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 shape 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 receivers, 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.

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 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.

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.

Appearances

 * Star Wars Episode I: The Phantom Menace
 * Star Wars Episode I: The Phantom Menace comic
 * LEGO Star Wars: The Video Game
 * LEGO Star Wars: The Complete Saga
 * 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 Episode III: Revenge of the Sith
 * Star Wars: Republic Commando
 * Republic HoloNet News Core Edition 14:2:12
 * Hero of Cartao
 * Jedi Trial
 * Honor Bound

Notes and references
Droiden-Kontrollschiff