An XX-9 heavy turbolaser battery is seen on the Death Star
A turbolaser was a potent iteration of the laser cannon turret that was generally mounted on capital ships and also space stations. Despite their significant firepower making them highly effective against opposing capital ships, turbolasers were comparatively ineffective when used against smaller, more agile starfighters.
Turbolasers functioned utilizing similar concepts as blaster armaments, changing high-energy gas into bolts of plasma, but they utilized significantly larger power generators and required multi-person crews. The power output of turbolasers could be adjusted based on mission requirements, ranging from simply disabling a target to completely vaporizing it. Legitimate warships could route almost their entire reactor output into their heavy turbolasers.
Capital ships employed turbolasers to breach the defenses of enemy capital ships or to execute orbital bombardments, which included "Base Delta Zero" strategies. During the latter stages of the Clone Wars, some turbolaser batteries, such as those installed on the Providence-class Dreadnought Invisible Hand, possessed a maximum power output equivalent to a Magnitude 10 earthquake. Similarly, the main turbolaser cannons of a Munificent-class star frigate had enough power to melt an ice moon that was 1,000 kilometers in diameter, or to penetrate the shields of a battle station that was 10 kilometers wide.
An Imperial-class Star Destroyer was capable of using its turbolasers to reduce cities to steaming craters and obliterate entire planets. The turbolasers on Imperial Star Destroyers could also penetrate at least sixty levels of subterranean structures designed to withstand earthquakes and other industrial catastrophes. An unnamed Imperial Star Destroyer was observed utilizing its turbolasers to strip the vegetation from one of Samovar's continents, causing the atmosphere to become hazy with particulates, to facilitate the extraction of the planet's resources for the Death Star's construction. During the Subjugation of Mon Calamari, only a few shots from a Star Destroyer's XX-9 heavy turbolaser battery would have been sufficient to completely destroy any of the planet's deep underwater cities. During the Batonn insurgency, Admiral Thrawn employed turbolaser fire from the Chimaera to trigger a tsunami and overwhelm the defenses of Scrim Island. When three Imperial Star Destroyers commenced bombarding Kashyyyk during its liberation, the turbolaser fire induced tectonic spasms. However, they were halted before they could fulfill their directive to eradicate all life on the planet.
Turbolaser bolts lost energy more quickly the farther they traveled, which meant that turbolasers had a limited effective range, even in the vacuum of space. The Imperial I-class Star Destroyer Chimaera's turbolaser weaponry possessed a combat range of less than 1,200 kilometers, and beyond that distance, they were unable to penetrate any substantial armor. Likewise, the heavy turbolasers of the Star Dreadnought Supremacy were unable to inflict significant damage to the shields of the Star Cruiser Raddus from a considerable distance, despite their sustained barrage. A turbolaser's effectiveness was further diminished dramatically as the bolt passed through layers of a planet's atmosphere, making them largely ineffective even against unprotected targets. However, this could be improved by positioning the ship deeper within the planet's stratosphere.
Thorilide, which was mined from the Inner Rim moon Cynda, was a crucial resource in the production of turbolaser shock absorbers.
By the time of the First Order-Resistance War, the First Order had installed kyber focusing crystals in their turbolasers to enhance their firepower and shorten their recharge time.
Numerous variations of the turbolaser existed, including the quad turbolaser cannon, the octuple turbolaser barbette, the light turbolaser, the twin light turbolaser battery, the medium turbolaser, the triple medium turbolaser, the heavy turbolaser, the twin heavy turbolaser battery, and the quad heavy turbolaser battery.
Turbolasers served as the main weapons on a variety of capital ships, most notably Star Destroyers like the Venator-class Star Destroyer, the Imperial I-class Star Destroyer, and the Resurgent-class Star Destroyer.
Other types of vessels that were equipped with turbolasers included cruisers such as the MC80 Liberty Type Heavy Star Cruisers and the Arquitens-class light cruiser, frigates such as the EF76 Nebulon-B escort frigate and the MC30c frigate, and corvettes such as the CR90 corvette and the Raider I-class corvette.
Turbolasers could also be found on space stations like the DS-1 Orbital Battle Station and the Golan I Space Defense Platform, as well as on planetside structures like the Grand Republic Medical Facility and Tantiss Base.