Venator-class Star Destroyer/Legends

The Venator-class Star Destroyer, also known as the Republic attack cruiser, was one of the primary warships used by the Galactic Republic during the Clone Wars.

The Venator-class Star Destroyer was 1,137 meters long and had a crew of 7,400. It was designed and built by Kuat Drive Yards.

Ship systems
The Venator-class Star Destroyer was born from the success of the Acclamator-class assault ship. Designed by Lira Blissex, they were equipped with powerful engines, a Class 1 hyperdrive, strong deflector shields, a large complement of starfighters and ground assault vehicles, and an armament consisting of 8 heavy turbolaser turrets, 2 medium dual turbolaser cannons, 52 point-defense laser cannons, and 4 heavy proton torpedo tubes. This made the Venator a very successful warship.

The ship's main weapons were its eight DBY-827 heavy dual turbolaser turrets. These turbolasers had two tracking modes. In its precise, long-range tracking mode, the DBY-827 could hit a target vessel at a range of 10 light minutes. During close-range fights, the turret can rotate in 3 seconds with its fast-tracking mode. The DBY-827 has 7 different power settings. This allowed the Venator's pilots and gunners to select a range of destruction, from a small strike to a vaporizing blow. As a true warship, the Venator-class Star Destroyer can divert almost all of its reactor output to its heavy turbolasers when needed.

Its main reactor could annihilate up to 40,000 tons of fuel per second, producing 3.6 × 1024 watts of power.

At the suggestion of Anakin Skywalker, a heavy SPHA turbolaser cannon was installed within the ventral hangar bay of some Venator-class ships of the Open Circle Fleet. These weapons were meant to protect the Star Destroyers while they opened their long ventral doors to the army complement bays.

Although it possessed powerful weaponry, the Venator-class was designed with a starfighter carrier role in mind. Its hangar bays were far larger than those on the older Victory-class and the later Imperator-class. The Venator could support 420 fighters in its bays altogether: 192 V-wing or V-19 Torrent starfighters, 192 Eta-2 Actis Interceptors, and 36 ARC-170 fighters.

In addition to a standard ventral hangar bay, the bow of a Venator could open up to reveal a half kilometer long dorsal flight deck. This flight deck enabled the Venator-class to rapidly launch hundreds of fighters. However, the slow opening and closing of the armored bow doors could leave the ship extremely vulnerable. Although strong shielding was used to compensate for this weakness, this design flaw would be entirely omitted from later Star Destroyer designs such as the Imperator-class. The SPHA-T was included for the purpose of protecting the ship while its long doors opened.

Because of its carrier role, the Venator featured a unique dual bridge tower design. The port tower was the starfighter command bridge, while the starboard tower served as a standard helm and command bridge. On future designs, this dual bridge design was also employed.

The Venator could also act as a military transport. The ship was capable of entering a planet's atmosphere and landing on its surface. It could carry 40 LAAT/i gunships and 24 AT-TEs, and a number of miscellaneous shuttles for ground operations. Some variants may have existed, but there were few differences.

History
Venator-class Star Destroyers were deployed in a number of battles during the Clone Wars, most notably during the Battle of Coruscant when upwards of a thousand of the ships helped protect the capital.

As the Galactic Republic transformed into the Galactic Empire, the Venator and all of its variants were gradually phased out as the Empire's main destroyers in favor of newer, more robust designs such as the Imperator and Tector classes. Even so, the Venators continued to serve for several decades, participating in the Galactic Civil War both as destroyers and as support carriers.

Known Ships

 * Courageous
 * Guarlara
 * Impavid
 * Intervention
 * Intrepid
 * Redoubt
 * Resolution
 * Ro-ti-Mundi
 * Vigilance

Behind the scenes

 * "Venator" is Latin for "hunter".

Appearances

 * Medstar I: Battle Surgeons
 * Labyrinth of Evil
 * Star Wars: Clone Wars
 * Star Wars Episode III: Revenge of the Sith
 * Republic HoloNet News Special Inaugural Edition 16:5:241 (Star Wars Insider 84)
 * Star Wars Republic 78: Loyalties
 * Empire at War
 * Star Wars Battlefront II