The Rebel Faction

General/TNO R&D: Executor class Star Destroyer

The following is technically an R&D submission, but a post to clear up the hazy areas surrounding the Executor-class Star Destroyer's performance and design so that those that have them (the two left in the galaxy!) can role-play with them more effectively. The numbers below are not an excuse for the owners to completely waste enemy ships or fleets. As always, common sense and not Kach Thorton's speculative R&D thread should be the basis for any of your role-plays involving the vessel in order to make threads more enjoyable for both participants and readers.


Huge, Powerful, and Majestic, the Executor-class Star Destroyer is considered to be one of the most spectacular and beautiful vessels ever built, even compared to the larger Eclipse-class. However, at least OOC wise, the ship is surrounded by a cloud of mystery and confusion that I intend to address myself.

The biggest and longest lasting debate involving the vessel has been on its length. Official sources, including The Essential Guide to Vessels and Vehicles claim Executor-class Star Destroyers are 8,000 meters long. However, Canon evidence says otherwise. Compared to Imperial-class Star Destroyers on screen in the last two movies, the Executor appears approximately 10 or 11 times longer, twice the size of the "Official" number.

The most widespread explanation for this- and the one both I and from what I've read, TRF, endorse- is that there are in fact two versions of the ship, the larger Executor I at 16,000 or 17,600 meters in length and the II class, of the 8,000 meter length stated by most sources.

By this explanation, the first Executors built- the twin ships Executor and Lusankya - were of the I class, and all later vessels- such as the Knight's Hammer, Guardian, and Iron Fist- were of the smaller II type.

(It should be noted that, on TRF, there is a 12,800 meter long III class that is in service with the Empire. However, to date only one has been built, Bhindi Drayson's flagship, the Acheron.)

This explanation, to me, makes sense. Vader and Isard were very powerful people in Palpatine's Empire and would both certainly merit one of the larger vessels. And with the Empire producing two of these mammoth ships and two Death Stars in just a few years, it would be a natural cost saving measure to develop a budget version for service in fleet elements such as the Black Fleet- The 8,000 meter Executor II.

For armament, Executors of both the I and II class are said to have 250 Heavy Turbolaser Cannons, 250 Heavy Turbolaser Batteries, 250 Concussion Missile Tubes, and 250 Heavy Ion Cannons by most sources, once again including the Essential Guide (it should be noted not all do- Inside the Worlds of the Star Wars trilogy gives the Executor 5,000 Turbolasers and 5,000 Ion Cannons). 1000 weapons emplacements is quite a few, yes, but for a ship that has the area of 25 ISDs (to say nothing of volume) that's nothing. Like giving an ISD ten Turbolasers and Ten Ion Cannons. The Imperial Navy has never been, and certainly wasn't then, one to be modest. Rest assured Executors of both the I and II class were armed to the teeth, and that's whey I'm sure the official armament list is incorrect. In addition, 144 fighters is nothing for a ship it's size. Therefore, below I intend to calculate what would be a more reasonable spec, basing the calculations on the three canon variants of ISD. The statistics of the ships are below...

(From the NIF RPG Database)

Name/Type: Imperator Mk I-class Star Destroyer
Designer/Manufacturer: Lira Wessex / Kuat Drive Yards
Designation: Heavy Cruiser
Crew: 26,810 + 275 Gunners
Length: 1605 meters
Speed: 60 MGLT
Hyperdrive: x2
Shield Rating: 4800 SBD
Hull Rating: 2272 RU
Weapons: 60 Taim & Bak XX-9 Heavy Turbolasers (class 5), 60 Borstel NK-7 Ion Cannons (class 3), 10 Phylon Q7 Tractor Beam Projectors (class 6), 2 Minelayers.
Fighter Complement: 6 Squadrons.
Troops: 9,700 Stormtroopers, 20 AT-ATs , 30 AT-STs, 1 Pre-fabricated Garrison Base.
Support Craft: 12 Titan-class Landing Barges, 8 Lambda-class Shuttles, 15 Stormtrooper Transports, 5 Star Wing Assault Gunboats, variable number of Skipray Blastboats, Gamma-class Assault Shuttles, deep space probes, probe droids and repair & recovery vehicles.

Name/Type: Imperator Mk II-class Star Destroyer
Designer/Manufacturer: Kuat Drive Yards
Designation: Heavy Cruiser
Crew: 36,755 + 330 Gunners
Length: 1,605 Meters
Speed: 60 MGLT
Hyperdrive: x1
Shield Rating: 5760 SBD
Hull Rating: 2953 RU (est.)
Weapons: 50 Heavy Taim & Bak Turbolaser Batteries, 50 Heavy Taim & Bak Turbolaser Cannons, 12 Borstel RH8 Laser Cannon Batteries, 2 Phylon Q7 Tractor Beam Projectors, 2 Minelayers.
Fighter Complement: 6 squadrons
Troops: 9,700 Stormtroopers
Support Craft: 5 Alpha Class XG-1 Star Wings, 15 Delta Class Dx-9 or Dx-9s Transports, 8 Lambda Class T-4a Shuttles, 12 Titan-class Landing Barges, 8 Lambda-class Shuttles, variable number of Skipray Blastboats, deep space probes, probe droids and repair & recovery vehicles, 1 Gamma Class Assault Shuttle and 1 TIE Shuttle Craft.

Name/Type: Imperator Mk III-class Star Destroyer
Designer/Manufacturer: Kuat Drive Yards
Designation: Heavy Cruiser
Crew: 36,755 + 668 Gunners
Length: 1,605 Meters
Speed: 70 MGLT
Hyperdrive: x1
Shield Rating: 6200 SBD
Hull Rating: 3000 RU
Weapons: 64 Heavy Taim & Bak Turbolaser Batteries, 64 Heavy Taim & Bak Turbolaser Cannons, 30 Heavy Ion Cannons, 64 Borstel RH8 Laser Cannon Batteries, 10 Phylon Q7 Tractor Beam Projectors, 2 Minelayers, 6 Torpedo Octet Launchers.
Fighter Complement: 6 Squadrons.
Troops: 9,700 Stormtroopers, 120 Zero-G Assault Troopers, 20 AT-ATs, 30 AT-STs, 1 Pre-fabricated Garrison Base.
Support Craft: 12 Titan-class Landing Barges, 6 Alpha-class XG-1 Star Wings, 4 GAT-12m Skipray Blastboats, 15 Delta Class Dx-9 or Dx-9s Transports , 8 Lambda Class T-4a Shuttles, 3 Gamma Class Assault Shuttles, 48 Probe Droids, 12 Combat Utility Vehicles, 2 TIE/ew and 2 TIE/fc, deep space probes, probe droids and repair & recovery vehicles, 1 Gamma Class Assault Shuttle and 1 TIE Shuttle Craft.
Modifications: Integrated Cloaking System

(Yes, I know the speeds are whacked, but other than that I find it the best database on the net).

So those are the figure's I'm going to use as I calculate the below.

Like I was saying, the armament was terribly low for a ship it's size, so...

ISD I
60 Taim & Bak XX-9 Heavy Turbolasers (x25= 1,500)
60 Borstel NK-7 Ion Cannons (x25= 1,500)
10 Phylon Q7 Tractor Beam Projectors (x25= 250)
2 Minelayers (x25= 50)

Using ISD I statistics an Executor II could have 3,300 weapons emplacements, however, the Imperial two was just entering service about the same time, so it's armament might also be used as a basis...

ISD II
50 Heavy Taim & Bak Turbolaser Batteries (x25= 1,250)
50 Heavy Taim & Bak Turbolaser Cannons (x25= 1,250)
12 Borstel RH8 Laser Cannon Batteries (x25= 300)
2 Phylon Q7 Tractor Beam Projectors (x25= 50)
2 Minelayers (x25= 50)

That gives 3,000, slightly less emplacements than an ISD one. So we can guess the Executor II would have between 3,000-3,300 weapons emplacements when first built, and the Executor I, four times the size of the II, could have between 12,000 and 13,200, quite a few more than the official lists!

Later versions, however, could also derive their number of weapons emplacements from the later Imperial III, which entered service as the cloned Emperor was building up his fleet to strike the New Republic.

64 Heavy Taim & Bak Turbolaser Batteries (x25= 1,600)
64 Heavy Taim & Bak Turbolaser Cannons (x25= 1,600)
30 Heavy Ion Cannons (x25= 750)
64 Point Defense Laser Cannons (not counted in Weapons emplacements figure, x25 = 1,600)
10 Phylon Q7 Tractor Beam Projectors (x25= 250)
2 Minelayers (x25= 50)
6 Torpedo Octet Launchers. (each made of 4 PT launchers) (6x4x25= 600)

So later Executor IIs, such as the Knight’s Hammer or Guardian, could have up to 4,850 Weapons Emplacements (Executor IIIs like the Ancheron could have twice this number, 9,700), and another 1,600 Point Defense Laser Cannons.

In addition to actual weapons emplacements, I think the figure of 144 fighters is far too low. So…

72*25 gives us 1,800 fighters for both new and old versions of the Executor II, quite a few. Plus, there’s support craft. I’m not going to stick the calculations on here, there’s too many sub-cap ships and it’d take two or three pages, but here’s what I got…

ISD I
300 Titan-class Landing Barges
200 Lambda-class Shuttles,
375 Stormtrooper Transports,
125 Star Wing Assault Gunboats,
Plus an variable number of Skipray Blastboats, Gamma Assault Shuttles, deep space probes, Probots, and Repair and Recovery vehicles.

ISD II
125 Alpha Class XG-1 Star Wings
375 Delta Class Dx-9 or Dx-9s Transports
200 Lambda Class T-4a Shuttles
300 Titan-class Landing Barges
25 Gamma Class Assault Shuttle
25 TIE Shuttle Craft.
Plus a variable number of Skipray Blastboats, deep space probes, probe droids and repair & recovery vehicles

Therefore, early versions could have carried between 800 and 1,100 shuttles. Later versions, however…

300 Titan-class Landing Barges
150 Alpha-class XG-1 Star Wings
100 GAT-12m Skipray Blastboats
375 Delta Class Dx-9 or Dx-9s Transports
200 Lambda Class T-4a Shuttles
75 Gamma Class Assault Shuttles
1200 Probe Droids (not included in shuttle figure)
300 Combat Utility Vehicles
50 TIE/ew
50 TIE/fc
25 TIE Shuttle Craft.
Plus a variable number of deep space probes and repair & recovery vehicles.

This gives later ships, such as the Knight’s Hammer a Shuttle Complement of 1,625 along with a fighter complement of 1,800.

Shields aren’t something that is commonly speculated on or debated. It’s generally agreed that they are massive and there’s no need to debate. But by scouring the Internet, I have found the following for shield and Armor ratings…

Wikipedia
Hull Plating 45712 U
Deflector Shielding 96000 U

NIF RPG Database (same place I got the ISD status above)
Shield Rating: 108000 SBD
Hull Rating: 45000 RU

I believe they are low, however. Using an ISD one’s shield and hull ratings, we get the following…

Shield Rating: 4800 SBD (x25 = 120,000 SBD)
Hull Rating: 2272 RU (x25 = 56,800)

Massive! And when ISD II and III ratings are used, the figures only grow…

Shield Rating: 5760 SBD (x25 = 144,000)
Hull Rating: 2953 RU (x25 = 73,825


Shield Rating: 6200 SBD (x25 = 155,000)
Hull Rating: 3000 RU (x25 = 75,000)

Like with armament and fighter complement, these figures would be multiplied 4 times to give the Executor I’s status, or by two to give the Executor IIIs. Dang, that’s big!

As for speed, with ten engines the size of an ISD, I could easily see the ship with twice the maximum speed. However, because that’s just plain unfair, I’d guess it’d be capable of a far more modest 2/3rds of an Imperial Star Destroyer’s Sublight speed, about 12 MGLT.

However, the Executor’s massive power comes at a steep price not only at the space-dock but also in the logistics department. 25 times the size of an ISD, it would make sense for it to also have 25 times the crew complement and troop complement (which would give 677,125 crew with the ISD one and 1,125,125 with the two model, with 242,500 Troops supported by 500 AT-ATs and 750 AT-STs), but I find these figures fantastically high for a ship only 8,000 meters long rivaling the Death Star in sheer manpower (which had only a million souls and maximum complement). A more accurate number, I believe, for the Executor II is the 280,374 crewers stated by Wikipedia with 38,000 troops (with 40 AT-ATs and 60 AT-STs) since many tasks on the smaller ships would overlap and take away a need for many crew such as those on the bridge and in fire control.

So after all that, here’s what we get…*

Executor II-class Star Destroyer
Length- 8,000m
Beam- 3,000m
Height- 850m

Complement- 280,374 Crew plus 38,000 troops (with 40 AT-ATs and 60 AT-STs)

Speed-
a. Normal- 8 MGLT
b. Flanking-12 MGLT
c. Emergency- 16MGLT
Hyperdrive- Class 2

Shields- 112,500 SBD
Hull- 56,800 RU

Fighter Complement- 1,800 Fighters and Bombers in 150 Squadrons
Other Support Craft- 1,500 Shuttles

Armament- (yes there’s 5,000 emplacements, slightly above the ISD III numbers, but I believe that with less crew there’d be more room for power generators and other do dads to allow this.) 1,500 Heavy Turbolaser Cannons, 1,500 Heavy Turbolaser Batteries, 1,500 Heavy Ion Cannon Batteries, 500 Misc. Projectile Launchers

(*Executor IIIs would have about twice this number, since they are about twice as big, and Is would have about four times)

So to make a long story short, if you own one of the two Executor-class Star Destroyers in the galaxy you are a very lucky bastard indeed.