|
A Star Destroyer is a broad type of fictional starship from the Star Wars universe. These ships are generally quite large ships-of-the-line following a dagger aesthetic and usually serving under the Galactic Empire. The term Star Destroyer also perhaps designates some of these vessels as belonging to a class of destroyer in the sense of the classic naval role. Under this definition, Star Destroyer follows the nomenclature of the Empire's Star Cruisers, Star Battlecruisers, and Star Dreadnoughts.
The classic design seen in the original trilogy and in widespread service with the Galactic Empire is the Imperial-class Star Destroyer.
In rough chronological order, the following represent the major designs usually considered as Star Destroyers:
Star Destroyers are seen in all three movies of the original trilogy. The progenitor of the Star Destroyer, the Acclamator-class assault ship, was seen in Attack of the Clones. It is not normally considered a Star Destroyer. The follow-on vessel in service towards the close of the Clone Wars was named Venator. It has been seen in some production images from Revenge of the Sith.
In addition, Kuat Drive Yards produced several designs with the dagger aesthetic prior to the outbreak of the Clone Wars but many of these ships lacked the range for any operations outside sector defense. Some examples include the Mandator-class Star Dreadnought and the Procurator and Praetor-class Star Battlecruisers.
Besides the Imperial-class and Executor-class, at least two other classes of dagger-shaped vessels were represented during the Battle of Endor. One was a destroyer which lacked the bottom hangarbay and a visible reactor-bulb. This lead to the speculation that it was a dedicated fleet destroyer, and not a destroyer/carrier like the Imperial.
(The Falcon flies over this ship´s belly in a scene in Return of the Jedi, thus showing the only clear example of a capital ship being upside-down, relative to nearby ships, in a SW movie.)
The other was a large cruiser with multiple bridges in its command-tower, which was mentioned in the ROTJ novel as being an Imperial Communications Ship. According to the novel, it suffered heavy fire from a Mon Calamari Cruiser, which knocked out its shields and made it defenseless against a fighter onslaught.
(In the movie, its multi-bridged tower can be clearly seen in the centre of one scene.)
The Imperial, Executor, "fleet destroyer" and "Comm Ship" designs shown in the movies were produced by Kuat Drive Yards; the Eclipse and Sovereign projects appear to have been constructed directly by Imperial government yards near Byss. The Victory, Republic and Nebula designs were produced by competitors of KDY and are generally considered to be of similar lineage.
| 
