Navy/Legends



A Navy was a military unit composed of various vessels and was commonly known as a Starfleet or a Defense Fleet. Though several worlds and civilizations used the word "Navy" as traditionally associated with a fleet of sea vessels, the majority of the the galaxy primarily used it to define a fleet of starships.

Space Navies
Numerous worlds built space navies for their own defense as well as for use by galactic governments in times of peril. Prominent civilizations that were known for their contributions to the advancement of starfleets were Mon Calamari and Kuat. Some spaceships were shaped like ancient traditional maritime vessels, such as the Fairwind, though this was rare.

A Naval task force would normally include:
 * Flagship – this ship was the formal head of a naval task force, and usually the seat of power for the senior officer in command of the fleet. This was usually the most powerful ship in the fleet it commanded (Ex: Eclipse, the reborn Palpatine's flagship).
 * Capital ships – the designation of "capital ship" referred to the size of a vessel. Capital ships measured 100m or longer. There was no upper limit on capital ship size. (Ex: a Corellian Gunship measured a mere 120m and was considered a capital ship, while an Executor-class Star Dreadnought measured 19,000m and was also classified as a capital ship).
 * Support Ships – These vessels were usually smaller capital ships such as frigates and light cruisers used to compensate for the tactical weaknesses of larger vessels (Ex: the Lancer-class frigate was covered in anti-starfighter weaponry to protect larger warships with little anti-fighter capabilities) and/or to augment the firepower of larger vessels (Ex: in the Imperial Navy, two Strike-class cruisers were considered the equivalent of one Victory-class Star Destroyer and were used as such). These ships also encompassed other support roles such as medical vessels (Ex: The Rebel Alliance Fleet's primary hospital ship during the Galactic Civil War was a EF76 Nebulon-B escort frigate called the Redemption).
 * Transports – these were used primarily as cargo or personnel carriers (Ex: The Bulk transport saw heavy use with the Rebel Alliance Fleet as a troop transport during the Galactic Civil War).
 * Starfighters – Fighters were small one- or two-man (sometimes three as in the case of the ARC-170) vessels used for the protection of the fleet, reconnaissance, and anti capital ship actions.

Maritime Navies
Four major categories of most aquatic vessels were generally common among the galaxy:
 * The basic type of ships were used to transport people or objects between lands.
 * During wars, attack ships, called Destroyers, were invented in order to attack the transports and weaken the enemy's army.
 * The existence of the destroyer required the countermeasure of the Frigates that would protect transport convoys.
 * The next implementation were Cruisers that attacked ground units, followed by anti-aircraft vessels that protected the navy from aerial attacks.
 * Besides the four major categories listed above, other vessels such as submarines, carriers, patrol boats, and non-fighting vessels such as utility trawlers, speeder rafts, and transport vessels often saw usage.

The Gungans and the Selkath were among the most notable species to utilize a seaborne navy. Both major combatants during the Galactic Civil War, Rebel Alliance and the Galactic Empire, had their own aquatic navies: the Rebel Navy and the Imperial Navy. The Trade Federation also maintained a maritime force.

Behind the scenes
The usage of the word "navy" or other naval terms (ship, frigate, corvette, cruiser, fleet, admiral, captain etc) which were inherited to space or stellar technology is not uncommon in science fiction works, such as Star Trek. Note that squadron is a term used in real life both for navy and aeronautics.

According to the Star Wars: Galactic Battlegrounds DataBank, space navies evolved from sea navies.

Appearances

 * Star Wars: Galactic Battlegrounds