Inspired by Mandalorian designs and used in the navies of several galaxy spanning powers
for decades, the Rendili StarDrive Dreadnaught Class Heavy Cruiser represents one of the
most ubiquitous and well renowned warships in galactic history.
At a length of exactly 600 meters, the Dreadnaught’s spaceframe is simple and compact, presenting
a long narrow hull with a sloping bow section and sizeable engine housing.
The Dreadnought displays perhaps the highest crew per kilometre ratio in the history of
warship design, carrying a standard crew complement of 16,113, with space for up to 3,000 embarked
troops and 9,000 tons of cargo within it’s relatively modest frame.
The Dreadnought is a rare example of an Imperial warship that does not feature a prominent
external command deck, instead featuring a bridge and combat information centre buried
deep beneath the ship’s armor, this overcomes what is often seen as a critical design flaw
among Imperial warships, and provides far greater protection for the vessel’s bridge
crew and command systems.
The Dreadnought Class carries an impressive arsenal of weapons for its size, boasting
a wide range of laser cannons, turbolasers and Ion Cannons.
The vessel’s modular weapons system results in many variations on the standard arsenal,
with most Imperial Dreadnoughts carrying additional turbolasers and quad turbolasers, as well
as a single concussion missile launcher.
The ship also carries fairly effective shield generators, but lacks manoeuvrability in combat,
as well as suffering from frequent computer failures and electrical faults, these problems
can be largely attributed to the ship’s unbalanced combination of cutting edge and
highly dated technologies.
While the original design for the Dreadnought includes only a single docking bay for a small
shuttle, the variant employed by the Imperial Navy features a drastically altered internal
layout, allowing for a large ventral hanger bay containing 12 TIE Fighters.
These fighters provide a useful defensive screen, and help offset the warship’s lack
of point defence and vulnerability to strike craft.
The original design inspiration for the Dreadnought Class was the Mandalorian Kandosii Class Dreadnought,
a thirteen-hundred-meter-long war cruiser that saw extensive service during the Mandalorian
Wars.
Rendili StarDrive’s naval architects intended to capture the firepower and durability of
this fearsome vessel while maintaining a far smaller and more versatile frame, and their
efforts were largely successful, creating a cruiser that could often defeat vessels
far larger than itself, even threatening the might of Imperial Star Destroyers when deployed
in pairs or groups of three.
Perhaps the most famous examples of the Dreadnought Class are the ships of the so-called Katana
Fleet, a task force containing two hundred of the vessels that was commissioned and launched
at great expense by the Galactic Republic in 46 BBY.
The Dreadnoughts of the fleet were equipped with complex automation systems and slave
circuitry intended to counteract the vessel’s typically huge crew requirements, but these
systems proved to be a fatal flaw when members of the fleet’s personnel fell victim to
a virulent Hive Virus, as the crewmen descended into a state of insanity, they inadvertently
began a blind hyperspace jump, and as a result of the slave circuitry present on all ships,
the entire Katana Fleet was lost in uncharted space for decades.
After remaining lost for decades, the Katana Fleet eventually remerged under the command
of Grand Admiral Thrawn, who used the vessels to great effect across his campaign against
the New Republic.
These events only furthered the growing legend of the Dreadnought Class Cruiser, adding to
the ship’s renown even in the later years of its unusually long history.
The Dreadnought stands alongside ships like the Z-95 Headhunter in the eyes of spacecraft
enthusiasts, serving so reliably and for so long that it has become a staple of naval
warfare and a distinguished chapter in the history of military shipbuilding.