Endurance-class fleet carrier

Endurance-class fleet carrier The Endurance-class fleet carrier served as the centerpiece of modern New Republic fleets composed of New Class warships.

Characteristics
The Endurance had a Class 2 hyperdrive and could carry 1,600 troops and enough consumables for 5 months. However, weapons had to be sacrificed to make room for extra fighters. Endurance-class fleet carriers were only armed with a secondary armament of 12 turbolaser cannons, 20 laser cannons, 8 ion cannons, and 4 tractor beam projectors.

While they boasted improved hull integrity, their shields were markedly less powerful. Although they were equipped with a formidable anti-starfighter weapon system, the fleet carriers were usually protected by screening ships and starfighters. They were not designed to enter the savage heart of battle, but to deploy and coordinate smaller ships.

The main fighting punch of an Endurance-class ship consisted of two wings of starfighters. One wing was a short-range assault wing composed of K-wing bombers and Defender starfighters for close support. The other wing was a long-range superiority wing composed of hyperdrive-equipped fighters such as E-wings, A-wings, and X-wings.

History
Fleet carriers represented a change in the Republic's military policy. While the Imperial Navy was built around large, heavily-armed warships, such as the Imperial-class Star Destroyer, the New Republic had chosen to use much smaller gun platforms, with starfighters playing a greater role in power projection.

Following New Class practice, the Endurance-class fleet carrier was built upon the same basic hull and systems of the Nebula-class Star Destroyer&mdash;although this commonality disguises the fact that the Star Destroyer was apparently designed first, as part of the Defender project, so that the Endurance-class could also be seen as a Star Destroyer variant with heavy weapons replaced by extra fighters just as on the earlier Venator-class Star Destroyer.

Besides being a base ship for starfighters, the Endurance was also a command vessel. Task force commanders and fleet flag officers often used these carriers as their flagships.

Known ships

 * Endurance
 * Intrepid
 * Venture

Behind the scenes

 * The only official image directly depicting the Endurance-class fleet carrier comes from the RPG sourcebook Cracken's Threat Dossier. In contrast with some of the other New Class designs supposedly based on shared hullforms, the image of the carrier resembled that of the Nebula/Defender-class Star Destroyer reasonably closely. The differences were that the bridge tower on the Endurance was topped off by a sizable saucer section (possibly representing the carrier's role as a command ship) and a second, smaller tower was located at the front section of the ship. Often, people have misread Before the Storms description of the carrier, reading fat-hulled as flat-hulled'. This discrepancy makes it somewhat easier to reconcile the CTD image.


 * More recently, Starships of the Galaxy provided a new image of the 'Defender-class Star Destroyer (now retconned to being the Nebula-class), much sleeker in appearance and completely lacking a bridge tower. Many fans assume that the Endurance-class now resembles this new picture as well.


 * It is interesting to note that the Endurance and Nebula closely mimic the scheme of the Venator and Victory of the Galactic Republic. In both cases, the two destroyers are on the same level of power, but one serves more of an escort carrier role while the other is more heavily dedicated toward combat.

Appearances

 * Before the Storm
 * Shield of Lies
 * Tyrant's Test