10 Ships That Could Have Saved The Empire | Star Wars Theory

no ship in the Star Wars universe is more iconic than the Imperial class Star Destroyer the ISD symbolizes more than any other weapon of war the Tarkin Doctrine a political and Military Theory posited by Grand Moff wilhof Tarkin which states that the only way to ensure stability and peace is to create a threat of reprisals so great and so terrible that dissidents would refuse to take any rebellious action for fear of the response for 20 years the Tarkin Doctrine drove the Empire to invest Untold trillions of credits and sacrifice millions of lives to construct two death stars a dozen executor-class Superstar destroyers among other SSD prototypes and over 25 000 isds all in an effort to create a threat of force so terrifying that thoughts of rebellion melted into distant memory the ISD certainly makes for an imposing sight costing 150 million credits measuring a mile in length and boasting a crew of 30 000 plus an additional 10 000 Elite Stormtroopers the arrival of an ISD in your system is sure to make calls for for Rebellion a little quieter however the Rebel Alliance quickly learned the ISD was a lumbering giant designed for Broadside exchanges with other Capital ships rather than policing smaller and more agile crap the ISD was simply ill-equipped for dealing with a hit-and-run tactics of Rebel fighter squadrons and modified Corvettes frigates and Freighters add to that the fact that some estimates suggest that the Galactic Empire consisted of as many as 70 million inhabited worlds and countless more uninhabited ones which could be used as secret rebel bases and the simple fact is that each ISD could be responsible for patrolling the space between as many as 10 000 worlds adding in the fact that the ISD only possessed a class II hyperdrive and a Class 8 backup Rebels could easily exploit the fact that it could take a sector's resident ISD a significant amount of time to respond to distress calls and could be gone before it even arrived sadly the Tarkin Doctrine caused the Imperial Navy to gather the majority of its resources into these large unwieldy and ineffective wastes of resources which were are often quite vulnerable when encountered by themselves what they really needed were hundreds of thousands of smaller vessels which could Patrol wider areas more often and which were better suited to dealing with the threat of small agile attackcraft rather than dealing with large Capital ships which were rarely ever actually a concern during the reign of the Empire join us viewer as we take a look at 10 ships which could have saved the Empire if the Tarkin Doctrine had never been allowed to permeate Naval strategy and Appropriations contracts foreign the Raider Corbett is an interesting vessel shunning many conventions of Imperial Navy design other ships had extremely large Crews as a method of increasing the general Public's dependence on the military as a source of employment the Raider not only has a standard crew of 92 which is quite reasonable for a vessel of its size but it can be operated by a skeleton crew of just a handful of individuals at 150 meters in length the Raider 2 is comparable to other Corvettes in size but packs an unusually heavy punch wielding dual heavy laser cannons ion cannons and concussion missile launchers the Raider 2 is capable of fighting well above its weight class though the weapons are comparable to the corellian dp20 gunship the major advantage that the Raider holds over other Corvettes is a dedicated Hangar Bay for at least two fighter-sized craft while Corvettes are typically designed to screen enemy fighter craft for larger vessels it is quite rare for them to actually carry their own Air Wing by Design other Corvettes have been known to be modified with hanger base before such as a cr-70 used by Organa during the Clone Wars which was large enough to carry a single fighter and see our 90s used by the Rebel Alliance which could externally dock multiple auing Fighters however these were custom modifications rather than standardized designs as far as hyperspace speeds go the Raider is nothing to write home about with class 2 hyper driving class 15 backup it's not winning any long distance races however by Imperial standards Class 2 will allow it to keep Pace with the rest of any task force it could be expected to be assigned to no information currently exists on the cost of the Raider however comparing it to the corellian dp20 and cr90 Corvettes it stands to reason that its costs would be roughly between 3 and 4 million credits allowing for as many as 50 Raiders to be constructed for the cost of a single ISD one of the first actions Palpatine and Tarkin took toward bringing the Imperial Navy in line with the Tarkin Doctrine was the retirement of the venator class Star Destroyer across the Galaxy salvage yards dismantled nearly 1 000 ships that were less than a decade old in order to feed raw materials into the shipyards now cranking out isds by the tens of thousands Tarkin and Palpatine had low opinions of the venator likely due to its poor survivability when exchanging broadsides with separatist Capital ships during the Clone Wars compared to the ISD the benador had less armor lighter weaponry and was only about two-thirds of the length at 1150 meters however most of the shortcomings of the venator are largely due to misuse as the ship was classified as a star destroyer rather than its true purpose as a fighter carrier while the ISD carries an impressive complement of 72 Fighters and eight shuttles the venator carried more than 400 Fighters and also had massive storage areas for heavy Walkers landing craft and Troop Transportation while the ISD has a comparatively small center mounted opening in the bottom of the ship which Fighters have to exit through the roof of the venator's hangar Bay which ran the entire length of the ship from proud of the island could open allowing for more rapid deployment of its fighter complement lay later examples of the venator also included side exits to the hangar Bay allowing even more rapid deployment of craft or allowing it to launch craft without the added vulnerability of opening its large Hangar bait door on the top ironically the Empire's use of the cheap non-hyperdrive equipped TIE fighter line required fighters to be ferried to the battlefield by larger ships yet they scrapped the venator which could carry far more Fighters and deploy them more rapidly to the battlefield than any other ship in the Imperial Navy Not only was the venator better suited as a carrier it was faster possessing a Class 1 hyperdrive than either a Class 12 or class 15 backup making it one of the fastest Capital ships in the galaxy and allowing it to bring its fighters to the battle space that much quicker the venator had a shorter and narrower space frame and since the majority of its hole was largely Hollow to serve as a hangar Bay the venator was much more resource efficient in its design than the ISD allowing multiple venators to be constructed with the same amount of raw resources as a single ISD costing roughly 60 million credits and with a crew of only ten thousand the Empire could construct and man nearly three venators for the cost and Manpower of a single ISD the Empire would always have a need for a heavily armed and armored capital ship like the ISD in the event that they entered war with a power which was capable of fueling Capital ships but for the needs of a peacekeeping Force Hunting Pirates Smugglers criminal cartels and small bands of rebels and partisans the venator just makes way more sense as the primary capital ship model if just 10 000 of the 25 000 isds used by the Empire had instead been built as 25 000 venators the Empire could have been far more successful with responding to and dealing with the Rebel Alliance without reducing the general Public's dependence on the military for income the Cantwell class is probably the greatest Imperial ship you've never heard of though we don't know its exact size it's estimated to measure between 400 and 500 meters in length placing it in the role of a light to medium Cruiser similar to the arquidins the Cantwell is lightly armed and lightly armored however the Cantwell is not a weapon of War but is instead a perfect vessel for enforcing blockades and policing trade routes similar to how navies in our own world separate the mission profiles between their warfighting navies and their coast guards the Cantwell makes use of a powerful array of tractor beam emitters to capture vessels suspected of smuggling or other criminal activity the Cantwell despite being a rather small vessel possesses two separate Hangar Bays each capable of supporting a squadron of type Fighters for a total of 24 vessels considering this is a third of the fighter complement of the ISD for a tiny fraction of the cost despite the fact that the Cantwell isn't really designed for combat it's a perfect vessel for anti-piracy activities despite its ability to carry 24 Fighters the typical compliment is likely only half that allocating a significant portion of its Hangar space to impound vessels its speed is roughly comparable to other imperial capital ships possessing a Class 2 hyperdrive with a Class 12 backup requiring 2 800 Personnel the crew is rather large considering its assumed length in its narrow space frame it possesses a trip complement of 144 for boarding operations while enforcing random searches of suspicious cargo vessels at only 2.2 million credits for a Cantwell the Empire can construct nearly 70 cantwells for the cost of a single ISD and considering the fact that the Imperial Navy throughout its existence claims to be a peacekeeping force the Cantwell would seem to be a far better use of resources reducing the ISD complement of 25 000 by just one thousand could have allowed 70 000 cantwells to better police their sectors and prevent rebellions before they happen the arcordance class light Cruiser is a challenge to nail down with estimates of its size ranging from 230 meters in length to 380 meters and no firm descriptions as of yet as to what separates the class 546 from the arquins aside from minor differences in design it's most likely that these designs and changes in size are part of the Natural Evolution of Highly Successful classes of ship over time all versions of the arquidins have class 2 hyperdrives with class 12 backups fairly standard among Imperial Fleet forces the larger class 546 carries eight Fighters by Design while the smaller variants can be modified to carry up to nine the crews on arcadence were initially only 100 strong but refits conducted after the rise of the empire caused the number to explode to 750 with no obvious reasons for the increase other than drastically increasing the Personnel demands of the ship and artificially swelling the ranks of the Imperial Navy one of the arcodone's greatest assets is its modularity allowing it to be modified for a large number of mission profiles costing only 5 million credits for the Imperial version 30 arquidins could be constructed for the cost of a single ISD allowing more peacekeeping patrols and while their armor and shielding is quite lacking when faced with anti-capitalship Weaponry it was far more suitable to anti-piracy and anti-rebel operations it could also carry 100 passengers allowing it to escort important individuals around the Galaxy perhaps the greatest potential of any other vessel on this list the Gladiator Star Destroyer is yet another example of a ship that suffers due to its classification at 600 meters long the Gladiator is sometimes referred to as the miniature venator as much like the venator It possesses a large Hangar Bay which constitutes a major portion of its main hole space possessing ample Weaponry in the form of dual light turbo lasers medium laser cannons and concussion missiles the Gladiator is suited for a broad range of missile profiles from anti-corbet frigate and even capital ship operations during time of War to anti-piracy and blockade enforcement during peacekeeping operations possessing a crew of 1300 and an additional 1200 Stormtrooper Detachment fairly light for a ship of its size and only costing 34 million credits the Gladiator is an impressive economical weapon allowing between 4 and 5 to be constructed for the cost of a single ISD one of the more baffling statistics about this vessel however is the official record stating that it only carries Two fighter Squad veterans equal to that of a Cantwell class however this is likely an erroneous report or misinformation perpetuated by the Imperial Navy to keep its true compliment as secret meta nerd's lore attempted calculations suggesting that given the likely size of the hangar Bay based on the fact that there are three separate entrances that the ship could carry as many as 220 vessels even a conservative estimate of half that 10 squadrons 120 Fighters would be a significant improvement over the isd's 72 just like the venator the Gladiator possesses a Class 1 hyperdrive with class 18 backup allowing it to respond more rapidly to incidents in other systems we don't know how many Gladiators were produced however given its relative obscurity it's not likely that they have been fielded in significant numbers the Gladiator solves many of the problems with the venator namely its poor armor and weapons and does so in a compact survivable and more subtle role all while posing one of the greatest what-ifs in regards to Imperial continuity the peltic-class frigate also referred to as the Republic Blockade Runner was a 280 meter long narrow vessel was designed to fill a number of niches within the Republic navy for which the existing acclimator Consular and dreadnought-class vessels were ill-equipped to handle historians of the Clone Wars may be surprised to see it represented on this list due to the fact that most images of the pelta from that period show it in Flames disintegrated or floating in space as derelicts while lightly armored poorly armed comparatively slow at hyperspace speeds with only a Class 2 hyperdrive with class 16 backup and overcrewed by Republic standards with over 900 crew members it's no wonder the pelta was quickly retired as a Frontline combatant vessel it didn't help that it costs 7.3 million credits to produce a rather significant amount considering the Republic variant of the arquidins only cost 4 million and was better suited to active combat roles however its true strength lies in its modularity much like the nebulon B frigate the pelta class could be modified to survey number of roles as Hospital ships Supply transports command and controlled troop transports and more while it typically struggled in its role as a frigate the pelta could actually serve the Empire quite nicely as a Workhorse it stands to reason the pelta much like other ships of this size and dimension could have been modified to include internal Hangar base allowing for a fighter complement to accompany it and improve its survivability and Mission profile sadly however its large price tag weak armor and diminutive size meant that when the Tarkin Doctrine required resources to construct the Empire's juggernauts most peltics quickly found their way to Scrapyard worlds like braqqa taking a quick break it would mean a lot to me if you would concentrate fire on the like button it really helps out the channel and user engagement is a great metric to determine the content that provides you the most value thank you and now on to the rest of our list during the early days of the Clone Wars The Republic desperately needed ships to contain the separatist threat with the acclimator being more designed for planetary assault and troop transport and the venator still months away from the first examples leaving the shipyards at Kua the Republic navy needed every ship they could get the Republic Diplomatic Corps had numerous consular-class Cruisers available but don't let their designation fool you these were lightly armed lightly armored and lightly shielded Corvettes however with no better options to choose from they were quickly retrofitted and pressed into Service as the C70 Chargers serving as anti-fighter pickets and even command ships it quickly became apparent that they were death traps their overly exposed thrusters were easily damaged in battle preventing their Retreat if the need arose and many c-70s became vacuum exposed tombs and their greatest contribution to the latter half of the Clone Wars being the fact that their Drive systems were modified and incorporated into the superior arcodin's light Bruiser however the arcadence was not designed for anti fighter and escort roles and performed poorly at those tasks enter the carillion dp20 and cr90 Corvettes both ships are highly modular designs possibly based on the same platform and are so similar that at a distance are often mistaken for one another however the two ships fill two very different combat roles the dp20 gunship costing 3.2 million credits and measuring 120 meters in length is loaded with dual turbo lasers quad lasers and concussion missiles its primary role is anti-corvette and anti-frigate activities clearing the way for fighter and bomber squadrons to make their attack runs the cr90 Corvette costing 3.5 million credits and measuring 150 meters in length was more suited to anti-fighter duty screaming enemy Fighters and Corvettes as was mentioned earlier the modular nature of these ships allowed them to be modified for everything from luxury yachts and Consular craft to light fighter carriers and command vessels produced in extremely high numbers and due to the fact that they could be sold as Freighters and luxury Craft only to be fitted with weapons and a later date thousands of these found their way into the hands of Rebel cells throughout the Galaxy and proved quite devastating to the Imperial TIE fighter Corps while incredibly fast and Nimble at sub-light speeds they still only came standard with class 2 hyperdrive so they could be modified for a price while the Empire utilized many Corvette size Craft Like The Tartan Patrol Cruiser and the aforementioned Raider the dp20 and cr90 were used far more effectively in their roles foreign on the ground during the Clone Wars no other site was as iconic as the laat while there were several variants of the laat the most common were the laati designed for delivering infantry to the battlefield and providing close air support when fully manned the laat possessed a crew of five with pilot co-pilot and three Gunners armed to the teeth the laati could soften enemy defenses deliver 30 troops and continue to provide close air support before returning to collect another swad of troops for delivery costing only 85 000 credits the laati was in immense benefit to ground troops for an extremely economical price additionally the C variant was designed for carrying heavy equipment and vehicles to the battlefield the laatc cost 175 000 credits almost twice that of the Infantry variant but despite its decidedly heavier payload was still able to maintain the same atmospheric top speed of 400 miles per hour the sea variant didn't didn't have as many weapons so it was not as well suited for close air support however the att's tx130s and other heavy Vehicles it could deliver more than made up for its weapon deficiencies a third vehicle with the laat designation was used heavily by the Republican Empire alike however this vehicle was designed for law enforcement purposes and was inferior in nearly every way to the Inc variant boasting less armor less Weaponry less passenger capacity and a heavily exposed cockpit the ut-60du wing fighter was the unfortunate victim of multi-purpose design marketed towards an organization with narrow-minded Doctrine the u-wing doesn't excel at any one task its atmospheric speed of 950 miles per hour is more than twice that of the laat but slower than most other fightercraft its passenger capacity of 8 is far less than the laati with only a pair of laser cannons it's more lightly armed than most fighter craft and while they could be fitted with a pair of M45 heavy repeating ion blasters fired from side hatches they still didn't have the Firepower one would want in heavy combat however the ut-60d is the perfect vessel for rapid response strike teams costing only 65 000 credits only twice that of a standard TIE fighter the u-wing is actually a very low-cost vehicle equipped with a Class 1 hyperdrive it not only can operate without the aid of a carrier craft but can reach a system faster than most vessels in the Imperial Fleet it can deliver troops from vacuum to the ground found a feat that the l-a-t-i and Le could not perform as their passenger compartments could not be sealed and while some of those did have sealed holes they didn't have the ability to deliver troops and serve solely as strikecraft as a strength that actually makes it perfectly suited for peacekeeping operations while its lack of heavy Weaponry large size compared to other fighter craft and slow atmospheric speed makes it poorly suited for combat operations against well-organized and well-armed combat forces It's actually an asset for peacekeeping operations where collateral damage to civilian property is a major concern as with many income designs however the u-wing fell victim to a mentality of quantity over quality and was passed over for the cheaper tie line of Fighters or equivalent costs of the laat Le variant the Imperial Navy devoted far too many resources to the development of large imposing But ultimately pointless projects and while the death stars were initially terrifying the resources necessary for their construction could have been put to far better use by constructing hundreds of thousands or even millions of craft that could have been better at policing Imperial space stamping out resistance in its early phases and imposing the emperor's will we'd love to hear from you what ship do you think could have made the greatest difference in preserving the Empire are there any that we missed let us know in the comments below until next time stay safe and May the force be with you always

Channel: Grey Galaxies

Views: 253,331

Keywords: Star Wars, Galactic Empire, Star Destroyer, Rebel Alliance, Tarkin Doctrine, Star Wars Ships

Id: -BllcJffHWE

Length: 20min 36sec (1236 seconds)

Published: Fri Feb 24 2023