The transition of the Galactic Republic to the Galactic Empire involved a number of drastic
changes to the units and doctrines of the now-imperial Starfleet.
Though the navy initially continued to operate the Venator, Acclamator and Consular Class
starships used across the Clone Wars, they quickly began to introduce new vessels intended
to better suit the goals and characteristics of the new Imperial Navy, as well as modernising
older warships to supplement these new designs, and to complement the strengths of the newer
vessels.
In the light-duty fighter support role, the Empire employs the Gozanti Class Cruiser,
an older design first introduced as a civilian freight hauler by the Corellian Engineering
Corporation.
The Gozanti fell into military use shortly after its introduction and served with numerous
planetary militias, as well as the Confederacy of Independent Systems during the Clone Wars.
With the advent of the Galactic Empire the cruiser was refitted to serve as a fleet escort
ship, and as a carrier vessel for small groups of TIE Fighters, held externally to the vessel’s
ventral hull.
The Empire also developed an Intelligence variant of the Gozanti intended to serve as
a listening ship, and vessels of the type featured extensive arrays of advanced communications
and sensor systems, to assist their cybernetically enhanced crew in gathering intelligence on
potential insurgencies.
Where the Gozanti Class is best used to support a group of larger vessels, the substantially
larger Raider Class Corvette fills a far more aggressive role.
The raider is the empire’s definitive anti-fighter corvette and fast-attack vessel, sporting
a powerful arsenal of heavy laser turrets and ion cannons, as well multiple turbolasers
and missile hardpoints for engaging larger ships.
The vessel is most often deployed to support squadrons of strike craft, and is most effective
when used in conjunction with the empire’s most advanced starfighters, such as the TIE
Advanced and TIE Defender.
Of the smaller warships introduced in the earliest days of the Empire, the Raider-Class
corvette is easily one of the most successful, becoming extremely popular with imperial naval
officials as an effective tactical asset for small scale engagements.
The ship’s career continued long past the battle of Yavin, and the vessel was even employed
as a deployment craft for elite imperial spec-ops units such as Inferno Squadron.
Perhaps the Empire’s most noticeable holdover from the Clone Wars, the Arquitens Class Light
Cruiser was a relatively new model in the final years of the Republic, designed to be
deployed alongside Venator and Consular class starships in battle with the CIS.
As part of the empire’s fleet modernisation program the Arquitens received a small refit,
adding several docking couplers to the ship’s bow to facilitate the transportation of small
fighter squadrons or individual shuttlecraft.
The warship boasts numerous quad laser arrays, as well as anti-capital turbolasers and concussion
missile launchers, allowing the vessel to fill a mid-range role in an imperial battlegroup,
and be deployed independently as a crisis-response or force projection vessel.
The Arquitens was a famously versatile starship, and as such it became a fairly common sight
across the empire, often seen serving as a communications vessel, sector patrol ship,
or escort cruiser.
In its earliest years, the Imperial Navy’s range of specialist vessels was far smaller
than it would eventually become, and under most circumstances only two classes of starship
were employed exclusively in the support role.
First of these is the Quasar Fire Class Cruiser Carrier, a light starfighter carrier, most
often used to enforce security within the gravity wells of occupied planets.
The vessel is lightly armed and armoured, and is generally escorted by light cruisers
or corvettes when deployed to hostile areas, but so long as it’s safety is assured, the
ship is able to provide a powerful advantage to any imperial flotilla, sortieing large
numbers of TIE Fighters and assault craft, and providing extensive maintenance and refuelling
facilities for imperial starfighters.
The second and perhaps most renowned of the early-empire’s specialist warships is the
Interdictor Class Cruiser, a vessel designed specifically to force hostile starships to
decelerate from hyperspace, through the use of shipboard gravity well generators.
The advantage of such a vessel against hostile insurgents who typically favour hit-and-fade
tactics cannot be overstated, as it allows the empire to eliminate valuable rebel starships
which might otherwise have escaped the field of battle.
Much like the Quasar Fire however, the Interdictor lacks substantial armament or defences, and
as such requires near-constant escort.
Of the few entirely new starship designs developed to serve in the Emperor’s modernised fleet,
none would become more symbolic of the Empire’s strength than the Imperial-I Class Star Destroyer,
the cornerstone of the Imperial Navy.
The Imperial class is the definitive spacefaring warship, armed to the teeth with dozens of
turbolaser, ion cannon and point defence emplacements, whilst carrying a large complement of strike
craft, ground assault vehicles and infantry.
The massive destroyers were stark and imposing, capable of subjugating small territories through
intimidation alone, and as the mainstay capital ship of the Imperial Navy, they were the means
by which the Emperor maintained his grip on the galaxy, ensuring complete security and
imperial dominance, in whichever system they were stationed.
Though the Imperial Navy would ultimately become far more nuanced and complex, with
starship classes to suit nearly any encounter, the core group of designs which made up the
Imperial fleet in it’s earliest years established the standard upon which the navy would build,
and even following the development of the Imperial-II Class Star Destroyer, and the
goliath Executor Class Star Dreadnought, many of these older designs would continue to serve
the empire reliably.