The most famous ship in the Imperial Navy, the Imperial Star Destroyer (ISD) is feared throughout the galaxy. The mere presence of one of these giant wedge-shaped monsters in orbit has been known to suppress rebellion. ISDs form the very core of the Navy, and are famed for their great strength and power. At over 1600 metres long, and with over one hundred weapon emplacements, ISDs are truly a feat of starship engineering.
Star Destroyers have sixty turbolasers and sixty ion cannons as standard. This number of weapons alone can allow a single ISD to fend off an entire Rebel fleet. Destroyer captains know the power of the ships under their command, and can expect victory even under extreme conditions.
There are two ventral landing bays. The main launch and landing bay for cargo ships, shuttles and fighters is located aft of the Destroyer. Ships up to 150 metres long can dock here. From this bay there are connections to forward interior bays and storage sections. Troops and personnel can reach these bays via lift shafts. The forward launch bay is located ahead of the storage section. Assault shuttles, walker landing barges, and ground forces vehicles are normally launched from the forward bay. TIE fighters can also land and be launched from here if the main bay is out of use.
An Imperial Star Destroyer is a floating garrison. Seventy-two TIE fighter are stationed on board. This consists of six squadrons, each made up of twelve ships. In the time between the birth of ISDs and the Battle of Endor, the seventy-two ships were made up of four squadrons of TIE/lns, one of interceptors, and one of bombers. After Endor, one of the TIE/ln squadrons were replaced by a second squadron of interceptors
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Fighters were not the only craft found aboard ISDs. Support ships, consisting of fifteen stormtrooper transports, eight Lambda-class shuttles, five assault gunboats and a small number of Skipray blastboats and Gamma-class assault shuttles, are all maintained on board the Destroyer. Planetary assaults can also be set up with help from the twenty AT-AT walkers, thirty AT-ST walkers, 9,700 ground troops, drop barges, and landing barges stationed on each ISD. Imperial regulations state that if a planetary garrison is needed, the Destroyer can deploy a prefabricated base, with ten AT-ATs, forty TIE fighters, ten AT-STs, and eight hundred troops. In times of full planetary invasion, a single Star Destroyer is not enough; a full fleet is sent in, consisting of six ISDs, several heavy and light cruisers, and carrier ships.
The mighty ships were designed by Lira Wessex, daughter of the famous Rebel engineer Walex Blissex. By the end of the Battle of Endor, and as the Empire waned, it was known that ore than 25000 star Destroyers had been built. Half of them were held in reserve in the Galactic Core, in order to protect key political, industrial, and military installations.
Although Imperial Star Destroyers are huge, they are not infallible. The superstructure, which contains the command tower housing all the essential systems, features two deflector-shield domes on its top. These are immensely difficult to reach, and very tough. But if a fighter can navigate the Destroyer’s turbolasers, then it has a clear shot at the two huge domes. A few proton torpedoes should take care of each one, and then the ISD is at the mercy of the enemy. This all sounds very easy, but in fact is it probably easier to pummel the shields from afar with the torpedoes. Only gutsy starfighter pilots, like Wedge or even Luke, would dare attempt a direct assault on the shield generators, but if it works, then the rewards are well worth it.
