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- "Warning. Enemy capital ships. Venator-class."
- ―A tactical droid
Imperial Star Destroyers were capital ships.
A capital ship was a large military starship designed for deep-space warfare. Boasting numerous heavy weapons and shields, capital ships had crews that numbered in the hundreds, if not the thousands. In their vast hangar bays, they often carried shuttles, starfighters, and other spacecraft.[1] Types of capital ships included Star Destroyers, Star Cruisers and battleships.[2]
Although imposing, capital ships were also slow and ponderous in spaceflight. Due to this, the New Republic, following the Galactic Civil War, was able to, over time, pick off most of the Galactic Empire's capital ships by overwhelming them with smaller, nimbler vessels.[3] Sub-capital ships were starships smaller than capital ships.[4]
