Cruiser/Legends

Cruiser was a commonly term throughout the galaxy, often applied to a great variety of ship-classes. Cruisers could range from a few dozen meters to several miles in length and be civilian or military in function.

Military cruisers once formed the backbone of the Old Republic fleets. They were originally designated the largest class of warships, and were equipped with heavy weapons, tractor beam projectors and at least one squadron of starfighters.

As bigger warships like the Imperial Star Destroyers came to outclass the cruisers, the definition was loosened to accommodate any combat-oriented ship over 400 meters long and which emphasized heavy weaponry over starfighters. Even so, some cruisers were quite large, and many types would fill important roles in fleets belonging to both the Empire and the New Republic. As most Star Destroyers fit these criteria, they were often called “cruisers”, but their powerful guns and central fleet role prompted many to organize them into a sub-category of their own.)

In some cases, the cruiser-designation would be given with a prefix, such as “Space” or “Star”.

Space Cruiser
This designation was used mainly for small, civilian ships carrying cargo or passengers. Although some classes like the Consular-class were at the lower range of capital ships, they would never be considered cruisers in the naval sense. Rather, they are ships used for cruising the galaxy in the casual sense.

Star Cruiser
This designation was given to the Mon Calamari branch of warships (most of which started out as nothing more than civilian starliners). The most well-known ships were somewhat smaller than Imperial-class Star Destroyers, but newer, dedicated military vessels would exceed their size and strength.

In addition, there is also a mention of Imperial Star Cruisers which were bigger than Star Destroyers.

Battlecruiser
This term was used for several types of warships, both smaller and larger than Imperial-class Star Destroyers.

A sub-term used for bigger warships belonging to the Republic and the Empire was Star Battlecruiser. These were bigger than ordinary Star Destroyers but smaller than Star Dreadnoughts, and the prefix of 'Star' may have served to differentiate them from the smaller battlecruiser-definition used by non-Imperial ships.

Behind the Scenes
Many debates have occurred within the fan-community, as the term 'cruiser' has been thrown around for many years, being attached to everything from tiny pleasure vessels to slow-moving behemoths and mighty warships. No clear answer has ever been given on the matter, and naming-procedures have never been laid out in detail. This has persisted to this day.

Imperial-class Star Destroyers were also called 'cruisers', since they were capable of independent operations as well as being escorts (going by the RL definitions of 'cruisers' and 'destroyers'). In A New Hope, Han Solo may (debatably) have called one of these ships a 'cruiser', during the escape from Tatooine. However the term 'Star Destroyer' appears in the ANH novel and concept art, as well as the subsequent films and most Expanded Universe-material.

Judging by the recent additions and re-classifications to SW factbooks, dagger-shaped Republic/Imperial ships seem to have their own catalogue of classes, on a grander scale than any other ship-building power in the SW galaxy. Even Mon Calamari ships seem to fall short in most of their catalogue of warships, though they out-rank most other ship-manufacturers.

However, in the game Empire at War, Immobilizer cruisers and Acclamator-class ships (also called cruisers in the game) recieved the designation of 'frigates'. This helped solidify the military use of 'cruiser' as a more general term for ships emphasizing weapons instead of carrying ability, and not necessarily as a means of classification.