Dreadnaught

The Rendili Star Drives Dreadnaught-class heavy cruiser was one of the largest warship designs prior to the Victory Star Destroyer. Designed during the era of the Old Republic, the ships saw service as heavy combatants during the Clone War. Compared to later ships, however, they are slow, require a very large crew for their size (upwards of 16,000 crewmen and officers) and are generally outmatched in naval combat.

Regardless, the 600-meter vessels are still reasonably powerful, and remained common in outlying systems where newer warships were not available. They also fell into the hands of the Rebel Alliance, who preferred, when funding allowed, to use automated control systems to reduce crew requirements and to add other features to enhance speed and agility - alterations which dramatically changed the appearance of the vessels. Such 'assault frigates' were, however, quite rare.

A group of Dreadnaughts known as the Katana Fleet, which carried most of the operational AT-PT walkers built by the Old Republic up to that time, was mysteriously lost fourteen years before the battle of Naboo, provoking an enormous fiasco for the Republic leadership. It became part of the struggle between the and the remnants of the Galactic Empire under Grand Admiral Thrawn when the cunning admiral managed to reccver the fleet and its cargo of small walkers. While the ships were quite outdated by that time, in the hands of a brilliant tactician like Thrawn they were a substantial addition to his forces.



(Note to the mods : I've only modified the information about the date when the Katana Fleet vanished. It was stated in the article to be near the end of the Clone Wars, but in light of information from 'The New Essential Chronology', the fleet has disappeared in 46 BBY (page 32)).

Record 1161 - vehicle/ship class - Last update 28 Mar 2007, 23:10:19

Entry written by: Yamarus

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