Star Destroyer

The Star Destroyer is a fictional wedge shaped starship in the Star Wars universe. The largest type is the Imperial-class, 1600 m long and carrying thousands of troops and large complements of starfighters. The Star Destroyers are actually more analogous to Carriers than to classical naval destroyers. They usually carry the Admiral in charge of operations. The more common 'bulk' cruisers are a great deal smaller and could, theoretically at least, fit within the docking area of an imperial class. There is also a mid sized version refered to in Episode 4: A new hope as the Correlian class.

Star Destroyers are seen in all three movies of the original trilogy. Some are destroyed when their weak point is detected - their bridge module protrudes above the main body and is therefore more vulnerable to attack. Once the bridge with the command crew is destroyed, the ship becomes nearly defenseless.

The historical significance (within the storylines history) for the name is that when this class first appeared it was more powerful than the total defence forces of most systems at the time. Therefore a single Star Destroyer could be used to destroy an entire systems defences, hence the name.

Star Destroyers have featured prominently in many Star Wars computer games.

See also : Star Wars