The Super-class Star Destroyer, a fictional Star Destroyer model conceived due to financial constraints, eventually saw its name evolve into a popular military term denoting formidable warships within the Galactic Empire and its subsequent governing bodies.
Specifications for the Super-class included a length of 8,000 meters and an arsenal comprising 250 turbolaser batteries, 250 heavy turbolaser batteries, 250 ion cannons, 250 concussion missile tubes, and 40 tractor beam projectors.
Its complement featured twelve TIE squadrons (including two TIE Interceptor squadrons) alongside over fifty additional smaller spacecraft. For planetary engagements, it could deploy an entire corps of ground forces, seemingly a combination of stormtrooper legions and conventional Army troops, in addition to 25 AT-ATs, 50 AT-STs, and three prefabricated garrison bases. The ship's crew numbered 280,734 individuals.
A single vessel of this classification was considered equivalent to ten or twenty Imperial-class Star Destroyers, and the intention was for them to serve as command ships for numerous key Sector Fleets within the Empire.
The designation "Super-class Star Destroyer" was created by officials within the Imperial Navy and utilized in their budgetary proposals submitted to the Imperial Senate during the design and construction phase of the Executor-class Star Dreadnought. This deception aimed to conceal the true nature of the class, even to the point of downplaying its size and firepower, to prevent oversight committees from uncovering its actual purpose.
By the time the first ship, Executor, became operational, the official designation had reverted to the initially intended name. However, the terms Super Star Destroyer and Super-class Star Destroyer had already become ingrained in the public consciousness and were subsequently applied to other models, such as the Sovereign-class and Eclipse-class.
One such budget request, featuring the "Super-class" and various other capital ship designs, was dispatched to Palpatine's advisors responsible for budgetary matters. This document eventually fell into the possession of the Rebel Alliance, where Arhul Hextrophon utilized it as a primary source of information regarding the Empire's capital ship capabilities.
The Empire publicly announced that four Super-class Star Destroyers, specifically Executor-class vessels, had been completed by the time of the Battle of Hoth. Around 1 BBY, Imperial gunner Tenn Graneet expressed his hope to be assigned to one of these vessels.
Even as late as the era of the New Jedi Order, both the terms "Super Star Destroyer" and "Super-class Star Destroyer" remained in common usage, evolving over time to encompass several distinct designs.
The Megador, a Star Dreadnought propelled by sixteen ion engines, was also referred to as a Super-class Star Destroyer during the Battle of Uroro Station.
Since 2004, the Executor-class has been described as Star Dreadnoughts measuring 19 kilometers in length. This issue sparked some debate, as older sources frequently described the Executor as either an 8- or 12.8-kilometer-long Super-class Star Destroyer.
On March 9, 2006, the Wizards of the Coast Star Wars Q&A section reiterated that the Executor was 19 kilometers long, "as are all Super Star Destroyers of the same class." This left open the possibility of the 8-kilometer Super-class existing as a distinct class separate from the Executor. However, with the release of the Starship Battles Preview 1 preview article on October 19, 2006, the Super-class was retconned as a deliberate fabrication, intended to conceal the much larger Executor Star Dreadnought class.
On November 16, 2007, the official Databank updated the Executor article, clarifying that the term "Super-class Star Destroyer" was only used informally, alongside "Super Star Destroyer," with "Executor-class Star Dreadnought" being the ship class's official designation. The updated edition of Starships of the Galaxy reiterated this information, while also incorporating additional Super Star Destroyer variants and using both "Super Star Destroyer" and "Super-class Star Destroyer" interchangeably as general descriptors.