Victory I - class Star Destroyer The Victory I " - class Star Destroyer , also known as the Victory I " - class Destroyer and " Victoria I " - class Star Destroyer , was a warship designed for planetary defense , planetary assault , ground troop support , and ship - to - ship combat . It was used by the Galactic Republic during the mid - Clone Wars , the Galactic Empire and the Corporate Sector during the Galactic Civil War and the Confederation during the Second Galactic Civil War . Characteristics . Dimensions . " Victory I " - class Star Destroyers were 900 meters long , just over half the size of the later " Imperial " - class Star Destroyer . Like later Star Destroyer designs , the Victory possessed the ability to enter the upper levels of a planetary atmosphere . This gave the ship a decided advantage of added precision when engaging in the ground attack operations the class was designed to carry out . In addition , the Victory could also pursue other vessels hoping to escape by diving towards a planet . A set of atmospheric maneuvering surfaces were located along the ship ' s flanks as well . Some Victory variants dispensed with the atmospheric maneuvering surfaces altogether . Star Destroyers of this kind fought in the Operation Shadow Hand , notably in the Battle of Balmorra . Offensive and defensive systems . Despite being several decades old at the time , the shields and hull armor of " Victory I " - class ships were still quite heavy compared to the other vessels used during the Galactic Civil War . They were equipped with 10 quad turbolaser batteries , 40 double turbolaser batteries , 80 concussion missiles tubes , and 10 tractor beam projectors . Due to being clad in 9095 - T8511 grade durasteel , a " Victory " - class vessel was said to be capable of fighting a " Dreadnaught " - class cruiser to a stand - still . Complement . A single " Victory I " - class Star Destroyer required 4 , 798 crew members and 402 gunners for optimal operation and could transport up to 2 , 040 troops , 8 , 100 metric tons of cargo , several ground vehicles like the AT - AT , and two squadrons of starfighters . Propulsion systems . The " Victory I " - class Star Destroyer ' s biggest disadvantage was its underpowered LF9 ion engine s , which could not produce sufficient acceleration to pursue newer and faster ships , allowing them to escape ship - to - ship combat . This flaw was rectified in the limited " Victory II " - class , produced shortly before the advent of the Empire . Some variants of the " Victory " - class were designed with three main thrusters and four auxiliary thrusters , like the larger " Imperial " - class . Others , like the " Harrow " and the " Protector " , had two main thrusters and two auxiliary thrusters wedged in - between . The " Victory " Star Destroyer ' s Class 1 . 0 hyperdrive was superior to that of the " Imperial " - class Star Destroyer , allowing " Victory " ships to reach their destinations in half the time . History . Republic origin . At the start of the Clone Wars and the introduction of the " Acclamator " - class assault ship , the Arch - Provost of Rendili ordered industrial spies and ship - designers to come up with a way to curb Kuat ' s lead on new contracts with the Galactic Republic . The two rival shipbuilders , Rendili StarDrive and Kuat Drive Yards , later embarked on a collaborative design - project while the war was still in its early phases . This was called the " Victor Initiative Project " , which resulted in the " Victory " - class . This design by Walex Blissex became a direct challenge to Kuat ' s " Venator " - class . An early batch of " Victory I " - class Star Destroyers were deployed to defend Sector 0 against the Techno Union ' s fleet of Bulwark Mark I battlecruisers , which had escaped the blockade of Foerost . This resulted in the deployment of the " Victory Fleet " six months ahead of schedule . Despite this , the majority of the initial commission group was not deployed until Palpatine had already dissolved the Galactic Republic and established his Imperial rule . A subclass known as the " Victory II " was introduced later in the Clone Wars . Refitted with new ion engines by Hoersch - Kessel Drive to replace the underpowered LF9s , and trading the concussion missiles for ion cannons and extra turbolasers ; this variant was designed with an emphasis on space combat . This newer class was externally very similar to its predecessor . Very few " Victory II ' s " were built , as they were introduced not long before the " Imperial " - class , which essentially supplanted it in the space combat role . Imperial service . The abundant number of " Imperial " - class Star Destroyers , and the growing popularity of the " Imperial " - series amongst the Imperial Starfleet , led to many " Victory " - class Star Destroyers being decommissioned or sold to groups like the Corporate Sector Authority , which purchased 520 . Most of the " Victory " - series Star Destroyers still in Imperial service near the height of the Empire were often assigned to planetary defense roles . Within the Imperial Navy , " Victory " - class Star Destroyers were considered second only to " Imperial " - class Star Destroyers for most operations in the Outer Rim Territories against pirates and Rebels . The order of battle considered one " Victory " - class Star Destroyer the equivalent of two " Strike " - class cruisers . Heavy squadrons often featured " Victory " - class Star Destroyers ; at the systems force level and above , they accompanied larger Star Destroyers , Star Cruisers , and Star Dreadnoughts in major assaults . Such as in the Battle of Ciutric , while other Star Destroyers used their turbolasers to strip the shields and armor of enemy capital ships , " Victory " Destroyers were called upon to deliver devastating barrages of concussion missiles against their now - unprotected hulls . The ability to pursue enemies into planetary atmospheres also made " Victorys " an invaluable part of many Imperial squadrons . A key disadvantage of the " Victory I " was its low speed which made its deployment difficult and allowed quicker foes to escape pursuit . During the Battle of Denab , the Rebel commander was able to defeat each Imperial squadron separately before they could come to each others aid , otherwise the greater firepower of the " Victory " ships would have prevailed . After that , Imperial tacticians necessitated assigning support ships , such as Interdictors , " Strike " cruisers , and " Carrack " cruisers , to make up for the shortcomings . While Thrawn was a Vice Admiral , he had flown his flag on " Victory " ships such as the " Stalwart " and the " Sceltor " , as did Admiral Harkov with the " Protector " . Most notably , the " Bombard " and the " Crusader " all but wiped out the notorious Eyttyrmin Batiiv pirates during the Battle of Khuiumin ; the pirates were aware of the impending Imperial attack but were overconfident in their ability to defeat a pair of " antiquated " " Victory " Star Destroyers . When Grand Admiral Thrawn took control of the Empire , this saw a return of the " Victory " - class to frontline duties , because of a lack of larger and more powerful ships such as the " Imperial " - class . Galactic Alliance service . Following the Yuuzhan Vong War , the Galactic Federation of Free Alliances commissioned an updated version of the " Victory " for use as pirate hunters across its territories . Some of these new vessels were fitted with large turrets on the upper hull , each housing a huge asteroid - tug tractor beam sold to the Galactic Alliance Defense Force by Lando Calrissian . Prior to the Swarm War , the Killik s hijacked a Galactic Alliance " Victory " - class Star Destroyer called the " Admiral Ackbar " , which had been used by the Alliance for the blockade of the Utegetu Nebula , for the Killiks ' invasion of the Chiss Ascendancy . Behind the scenes . The " Victory I " - class Star Destroyer was developed from a prototype Star Destroyer model created by Colin Cantwell for . The " Victory " - class Star Destroyer was first mentioned by name in Brian Daley ' s novel " Han Solo ' s Revenge " used by the Corporate Sector Authority Territorial Manager Odumin . The " New Essential Chronology " mentioned that the " Victory " - class was the product of a " Victor Initiative Project " . This tied the " Victory " - class into the naming scheme used by other large Republic ship classes of the era , all of which had Latin - based names ending in " - tor " , such as the " Venator " - class , the " Mandator " - class , and the " Imperator " - class . " " Victor " " comes from the Latin " vincere , victum " meaning " " to conquer " " . Roleplaying game statistics published by West End Games originally gave the " Victory I " - class eighty concussion missile tubes , with an unknown number of missiles . This was later adjusted to twenty tubes with four missiles each by the book " Starships of the Galaxy " , published by Wizards of the Coast . However , in " " , the " eighty - concussion missile launch tubes " of the " Victory " - class Star Destroyer " Emperor ' s Wisdom " and the comparable missile batteries of her sister ships " Selonian Fire " and " Corusca Fire " , play an important role in the storyline . " Star Wars : Empire at War " is the first source to depict details on the " Victory " - class which appear to represent large cannons flanking the bridge superstructure , similar to the " Imperial " - class and " Venator " - class Star Destroyers . A comparison using the game ' s map editing program ( which uses the game ' s own 3 - D rendering engine and depicts all three ships in proper proportion to each other ) shows these cannons to be roughly half the size of the corresponding units on the larger destroyers . Therefore , the presence of the cannons on the " Victory " - class in - game model is likely an unforeseen side - effect of it simply being a scaled down and modified version of the " Imperial I " - class model .