The Eclipse class

[Connor MacLeod]

As I recall the Black yards werne't top secret or unique.. they were part of a network of yards the Empire had established throughout its territories (sources indicate they liked to have at least two major and a number of minor yards available.. I dont know if it included "commercial" yards but I never got the impression it did - they were all meant to be hyperspace capable and somewhat modular (like the Black Yards, or the construciton ships depicted in the ISB).

It could be that these yards were primarily meant to repair/refurbish/upgrade the fleet and keep it running, perhaps building smaller warships and craft as need be (but with the ability to build fairly major ships like ISDs and SSDs if need be). I would imagine that in such a case the Empire would license the designs/tech behind them (its not like KDY is going to refuse Palpy - they were trying their damndest to stay OUT of Palpy's clutches that they went so far on at least one occasion to construct an entire fleet free of charge to please Palpatine..) or whoever was building them (Corellia is likely another big supplier at least on the major warship front - they're as big and as wlel known as KDY, anyhow...)

[Connor MacLeod]

Anyhow, as far as the delays with the Eclipse go, as I remember it was built by KDY people (so it probably was a contract job, perhaps with some Imperial supervision) but did have the same problems the DS1 had - delays and distractions and stuff that solwed down the building. Corruption almost certainly was an issue too - the Much of the Palpy-era Imperial systme thrived on corruption and black projects and whatnot. We like to talk about how FAST things got built by the Empire when it comes to the DS1 and DS2 and assume that does mean the benchmark, but in reality its probably alot more complicated than that, and things got slowed down or complicated by issues. (I remembe reading shipbuilding could take years due to corruption and stuff like that.) In alot of ways I tend to think of the Imperial military industrial complex echoing the US's in that regard. Which in turn probably also helps to explain the supposeldy "small" fleet sizes relative to what their industrial capability can do (They don't NEED that many warships.. the Imperial Navy is more of a political/economic tool than anything at this point - who can really threaten the Empire???)

[Thanas]

As I recall the Black yards werne't top secret or unique.. they were part of a network of yards the Empire had established throughout its territories (sources indicate they liked to have at least two major and a number of minor yards available.. I dont know if it included "commercial" yards but I never got the impression it did - they were all meant to be hyperspace capable and somewhat modular (like the Black Yards, or the construciton ships depicted in the ISB).

As far as I know they were secret, but more due to the fact that the Rebels never got their hands on an Imperial OrBat.

It could be that these yards were primarily meant to repair/refurbish/upgrade the fleet and keep it running, perhaps building smaller warships and craft as need be (but with the ability to build fairly major ships like ISDs and SSDs if need be).

You are correct, that is the case. They were able to build ISDs, but not SSDs - these were shipped there only to provide last-minute refurbishing to free up space in the real construction yards. At least that is what the first book in the Trilogy says.