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Ships
Strike Cruiser
| Craft: | Strike-class Medium Cruiser | ||||
| Type: | Medium Cruiser | ||||
| Length: | 450 Meters | ||||
| Weapons: |
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| Crew: | 2,112 | ||||
| Top Speed: | 16 MGLT | ||||
| Troop Capacity: | 340 | ||||
| Cargo Capacity: |
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| Passengers: | 340 |
Loronar's Strike-class Cruiser was once the Imperial Fleet's best-kept secret. It was an unknown quality near the end of the war, but has been one of the main vessels in the Imperial's remnant Fleet. While every smuggler and Rebel knows to avoid Star Destroyers, the fighting capacity of the Strike Cruiser comes as quite a surprise to many.
The strike cruiser was designed to be mass produced in a limited amount of time. It was a triumph of Imperial modular technology, a pre-fabricated starship made up of component sections. The design cut back greatly on construction time and dramatically cut the cost of each vessel. As capital ship shortages plague the Empire, the Strike cruiser remains one vessel it can turn out on a semi-regular basis from one of its remaining manufacturing centers.
Strike cruisers are designed to forge into almost any combat situation. When planetary landings are necessary, they have room to carry a company of troops, two AT-STs and one AT-AT. Its hangar bay can handle a full squadron of twelve TIE fighters. However, as shortages rock the remaining portion of the Empire, it is rare for these vessels to carry a full complement unless their particular mission calls for it. Strike cruisers made up part of Grand Admiral Thrawn's armada in the Battle of Sluis Van.
Because of its modular design, Strike cruisers can be modified for specific mission profiles. Some specialized vessels still in service include prefab garrison deployers, troop transports, TIE launch platforms, heavy vehicle recovery, and planet assault vessels that can carry up to five AT-AT walkers.
For all of its benefits to the Imperial Fleet, the Strike cruise has some glaring defects. The most obvious and costly problem concerns the vessel's modular design. Well-placed hits during combat can knock out whole systems or weapons batteries as the modular connections fail. At the time of its design, this was considered only a minor flaw-- after all, the Empire was fixated upon the concept of disposable components. Now that resources are rare, prior wasteful policies have truly hampered efforts to make the vessels truly useful in combat.
