Imperial III-class Star Destroyer

### Function

Ship-to-ship combat, fleet command, carrier, army transport, planetary siege and assault

### Builder(s)

Kuat Drive Yards (Former), Creelia Drive Yards (Current)

## Offensive and defensive specs

### Armament

16 Octuple Barbette Heavy Turbolaser Turrets, 106 Quad Heavy Turbolaser Turrets, 24 Dual Heavy Ion Cannon Turrets, 10 Dual Heavy Turbolaser Cannons, 6 Dual Heavy Ion Cannons, 144 Dual Laser Cannon Turrets, 4 Heavy Tractor Beam Projectors, 1 Weapon Overcharge Core.

### Complement

480 Viper-class Probe Droids, 720 Imperial Drop Pods, 360 Scout Vehicles, 72 Light Vehicles, 48 Medium Vehicles, 48 Heavy Vehicles, 6 AT-AT Mark IIs, 72 TIE/LN2-starfighters, 48 TIE/IN2-interceptors, 48 TIE/SA2-bombers, 72 LAAT/i2 Gunships, 48 Sentinel II-class dropships, 24 TIE-Reaper Mark II boarding craft, 3 Gozanti-class Heavy Transports.

### Shields

6 Deflector Shield Generator Banks, 2 Shield Boosters

## General information

### Passengers

4,800 army troopers, 3,600 stormtroopers,

### Additional systems

Class 3.0 Hyperdrive, Long Range Communication Array

The Imperial III-class Star Destroyer or ISD III for short, is the Empire’s modern day mainline capital ship. The ship serves as a heavy battlecruiser and like most of its kind, it is a jack of all trades and master of some. It possesses very strong armor and shields, a complement capable of taking a small country, and an armament that can wipe out small fleets.

## **History**

Designed as the successor to the infamous and highly successful Imperial I and II-class Star Destroyers, the Imperial III started development midway into the Galactic Civil War, shortly after the Battle of Hoth in 2552. The project was seen as somewhat of a redundancy given the number of other similar warships the Empire possessed at the time such as the Allegiance-class and would be stuck in prototype testing and development until after the Battle of Endor. When Ral Fel became the new Emperor and started implementing his new military doctrine, he saw great potential in the ISD III and pushed for its development above all other capital ship designs. In 2555, two years into the Imperial Civil War, the ISD III would see combat for the first time against Palpantine’s Loyalists. In an ironic twist of fate, the vessel’s first proper ship-to-ship encounter would be against its ISD II predecessors. The warship performed remarkably well and exceeded all expectations, outclassing just about every other Loyalist, Rebel, and Seperatist capital ship fielded in the conflict in a one on one engagement. This success saw the ISD III swiftly becoming the Empire’s new mainline capital ship, replacing all others during the navy’s streamlining. The vessels, though relatively few in number, would prove to be invaluable during the Reaper War as they were one of the few capital ships in the galaxy that had a chance to successfully beat a Sovereign-class Reaper on their own.

## **Improvements**

The Imperial III-class Star Destroyer introduced a number of improvements to the ISD I and II design. It was enlarged to 1,800 meters and made proportionally wider to allow for greater compliments and forward firing arcs of its starboard and port trench guns respectively. The hanger was greatly upscaled and redesigned to accommodate for an air and ground vehicle complement rivaling some assault carriers. With its size increase came the reinforcement of armor and amplification of shields along with the use of the new deflector shield capacitor banks that would take the galaxy by storm in 2553. These six shield generator banks were spread out across the ship and buried beneath its thick armored hull. The deflector shield generator domes on the ship’s command tower were retooled to be shield boosters that used surplus reactor power to overcharge the vessel’s shields for a short period of time provided they were still online.

The Imperial III would built upon its predecessors mighty arsenal with an additional eight octuple heavy turbolaser batteries being mounted on its underside, mirroring those on top. The underside also received an increased number of smaller heavy turbolaser and ion cannons than from its predecessors. The ship’s swelling anti-warship fire power was supplemented by over a hundred smaller laser cannons that could destroy or ward off multiple fighter squadrons and stray bomber squadrons. Improvements in technology would allow for a smaller and more powerful hypermatter reactor to be installed, allowing for the reactor extension dome on the underside to be converted into a weapons amplifier. Much like the shield booster domes, this could supercharge the vessel's weapons for a short period of time, greatly enhancing their fire rate. Taking a note from their UNSC and Swords of Sangheilios allies, the Empire would add hundreds of one-man drop pod tubes on the ship’s belly, next to the main hanger. These would allow for the vessel’s storm troopers to rapidly deploy into enemy lines and cause havoc ahead of the main forces. Lastly, after the disastrous loss of the Executor at the battle of Endor, the Imperials would utilize reinforced transparisteel viewports and durasteel armor in the command bridge, capable of resisting several direct proton torpedo strikes and moderate collisions.

## **Performance and Weaknesses**

Though it is short of weaknesses, the sheer potency of the ISD III comes at a price. They are one of the more expensive ships in the Imperial Navy and as such are relatively few in number. In practice, however, this issue is greatly mitigated by the large number of VSD IIIs and other supplementary combat vessels used to support the Imperial-class. In combat, the vessel is a juggernaut with nothing short of an equal opponent or overwhelming firepower and star fighter attack needed to bring it down. With that said, the vessel has a notable lack of rear armament and its overcharge abilities, while able to turn the tide of an engagement, take a while to charge and recharge, often being reserved for the most critical of circumstances. Despite these drawbacks, the ISD III is still regarded as being among the best capital ships in the galaxy.