The Dreadnought-class heavy cruiser, also known by monikers such as the Imperial Support Vessel, the Dreadnought Support Vessel, or the Rendili Dreadnought—with alternative spellings including the Dreadnaught-class heavy cruiser or the Rendili Dreadnaught—represented a formidable, medium-sized capital ship produced by Rendili StarDrive. This warship was engineered for intense space combat scenarios and planetary occupation duties, boasting a significant arsenal of turbolasers alongside heavy laser cannons. Constructed with a robustly armored hull yet possessing limited shielding, this heavy cruiser also accommodated a complete starfighter squadron within its integrated hangar facilities.
Previously employed by the Utapaun Security Forces in anti-pirate operations, and by the Republic Navy against the Separatists during the Clone Wars, the Dreadnought maintained its reputation as a highly competent ship within its size and classification, even during the time of the Galactic Empire. Noteworthy events include the year 2 BBY, when a faction of insurgents originating from Batonn deployed Dreadnought-class vessels during an unsuccessful revolt. Additionally, numerous heavy cruisers were later incorporated into Grand Admiral Thrawn's Imperial blockade surrounding Lothal in 1 BBY. This blockade persisted until the liberation of Lothal from Imperial control, culminating in the destruction of all Imperial vessels present by a collective of space-dwelling purrgil entities.
The Dreadnought-class heavy cruiser also saw service with the Rebel Alliance during their struggle against the Empire. Numerous former Imperial Support Vessels—deemed uneconomical to repair by the Empire and subsequently abandoned—were recovered and retrofitted for use within the Alliance Fleet. In 4 ABY, the rebels utilized a stolen Imperial Support Vessel, designated 49AX3, to transport their soldiers for a raid targeting an Imperial refinery situated in the Outer Rim, thereby securing the installation's fuel reserves for the rebel fleet.
The Dreadnought-class heavy cruiser, alternatively referred to as the Imperial Support Vessel, the Dreadnought Support Vessel, or the Rendili Dreadnought, constituted a medium-sized capital ship class with an elongated form, manufactured by Rendili StarDrive. Also spelled as the Dreadnaught-class heavy cruiser or the Rendili Dreadnaught, this heavy cruiser possessed a gray, heavily armored hull and featured several protruding, elliptical or rectangular structures along its midsection. The starship exhibited resilience to significant damage despite being equipped with minimal deflector shields, further enhanced by hull redundancies that prevented atmosphere loss into space during combat engagements. While the exterior of this customizable vessel presented a clamshell-like or rectangular bow profile, the interior incorporated a bridge and viewports positioned at the bow and along the sides.
The Dreadnought-class incorporated multiple launch bays and could accommodate shuttles alongside a single squadron of twelve starfighters within a dedicated hangar. Equipped with twelve sublight engines of varying configurations, the vessel achieved remarkable sublight speeds, ranking among the fastest in its category. The craft also featured a primary hyperdrive system rated at Class 4, supplemented by backups at Class 18 and Class 2. Depending on the specific configuration, the Dreadnought cruiser could house between 9,000 and 16,000 officers, pilots, and enlisted personnel, in addition to 3,000 troops. The vessel carried sufficient consumables to sustain its crew for one year and was marketed at a cost of 7,200,000 credits.
Designed to support diverse weapon configurations, the versatile and formidable Dreadnought possessed a substantial array of turbolasers, including five forward and five aft twin medium turbolaser batteries, complemented by ten port and ten starboard quad light turbolasers. The warship also featured five port and five starboard heavy laser cannons for anti-starfighter defense, a navicomputer, and medium-range sensors, incorporating a dorsal sensor dish situated near the stern. Furthermore, Dreadnought-class heavy cruisers utilized by the Batonn insurgents displayed distinctive red hull markings, a characteristic shared among other insurgent starships.
Engineered for intense space combat situations and planetary occupation efforts, the Dreadnought-class heavy cruisers were routinely deployed for cargo transport and a range of missions unsuited for larger vessels. Dreadnought commanders prioritized maneuvering the substantial vessel into positions that would allow them to unleash broadsides upon enemy forces, establishing combat superiority. Firing the ship's turbolasers and heavy laser cannons in coordinated groups of at least three would also increase the probability of striking smaller and faster enemy starfighters and gunboats. To mitigate attacks from opposing bombers, the cruiser deployed its own fighters, providing them with covering fire.
The Dreadnought-class functioned as a workhorse cruiser within the navies of both the Galactic Empire and its adversary, the Rebel Alliance, fulfilling a variety of roles. While the Imperial Navy utilized these vessels to safeguard its territories and stations, the Dreadnought served as a mobile operational base for the latter faction's battle groups.
Once a common sight throughout the galaxy, the Dreadnought-class heavy cruiser was regarded as an older and somewhat outdated design by the outbreak of the pan-galactic Clone Wars, a conflict between the Galactic Republic and the Confederacy of Independent Systems that began in 22 BBY. During the war, the Republic Navy deployed Dreadnought-class ships, often escorted by smaller Carrack-class light cruisers. One such Republic Dreadnought was the Mas Ramdar, which, alongside three Carrack-class cruisers, comprised Home Fleet Strike Group Five, a component of the Coruscant Home Fleet tasked with defending the Republic's capital planet of Coruscant.
Under the command of Lieutenant Commander Lorth Needa, Strike Group Five participated in the Battle of Coruscant in 19 BBY. During this engagement, the group successfully trapped the Separatist General Grievous' flagship, the Invisible Hand, which carried Supreme Chancellor Sheev Palpatine, the leader of the Republic, as a captive. However, Needa, unconvinced that Palpatine was aboard the ship, demanded Grievous' surrender and granted him ten minutes to substantiate his claims before the strike group's cruisers commenced firing. Grievous did not comply, but Jedi Generals Obi-Wan Kenobi and Anakin Skywalker successfully rescued the Chancellor.
Around the same time, the defense forces of the planet Utapau, known as the Utapaun Security Forces, operated scaled-down vessels like the Rendili Dreadnoughts, which served as anti-pirate platforms. Their largest Dreadnought was one-fifth the size of a Lucrehulk-class battleship, a circular vessel with a diameter of 3,170 meters, or 10,400 feet. Subsequently, following the war's ended and the Republic's transformed into the Empire in 19 BBY, a Dreadnought bearing Republic markings sustained damage and emerged from hyperspace near an abandoned Republic supply depot. The vessel transmitted a distress call to any remaining Republic forces, revealing the presence of young clone troopers on board who were unaware of the Galactic Empire's existence.
During the Imperial Era, a Dreadnought cruiser was observed flying 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 deployed a contingent of Dreadnought Support Vessels in battle against the Empire. Several of these vessels were part of the insurgent attack squadrons that confronted Admiral Thrawn's naval forces orbiting Batonn during the siege of the Creekpath Mining and Refining complex. Despite targeting Thrawn's Arquitens-class light cruisers, the insurgents were defeated by the Imperial forces. The majority of the rebel forces were destroyed by Imperial TIE fighters and Thrawn's flagship, the Imperial Star Destroyer Chimaera, due to Thrawn's anticipation of Cygni's strategic maneuvers.
The Dreadnought-class heavy cruiser was utilized by both the Galactic Empire and the Rebel Alliance during the Galactic Civil War. Although still regarded as a capable ship of its class and size, the Dreadnought became increasingly scarce during the conflict; combat stress, accidents, and general wear would cause the ship to deteriorate, while the limited availability of replacement parts exacerbated the issue.
Given its large crew requirements and outdated systems, the Empire deemed the Dreadnoughts uneconomical to repair, resulting in the abandonment of damaged vessels in shipyards or planetary orbits. Conversely, numerous former Imperial Support Vessels were salvaged, refitted, and integrated into the rebel fleet as rebel commanders relied heavily on fighter tactics, with the Dreadnought-class's capacity to carry an entire squadron of starfighters within its hangar proving particularly attractive to the Alliance.
The extensive modifications implemented on the Dreadnought-class by the early Rebel Alliance also led to the development of another capital ship series, the Assault Frigate Mark II. Bearing minimal resemblance to the original Dreadnought, this design involved significant alterations or complete removal of structural elements, resulting in a substantial reduction in crew requirements and improved maneuverability and speed while maintaining its armament, albeit at the expense of its damage endurance.
Originally commissioned during the time of the Old Republic, the Enigma was an aging Dreadnought-class cruiser deployed by the Alliance Fleet. Rumored to be haunted, the ship experienced power fluctuations, unexplained breakages or disappearances of new parts, and even the vanishing of crew members. While these incidents could have been attributed to an Imperial saboteur, some crew members believed the ship was cursed, reporting sightings of ghosts within the Dreadnought's corridors.
The Imperial Support Vessel was among the starship classes deployed as part of Grand Admiral Thrawn's Seventh Fleet during its blockade of Lothal amid ongoing conflict with local rebel forces. The blockade ultimately failed to contain the rebel presence on Lothal. After the rebel light freighter Ghost infiltrated 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 assault on the Imperial forces and liberated Lothal from Imperial occupation. During this engagement, the entire blockade, including numerous Imperial Support Vessels, was destroyed by a pod of purrgil—massive, whale-like creatures capable of natural hyperspace travel—as part of Bridger's strategy.
In 4 ABY, a team of Rebel Alliance soldiers under the command of a Pau'an major conducted a raid on Imperial Refining Platform M36 located in the Outer Rim Territories, utilizing the stolen Imperial Support Vessel 49AX3 as a troop transport. Aided by the Jedi Commander Luke Skywalker and his T-65B X-wing starfighter, the rebels seized the refinery's fuel supplies for their [fleet](/article/fleet], but their escape was hindered by an Imperial II-class Star Destroyer after the Pau'an refused to initiate hyperspace jump through a surrounding asteroid field.
Concurrently, far from the refinery, the Sith Lord and Galactic Emperor Palpatine presented Skywalker with a vision through the Force depicting the rebels' Dreadnought being destroyed, intending to break the Jedi's resolve to support the Rebellion. Skywalker, however, broke free from the Emperor's vision and landed his X-wing in the Imperial Support Vessel's hangar after eliminating several attacking Imperial TIE fighters. He and the major then utilized the latter's private shuttle to divert the attention of the remaining TIEs. This tactic proved successful, enabling the rebels aboard 49AX3 to escape to a nearby planet.
The Dreadnaught-class heavy cruiser received its first mention within 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 design was subsequently depicted in the Two-Player Game expansion for the Star Wars: Destiny collectible dice and card game, which 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 featuring the ship, titled "Hangar Bay—Imperial Fleet," was unveiled on Fantasy Flight Games' official website on August 31, 2017, one day prior to the product's release.
The Dreadnought-class made its debut as a background ship in "A Fool's Hope," the penultimate episode of the final season of the Star Wars Rebels animated series, which premiered on March 5, 2018. The cruiser's common designation, Imperial Support Vessel, was revealed through concept art by Andre Kirk in the "A Fool's Hope" episode guide on StarWars.com.
The designs for the Imperial Support Vessel featured in the episode were based on the Imperial Dreadnaught, a prominent element in The Thrawn Trilogy, a Legends novel series authored by Timothy Zahn. While the Dreadnaught initially appeared in the trilogy's second book, 1992's Dark Force Rising, its origins trace back to the 1989 Imperial Sourcebook, written by Greg Gorden and published by West End Games for Star Wars: The Roleplaying Game. Both the new Star Wars Rebels design and the original Legends appearance have continued to be used to depict the vessel in canon media.
The vessel was initially recognized as the Rendili Dreadnaught in the reference book Star Wars: Complete Vehicles, published in 2018. However, in the 2020 edition, Star Wars Complete Vehicles, New Edition, the index entry for the ship was modified to read "Rendili Dreadnought," despite the text itself maintaining the original name and spelling. Furthermore, the 2019 reference book Ultimate Star Wars, New Edition presented the vehicle's model as "Dreadnought-class," adopting the updated spelling. Differing from other sources, this book uses lowercase for the common name, referring to it as "Imperial support vessel." Moreover, the ship was referred to as "Dreadnought Support Vessel" in "Every Type of Ship in Star Wars Rebels," a October 31, 2019 episode of the Star Wars By the Numbers web series produced for StarWarsKids.com. Fantasy Flight Games' 2020 roleplaying game sourcebook, Starships and Speeders, specified the vehicle's complete technical designation as "Dreadnought-class heavy cruiser," consistently using the "Dreadnought" spelling.
Starships and Speeders indicated that the ship had a primary hyperdrive rating of Class 4 and a backup hyperdrive rating of Class 18, a fact that came after Ultimate Star Wars, New Edition originally indicated that the Dreadnought-class was equipped with a Class 2 hyperdrive. This article assumes the data from the more recent source is accurate. The 2020 publication The Art of Star Wars Rebels also incorrectly labels the vessel as a light cruiser.