The Dreadnought-class heavy cruiser, also known as the Imperial Support Vessel, the Dreadnought Support Vessel, or the Rendili Dreadnought—alternatively spelled as the Dreadnaught-class heavy cruiser or the Rendili Dreadnaught—was a powerful, midsize capital ship manufactured by Rendili StarDrive. The warship was designed for heavy space combat and planetary occupation and was armed with a considerable number of turbolasers and heavy laser cannons. Featuring a thoroughly armored hull with minimal shielding, the heavy cruiser could carry an entire starfighter squadron in a dedicated hangar.
Once utilized by the Utapaun Security Forces as anti-pirate vessels, as well as the Republic Navy to fight the Separatists during the Clone Wars, the Dreadnought was still considered one of the more capable ships of its class and size in use by the time of the Galactic Empire. In the year 2 BBY, a group of insurgents from the planet Batonn employed a contingent of Dreadnought-class vessels during a failed revolt, while many heavy cruisers later served as part of Grand Admiral Thrawn's Imperial blockade over the planet Lothal in 1 BBY. The blockade lasted until Lothal's liberation from the Empire, when all Imperial ships present were destroyed by a pod of the space-faring purrgil creatures.
The Dreadnought-class heavy cruiser was also used by the Rebel Alliance in the faction's struggle against the Empire. Many former Imperial Support Vessels, which the Empire did not see worth the price of repair and simply left to deteriorate, were salvaged and outfitted to serve in the Alliance Fleet. In 4 ABY, the rebels used a stolen Imperial Support Vessel, 49AX3, to transport their soldiers for a raid at an Imperial refinery in the Outer Rim, securing the installation's fuel supplies for the rebel fleet.
The Imperial Support Vessel was equipped with twelve sublight engines.
The Dreadnought-class heavy cruiser, otherwise known as the Imperial Support Vessel, the Dreadnought Support Vessel, or the Rendili Dreadnought, was an oblong, midsize capital ship class manufactured by Rendili StarDrive. Alternatively spelled as the Dreadnaught-class heavy cruiser or the Rendili Dreadnaught, the heavy cruiser had a gray, heavily armored hull along with several elliptical or rectangular protrusions amidship. The starship could sustain a considerable amount of damage despite being equipped with minimal deflector shields, not to mention the hull redundancies that prevented atmosphere from venting into space during combat. While the exterior of the customizable craft had a clamshell-like or rectangular bow, the interior featured a bridge and viewports at the bow and sides.
The Dreadnought-class was a powerful and versatile warship.
The Dreadnought-class included multiple launch bays and could carry shuttles along with a single squadron of twelve starfighters in a dedicated hangar. It possessed twelve sublight engines in varying shapes and sizes, which rendered the vessel one of the fastest ships of its class at sublight speeds. The craft also held a primary hyperdrive rating of Class 4, with a backup at Class 18. Depending on the configuration, the Dreadnought cruiser could hold 9,000 to 16,000 officers, pilots, and enlisted crew, as well as 3,000 troops. The craft contained enough consumables to last one year for the crew and marketed at 7,200,000 credits.
Designed to support multiple weapon configurations, the versatile and powerful Dreadnought carried an impressive number of turbolasers—it possessed five forward and five aft twin medium turbolaser batteries, along with ten port and ten starboard quad light turbolasers. The warship was also equipped with five port and five starboard heavy laser cannons for anti-starfighter defense, a navicomputer, and medium-range sensors, including a dorsal sensor dish located near the stern of the vessel. Additionally, the Dreadnought-class heavy cruisers used by the Batonn insurgents boasted red hull markings, a trait shared by other insurgent starships.
The Dreadnought-class cruiser was made for heavy space combat.
Designed for heavy space combat and planetary occupation, the Dreadnought-class heavy cruisers were commonly used to haul cargo and carry out various missions that larger crafts were unable to undertake. Dreadnought commanders endeavored to move the ponderous vehicle into position to fire broadsides at hostiles to gain superiority in combat. Firing the ship's turbolasers and heavy laser cannons in minion groups of at least three would also increase the chance of hitting smaller and faster enemy starfighters and gunboats. To counter the attack of rival bombers, the cruiser deployed and gave firing cover for its fighters.
The Dreadnought-class was used as a workhorse cruiser by the navies of both the Galactic Empire and its opponent, the Rebel Alliance, for miscellaneous purposes. While the Imperial Navy made use of the vessels to protect its worlds and stations, the Dreadnought served as a mobile base of operations for the latter faction's battle groups.
The Carrack-class light cruisers (pictured) served as escorts for the Dreadnoughts in the Republic Navy.
Once quite common in the galaxy, the Dreadnought-class heavy cruiser was considered old and antiquated at the outbreak of the pan-galactic Clone Wars between the Galactic Republic and the Confederacy of Independent Systems in the year 22 BBY. The Republic Navy deployed Dreadnought-class ships escorted by smaller Carrack-class light cruisers during the war. One Republic Dreadnought was the Mas Ramdar, which, along with three Carrack-class cruisers, formed Home Fleet Strike Group Five as part of the Coruscant Home Fleet tasked with protecting the Republic's capital planet of Coruscant.
Led by Lieutenant Commander Lorth Needa, Strike Group Five participated in the Battle of Coruscant of 19 BBY. During the battle, the group trapped the Separatist General Grievous' flagship Invisible Hand, aboard which Supreme Chancellor Sheev Palpatine, leader of the Republic, was held captive. However, Needa, who did not believe that Palpatine was aboard the ship, demanded the general's surrender and gave him ten minutes to prove his claims before the strike group's cruisers opened fire. Grievous did not surrender, but Jedi Generals Obi-Wan Kenobi and Anakin Skywalker rescued the Chancellor.
Around that time, the defense forces of the planet Utapau, known as the Utapaun Security Forces, utilized downscaled ships such as the Rendili Dreadnoughts, which were used as anti-pirate vessels. Their largest Dreadnought was one-fifth the size of a Lucrehulk-class battleship, a circular craft that was 3,170 meters, or 10,400 feet, in diameter. Sometime later, after the war ended and the Republic transformed into the Empire in 19 BBY, a Dreadnought that bore Republic markings suffered damage and emerged from hyperspace near an abandoned Republic supply depot. Broadcasting a distress call to any Republic forces, the vessel had young clone troopers on board who knew nothing of the Galactic Empire's existence.
One of the Batonn insurgents' Dreadnought cruisers under fire from the Chimaera
At some point in the Imperial Era, a Dreadnought cruiser flew near an Imperial hangar bay that housed a YT-2000 light freighter. In 2 BBY, a group of insurgents led by the smuggler Nevil Cygni on the planet Batonn used a contingent of Dreadnought Support Vessels in battle against the Empire. Several of the vessels were part of the insurgent attack squadrons that opposed Admiral Thrawn's naval forces orbiting Batonn at the siege of the Creekpath Mining and Refining complex. Although the insurgents targeted Thrawn's Arquitens-class light cruisers, they were defeated by the Imperial forces. The vast majority of the rebel forces were destroyed by Imperial TIE fighters and Thrawn's flagship, the Imperial Star Destroyer Chimaera, due to Thrawn anticipating Cygni's strategy.
The Dreadnought-class heavy cruiser was in service of both the Galactic Empire and the Rebel Alliance during the Galactic Civil War. Although the vessel was still regarded as one of the more capable ships of its class and size in use at that time, the Dreadnought had become increasingly rare during the conflict; the stress of combat, accidents, or simply fatigue would cause the ship to deteriorate, while the scarcity of the model's parts only increased.
The Assault Frigate Mark II series (pictured) was derived from the old Dreadnought-class.
Considering that the craft also required a large crew and was equipped with outdated systems, the Empire did not see the Dreadnoughts as worth the price of repair, and broken vessels were left abandoned in shipyards or in orbit above planets. On the other hand, many former Imperial Support Vessels were salvaged, refitted, and absorbed into the rebel fleet as rebel commanders relied heavily on fighter tactics, and the Dreadnought-class could carry an entire squadron of starfighters in a given hangar—an extremely attractive feature for the Alliance.
The large number of modifications made to the Dreadnought-class by the early Rebel Alliance also spawned another series of capital ships known as the Assault Frigate Mark II. Bearing little resemblance to the original Dreadnought, much of the starship's structure was either altered or completely removed, which resulted in a considerable reduction in the number of personnel required to operate the warship and a decrease in the vehicle's endurance for damage in favor of improving the vessel's maneuverability and speed while maintaining its armament.
An Imperial Support Vessel (bottom) in the Imperial blockade over Lothal
First commissioned in the time of the Old Republic, the Enigma was an old Dreadnought-class cruiser deployed by the Alliance Fleet. Allegedly a haunted vessel, the ship suffered power fluctuations, while the vessel's new parts inexplicably broke or disappeared, and even some of its crew vanished aboard the craft. Although these events could have been caused by an Imperial saboteur, some crew believed that the ship was actually cursed, claiming that they had seen ghosts wandering the Dreadnought's corridors.
The Imperial Support Vessel was one of the starship classes that served as part of Grand Admiral Thrawn's Seventh Fleet during its blockade over the planet Lothal amid ongoing conflict with local rebel forces. The blockade ultimately proved unable to contain the rebel presence on Lothal. After the rebel light freighter Ghost sneaked through the blockade by attaching itself to a passing cargo freighter in 1 BBY, the Lothal resistance, led by Jedi Padawan Ezra Bridger, launched a final attack on the Imperial forces and liberated Lothal from its occupation. During the engagement, the entire blockade, including many Imperial Support Vessels, was destroyed by a pod of purrgil—massive, whale-like creatures capable of naturally traveling through hyperspace—as part of Bridger's plan.
A Pau'an rebel major aboard Imperial Support Vessel 49AX3's bridge
In 4 ABY, a team of Rebel Alliance soldiers led by a Pau'an major undertook a raid at Imperial Refining Platform M36 in the Outer Rim Territories, using the stolen Imperial Support Vessel 49AX3 as a troop transport. Assisted by the Jedi Commander Luke Skywalker and his T-65B X-wing starfighter, the rebels seized the refinery's fuel supplies for their fleet, but their escape was blocked by an Imperial II-class Star Destroyer after the Pau'an refused to enter hyperspace through the surrounding asteroid field.
Meanwhile, far from the refinery, the Sith Lord and Galactic Emperor Palpatine showed Skywalker a vision through the Force in which the rebels' Dreadnought would be destroyed, in hopes of breaking the Jedi's will to aid the Rebellion. Skywalker, however, escaped the Emperor's vision and landed his X-wing in the Imperial Support Vessel's hangar after destroying several attacking Imperial TIE fighters. He and the major then used the latter's private shuttle to draw away the attention of the remaining TIEs. The tactic succeeded, and the rebels aboard 49AX3 were able to escape, fleeing to a nearby world.
Concept art of the Imperial Support Vessel by Andre Kirk
The Dreadnaught-class heavy cruiser was first mentioned in the current Star Wars canon in the fifty-second issue of the Star Wars: Build the Millennium Falcon magazine, published by De Agostini around December 30, 2015. The ship model later received its first depiction via the Two-Player Game expansion for the Star Wars: Destiny collectible dice and card game, which uses repurposed artwork from the 2014 Star Wars Legends roleplaying game book Star Wars: Age of Rebellion Core Rulebook by artist Adam Lane. The Star Wars: Destiny card depicting the ship, titled "Hangar Bay—Imperial Fleet," was revealed on Fantasy Flight Games' official website on August 31, 2017, a day before the product's release.
The Dreadnought-class made its first appearance as a background ship in "A Fool's Hope," the penultimate episode in the final season of the Star Wars Rebels animated series, which first aired on March 5, 2018. The cruiser's colloquial name, Imperial Support Vessel, was revealed through a concept art illustration by Andre Kirk in the accompanying "A Fool's Hope" episode guide on StarWars.com.
The designs for the Imperial Support Vessel seen in the episode were derived from the Imperial Dreadnaught, which figured prominently in The Thrawn Trilogy, a Legends novel series written by Timothy Zahn. While the Dreadnaught first appeared in the trilogy's second entry, 1992's Dark Force Rising, the ship originated in the 1989 Imperial Sourcebook, written by Greg Gorden and published by West End Games for Star Wars: The Roleplaying Game. Both the craft's new Star Wars Rebels design and old Legends appearance continued to be used to depict the vehicle in canon media.
The Dreadnaught-class debuted in West End Games' Imperial Sourcebook.
The 2018 reference book Star Wars: Complete Vehicles first identified the vessel as the Rendili Dreadnaught. While the book's 2020 edition, Star Wars Complete Vehicles, New Edition, uses the same name and spelling in the text, the index entry for the ship was changed to "Rendili Dreadnought." The 2019 reference book Ultimate Star Wars, New Edition also introduced the vehicle's model as "Dreadnought-class" with the new spelling. Unlike other sources, the book does not capitalize the colloquial name, rendering it as "Imperial support vessel." Additionally, "Every Type of Ship in Star Wars Rebels," an October 31, 2019 installment of the Star Wars By the Numbers web series created for StarWarsKids.com, identified the ship as "Dreadnought Support Vessel." Fantasy Flight Games' 2020 roleplaying game sourcebook Starships and Speeders provided the vehicle's full technical name as "Dreadnought-class heavy cruiser," with the same spelling for the word "Dreadnought."
Although Ultimate Star Wars, New Edition initially established that the Dreadnought-class was equipped with a Class 2 hyperdrive, Starships and Speeders later stated that the ship held a primary hyperdrive rating of Class 4 along with a backup hyperdrive rating of Class 18. This article assumes the latter and more recent source is correct. The 2020 book The Art of Star Wars Rebels also erroneously identifies the vessel as a light cruiser.
- Star Wars: Build the Millennium Falcon 52
- Star Wars: Complete Vehicles
- "'Peace' à la Tarkin – The Imperial Fleet on a mission of terror" — Star Wars - The Official Magazine 93
- Ultimate Star Wars, New Edition
- Starships and Speeders
- The Art of Star Wars Rebels
- Star Wars Complete Vehicles, New Edition
- Star Wars: Battles that Changed the Galaxy
- Star Wars: Timelines