, used by Admiral Zsinj.

At the Empire's height, battle groups centered around SSDs were not uncommon, though they were daunting when observed firsthand. In this era, a total of ten percent of the entire Imperial Navy was kept in reserve in the Core Worlds region, aimed at battling threats anywhere in the Galaxy. Vessels like Admiral Giel's massive flagship and accompanying escorts, targeted during Operation Earplug, might have come from these reserves.

Despite their prevalance, 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 most warships bigger than Star Destroyers 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 favored by the Rebel Alliance and New Republic. Executor herself was destroyed at Endor due to intense bombardement from the Rebel flotilla, which weakened her shields and led to a collision of an A-wing with her bridge. The vessel subsequently crashed into the second Death Star as a result.

The damaged Iron Fist was brought down over Dathomir by the combined efforts of squadrons from the New Republic and Hapan navies. 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 two Imperial-class Star Destroyers, unconventionally armed with proton torpedoes, one frigate, starfighters and a fleet of freighters stocked with missiles.

A more likely explanation for their decline in numbers, would be the high logistical demands of the larger SSD types. For instance, the commanding officer of the Vengeance Battle Group noted that due to the collapse of the Empire in the previous year, his battle group could not obtain more than half its entitled ordnance. With battle groups like these centered around Super Star Destroyers and spread throughout an unstable Galaxy, combined with few reliable resources each, their decline would be almost assured.

The last Executor-class ship known to have been commissioned by legitimate Imperial forces was 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 either destroyed or captured. By the time that Grand Admiral Thrawn took command of the Empire five years after Endor, his naval forces lacked Executor-class ships altogether.

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 17.5 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 larger than 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 Allegiance and Shockwave, both of which served as command ships for respective fleets. However, between the completion of Eclipse and Eclipse II, Executor Sedriss, acting as regent and Supreme Commander, coordinated Operation Shadow Hand from an Imperial-class Star Destroyer, with the increasingly paranoid and delusional Palpatine keeping the heaviest fleet-elements constantly circling his secluded domain.



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 Razor's Kiss, this was an Executor-class ship, modified with modern innovations like stealth armor and slave-rig circuits. She too was destroyed by New Republic forces soon after completion.

One as yet unidentified SSD 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 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 Reaper to front-line service, and to counter her, the New Republic retained Lusankya. The clash of Reaper and Lusankya at the Battle of Orinda was one of the few known ship-to-ship duels between Super Star Destroyers, but following Reaper's destruction the next year, 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: 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 Guardian.

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



In response, Lusankya was returned to active service, while 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 Empire of the Hand.

During this time, the aftermath of the Koornacht Crisis also led to the development of New Republic dreadnoughts that could potentially fight large Super Star Destroyers. The Viscount-class Star Defender was the end-product, and would have its weaponry tested in several conflicts.

By the time of the Yuuzhan Vong invasion, the New Republic thus had at least two of the biggest Super Star Destroyers in commission. 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.

During the events surrounding the Swarm War, Gilad Pellaeon would travel in Megador, a Super Star Destroyer equipped with sixteen engines. Whether this was an old Imperial design or built by the Galactic Alliance is unknown.

Known classes

 * Main communications ship
 * Mandator-class Star Dreadnought
 * Praetor-class Star Battlecruiser
 * Procurator-class Star Battlecruiser
 * Super-class Star Destroyer (originator of the term)
 * Super Star Destroyer (hunchbacked)
 * Super Star Destroyer (sleek)
 * Vengeance (class unknown)

Known examples

 * Aggressor
 * Allegiance
 * Annihilator
 * Autarch
 * Despot
 * Eclipse
 * Eclipse II
 * Executor
 * Guardian
 * Heresiarch
 * Intimidator
 * Iron Fist
 * Knight Hammer
 * Lusankya
 * Megador
 * Razor's Kiss
 * Reaper
 * Sovereign
 * Terror
 * Vengeance (Executor-class)
 * Vengeance
 * Whelm

Behind the scenes
The use of the term "Super Star Destroyer" is 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 Fellow"), both terms being non-technical and with no definite meaning.

Another possibility may be that the term is based on real-world modern terms "super battleship", "super dreadnought", and "super (aircraft) carrier" to denote larger-than-average ships of those respective classifications.

A similar in-universe military term is the use of the phrase "super battle droid" to denote the B2 super battle droid.

While some sources declare "Super Star Destroyer" to be "Rebel slang", Darth Vader also referred to his flagship Executor as a Star Destroyer. As such, it is possible that the term actually originated within the Imperial forces, or made its way into the Imperial military lingo. The Starship Battles Preview 1 article on Wizards of the Coast confirmed this, as well as its use as popular slang.

Appearances

 * Star Wars Episode V: The Empire Strikes Back
 * The Emperor's Trophy
 * Star Wars: Empire at War: Forces of Corruption
 * Classic Star Wars
 * Star Wars: Rebel Assault II: The Hidden Empire
 * Star Wars Episode VI: Return of the Jedi
 * Dark Forces: Rebel Agent
 * Dark Forces: Jedi Knight
 * Dark Empire
 * Dark Nest III: The Swarm War

Notes and references
Supersternzerstörer