Kuat Drive Yards was a massive orbital shipbuilding array above the planet Kuat,
responsible for producing some of the Empire's most important weapons including the Imperial Star Destroyer.
Kuat was targeted by the nascent New Republic, less than a year after the battle of Endor.
Today I'll explain how they successfully landed one of the most devastating blows of the Galactic Civil War.
[Intro]
The New Republic's campaign against the Empire at Kuat Drive Yards was long, it was bloody and it wasn't very elegant.
The Empire, who used the station to provide a large portion of their Star Destroyers and other military assets, likely dedicated dozens if not,
hundreds of capital ships to its defense. For the first few days of battle the Empire and the New Republic
basically just threw their forces against each other. The Empire had a strong protective line,
because even a little bit of damage to the station, would be devastating, while the New Republic
used their capital ships and especially, their B-Wing heavy bombers, to try to take down Star Destroyers.
Ships, Pilots and resources were slowly being whittled down on each side.
But it was not clear, early on at least, which side would outlast the other. New Republic Leadership, who felt like they couldn't
overcome the many Star Destroyers in a traditional matchup, switched their strategy. Instead of trying to actually take down
the defending Imperial fleet, a small group of star fighters made up mostly of B-Wings, which would inflict the damage, and X-Wings, who would provide cover,
were sent on a mission to try to inflict as much damage against the ring itself as possible.
As this attack was launched the New Republic fleet also attacked a specific portion of the Imperials forces, taking some heat off the star fighters.
However, Kuat had its own defenses. Besides her turbolaser emplacements and fighter hangars, elevators from within the shipyard itself
also brought AT-AT's, AT-TE's and other walker models to the ring's surface.
The starfighters had been targeting an important monorail, but, they were forced to use their torpedoes and munitions against the various walkers.
Neither they, or their escort X-Wings, possessed Laser Cannons powerful enough to incapacitate the Station's defenses.
Thus, the first campaign would ultimately result in failure, although the ring would crack in several places, the starfighters were forced to retreat.
The Empire only suffered minor losses, some structural damage to the shipyards and a few of their walkers were destroyed, but,
Shipbuilding capacity wasn't reduced in any meaningful way. The battle would continue on for weeks after this with starfighters again, launching critical attacks against Kuat, but the Imperial lines still holding.
On one occasion, the New Republic baited a portion of the defense fleet far at a position and Blade Squadron, again protected by X-Wings,
was able to disable a large hangar, destroying many un-launched TIE Fighters and also weakening the Empire's ability to respond quickly to fighter threats
After every successful mission, or attack, the New Republic flotilla would pull back, restock fighters, allow pilots to sleep, before launching another raid.
Unfortunately for the Empire their forces were being whittled down, they were not able to press the attack themselves because of fear of leaving the ring exposed and,
reinforcements were hardly ever brought in, if at all. What's more, the New Republic could attack in waves, attack when it was convenient for them,
and really just dictate the pace of the campaign. After several weeks of this, both forces were completely exhausted.
The campaign ended with both sides dropping all pretenses, launching all of their fighters and charging headfirst into battle.
This would be very short-lived however as the Empire would soon surrender.
We don't get any specific details in either Blade Squadron Kuat or the Aftermath trilogy about why the surrender actually happened, but I have some theories.
First of all, the New Republic starfighters were far superior to anything fielded by the empire most notably,
New Republic ships are armed with shields, while TIE Fighters are not. I think that a lot of time if a strike failed for the New Republic,
They were still able to retreat with most of their fighters intact.
A B-Wing or an X-Wing, for example, even if shot by a laser should be able to limp back to base and get fully repaired.
By the end of the battle, however, the Empire was resorting to using shuttles, that's how short on fighters they were.
We also see in the final engagement that Blade Squadron targets an enemy capital ship and takes it down very easily.
The presence of these heavy bombers and the slow decline of Imperial forces likely made the fact that this would be a loss, fairly evident.
The Empire was also largely demoralized even by this point, and was seeing losses across the galaxy.
It's very possible that both the local Moff, and the head of Kuat, just didn't see any future moving forward, for the Empire.
To summarize though, this was a long campaign focused on attrition, with neither side really scoring a killing blow against the other.
I think the New Republic won, because they were more successful in the individual strategies they used and
because they also had the advantage of being able to dictate the pace of battle throughout the campaign, but, that's just my opinion.
What do you think?
Do you like the battle of Kuat? Have you read the Blade Squadron short story? If you haven't you should.
Let me know all that and more, down in the comment section.
Thank you guys once again for watching, as always this has been Eckharts Ladder. May the Force be with you.
[Outro]