Hunter destroyers (also spelled hunter-destroyers) were fast pursuit craft of the Galactic Empire, armed with torpedoes and laser cannons.
A group of hunter destroyers pursued the hijacked Imperial starship that blasted out of Gordon in the Norton Asteroid Belt, severely damaging their quarry, so it exploded over the planet Yavin.
- The hunter destroyer is the conceptual predecessor of the TIE/LN starfighter
- The pursuit of the Imperial starship into the asteroid field later inspired the pursuit of the Millennium Falcon into the asteroids in the Hoth system.