Kuat was a vital shipbuilding and industrial planet located in the Kuat system of the galaxy's Core Worlds region and homeworld of the Kuati people. Known for the prestigious Kuat Drive Yards corporation and its large shipyards, the planet notably produced warships for both the Galactic Republic and Galactic Empire.
Kuat during the Galactic Civil War
Kuat was a standard terrestrial planet of clouds, water, and land. A factory world, it was the homeworld of the Kuati people, and ruled by traditional aristrocrats. Unlike other planets in the galaxy, a single, large man-made ring circled its equator. Serving as Kuat Drive Yards' legendary shipyards, the ring appeared to galactic citizenry as an immense scaffold in space, bridged and augmented with enormous habitats and machinery. Inside the scaffolding existed the skeletons of ships and other craft, with tiny bright dots drifting to and from the ships under construction with the habitats of the station. The orbital ring had a total inhabitable area of less than three hundred thousand square kilometers, thus making its livable space smaller than a typical planetary substation.
Due to the planet's geopolitical significance, its defenses were formidable. Guarded by a significant ground-based garrison along with a large Imperial fleet, its defenses were considered nearly impenetrable, with a large percentage directed towards space combat.
In the ancient past, the Rakatans invaded Kuat, but the Kuati people later repeled the invaders. During the age of the Galactic Republic, ships and other equipment for the Republic's peacekeeping forces would often be produced by Kuat Drive Yards, especially during the three-year conflict known as the Clone Wars. Warships were also produced such as the Venator-class Star Destroyer and Pelta-class frigate. During the war, Kuat was represented in the Galactic Senate by Senator Giddean Danu, who joined the Delegation of 2,000 towards the conflict's end.
At some point during the Clone Wars, elite clone commando squad Clone Force 99 performed an operation on Kuat. Commando "Wrecker" later described the mission as a "smash and grab."
Following the transformation of the Republic into the authoritarian Galactic Empire, most of the New Order's Imperial-class Star Destroyers were constructed, repaired, and resupplied at the massive shipyard, with it being the only shipyard capable of maintaining more than a handful at a time. As a result, Kuat was essential for the Empire's strategy of planetary containment and fast infantry deployment. The Empire's One-Oh-Seventh Stormtrooper Legion, which was specialized in squashing worker and slave uprisings, was stationed on Kuat, but the world was largely a predictable and stable posting. The traditional aristocrats who ruled the planet were proud to completely embrace the Empire's vision of galactic domination by unchallenged capital ship strength.
Following the Empire's loss of its first Death Star, the rebellion seized the initiative and launched attacks against the Empire's assets spread across the galaxy, including bombing the Imperial shipyards at Kuat, although without much impact.
After the Battle of Hoth, Kuat became part of the elaborate Operation Ringbreaker, a plan designed by former Imperial Governor Everi Chalis with remnants of the Alliance's 61st Mobile Infantry to assault and destroy the shipyards by exploiting the station's space-based defenses. Planning to board the station in a rapid-strike, ground-based infantry teams would disable vital manufacturing equipment and sever whole blocks of the station through internal sabotage. In order to accomplish this task, diversionary assaults would be redirected at essential nodes in the Imperial logistical network to force fleet redeployment from Kuat, thus further enervating its defenses as an already stretched Imperial Navy pursued shattered Rebel elements deep into the Outer Rim Territories. After initial success, the plan was abandoned following a prolonged and costly engagement on Sullust where the unit commander Hazram Namir decided that fighting for Sullust was a more worthy cause, resulting in Kuat's continued production of critical assets to the Imperial cause until the end of the war—two years later.
After the Battle of Endor, a battle over Kuat ended in the New Republic capturing a dreadnought. The Battle for Kuat Drive Yards saw heavy fighting for weeks. In 28 ABY, Kuat was represented in the Galactic Senate of the New Republic by Senator Ormes Apolin.