The Bilbringi Shipyards were a major military starship-production facility, first controlled by the Galactic Empire, then later the New Republic, located in orbit with the asteroid Bilbringi VII, in the Bilbringi system.
The Bilbringi Shipyards were orbital platforms that circled Bilbringi VII, a medium sized planetoid located in the life-devoid Bilbringi system, in the Inner Rim. The shipyards had been built in this system because of its proximity to Imperial convoy routes and the preponderance of available metals and ores. The Bilbringi asteroid fields that surrounded the shipyards were mined for their resources but made the travel to the facilities very complicated.
The shipyards formed a large and efficient ship-building facility dedicated to the production of warships. The orbital platforms were used for virtually every stage of starship construction. They included open dry-docks for the overhaul of hyperdrive engines, heavy lifting platforms, a work area for the construction of space vessel superstructures, and a firing platform to fine-tune weaponry. Although they were not as imposing as the Corellia, Fondor, Kuat shipyards, the Bilbringi Shipyards encompassed thousands of dry docks and half completed warships.
The construction of the Bilbringi Shipyards was an idea originally conceived by Count Dooku during the Clone Wars between the Galactic Republic and the Confederacy of Independent Systems. At that time, the Bilbringi Depot on Bilbringi VII was the primary settlement in the system. Dooku intended to acquire the Depot from Drixo the Hutt to transform it into a shipyard for the Confederate Navy. However, the plot was foiled by the Republic that seized the Bilbringi facility.
The Bilbringi system was later developed as a starship construction facility and testing ground for experimental weaponry by the Galactic Empire. The Bilbringi Shipyards were Imperial Military shipyards exclusively dedicated to the construction of vessels for the Imperial Navy. During the Imperial Period, the shipyards could not produce ships larger than cruisers. During the early years of the Galactic Civil War, the Rebel Alliance attempted, unsuccessfully, to destroy the Bilbringi Shipyards using a baradium fission device shipped to the yards via the Millennium Falcon.
Thrawn's fleet arrives at the shipyards to ambush New Republic forces
After the Battle of Endor, the Bilbringi and its shipyards remained a major component of the Imperial war machine. During the Thrawn campaign in 9 ABY, the Bilbringi facility were the largest shipyard controlled by Grand Admiral Thrawn. At that time, the Bilbringi Shipyards had been upgraded to be able to produce Star Destroyers. The facility was under the command of General Drost and highly defended. The defense system included four Golan II platforms and shield generators. However, the very size of the shipyards made them vulnerable to attack. In retaliation for the Imperial attack on the Smugglers' Alliance meeting on Trogan, smugglers raided the yards and destroyed an Imperial-class Star Destroyer under construction. During the raid, Talon Karrde and his crew found at that the Empire was working on a group of asteroids which were being outfitted with cloaking devices. Karrde would later give the data to the New Republic after Thrawn used the asteroids to lay siege on Coruscant. Later the same year, the Bilbringi Shipyards were the site of the showdown between Thrawn's forces and the New Republic – though the Republic took heavy losses, in the end they were victorious. The shipyards were heavily damaged during the battle and eventually abandoned by the Empire.
The damaged Bilbringi Shipyards were later seized by the New Republic, which repaired the stations and retrofitted the Lusankya there. The Executor-class Star Dreadnought Lusankya, captured by the New Republic, was later moved to the Bilbringi yards to be retrofitted. After the end of the Hegemony theater, the former Director of Imperial Intelligence Ysanne Isard infiltrated the shipyards in an unsuccessful attempt to recapture the Lusankya for the Empire. Circa 12 ABY, the rogue Jedi student Dal Konur was confronted in the Hangar Bay 631-D of the shipyards by a group of agents sent by Jedi Master Luke Skywalker.
During the Yuuzhan Vong War, the Bilbringi Shipyards were under heavy demands to build vessels for the New Republic against the Yuuzhan Vong. When Han Solo and Leia Organa Solo visited the shipyards in 27 ABY in the hopes of convincing General Muun to aid in the defense of Vray refugees, the shipyards were constructing some five hundred vessels and two Imperial-class Star Destroyers were near completion. The shipyards were defended by the Bilbringi Defense Force. Five cruisers and fifteen corvettes constituted a quarter of the defense fleet station there, which also included the Dauntless. Nevertheless, the yards were taken by the Yuuzhan Vong in 27 ABY, and were mostly destroyed, with shipwombs taking the place of mechanical shipbuilding means. The Bilbringi system and its shipyards were later targeted by the Galactic Alliance during Operation Trinity but the mission failed.
Ten years after the Yuuzhan Vong surrendered, Jacen Solo as Darth Caedus used the Shipyards as a bargaining chip, along with Borleias, for the Imperial Remnant to join the Confederation War. While Borleias would revert to Galactic Alliance control after that war, Bilbringi remained with the Imperial Remnant.
The PC game Star Wars: Rebellion names the Bilbringi Shipyards as the "Imperial Shipyards," claiming that the bulk of the Imperial Navy was crafted there. Kuat Drive Yards, in fact, holds this distinction.