Hapan Battle Dragon The Hapan Battle Dragons were the premier warships used by the Hapes Consortium . Design and function . Designed by Olanji / Charubah , Battle Dragons became the primary capital ships of the Hapan Royal Navy , supported by " Nova " - class battle cruisers . The Hapan fleet , led by Prince Isolder ' s oversized Battle Dragon " Song of War " , contained at least 63 Battle Dragons , each representing one of the Consortium ' s worlds . Battle Dragons featured a unique dual saucer - shaped hull 500 meters in diameter with a central core connected by sixteen rotation support struts . The ships were armed with forty ion cannons and forty turbolaser batteries affixed to rotating circular sections on the top and bottom hull plates . To compensate for slowly recharging weaponry , the disc would rotate to bring fresh guns to an enemy while the previously used guns recharged their capacitors , which the Hapans viewed as a more efficient use of firepower . In addition to the rotating weapon emplacements , Battle Dragons were armed with ten proton torpedo tubes , tractor beam projectors , dorsal - and ventral - mounted heavy triple ion cannon batteries and sixteen pulsemass mine launchers . Each Battle Dragon carried three squadrons of Miy ' til starfighter s or T - 65 X - wing starfighter s in onboard hangars and a battalion of 500 troops . The ships required a crew of 1 , 200 and 190 gunners . Flaws . Battle Dragons were discovered in battle to have had two serious flaws : firstly , the drive system could be damaged , crippling the vessel . Secondly , the designers intended for the Battle Dragon to be used " en masse " , against very few targets . With that end in mind , they skimped on targeting computers , putting in only four of them . The effect was to offer outstanding performance against a single target but was useless against a group of targets . Tactics for a lone Battle Dragon against a group were little more than the Dragon choosing a vector and throwing a wall of energy in that direction , hoping that random hits would allow the Dragon to escape , so poor were the few targeting computers ' performance against a mass of targets . Tactics . The Hapans used ion cannons to disable the deflector shields of another capital ship , such as an " Imperial " - class Star Destroyer , and then fired salvos of proton torpedoes . This was found to be extremely effective , especially when the Hapans attacked with multiple Battle Dragons , as witnessed during the Battle of Dathomir . The pulse - mass mines simulated a mass shadow in space to prevented jumps into hyperspace by enemy ships . It was impossible to shut down the mines until their power was depleted , so launching them could be as great a risk to a Battle Dragon as to the ships it was attempting to trap . The three squadrons of Miy ' tils were deployed as a fighter screen to prevent heavy bombers penetrating the ion cannon defense . The ion cannon - based design is unique in capital ship design ; but the design was a realistic response to the Hapes Cluster ' s level of advancement - their isolationist stance had resulted in their ion cannon technology being on par with , and perhaps even exceeding , the standard galactic level of achievement , but their turbolaser technology had lagged considerably . After joining the New Republic in their battle against the Yuuzhan Vong , the New Republic updated the Hapan fleet with modern turbolaser technology . Gilad Pellaeon also helped upgrade several Battle Dragons with new Galactic Alliance technology in 40 ABY . Behind the scenes . When the Hapan Battle Dragons were introduced in " The Courtship of Princess Leia " , their weapons rotation system was described as simply a means of increasing their rate of fire . In the novel , it was indicated that this allowed Battle Dragons to fire three times more quickly than could Imperial starships . No mention was made of Hapan turbolasers recharging more slowly than their Imperial and New Republic counterparts until material introduced the concept .