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The Bulk Cruiser--is there actually a use for it?

The bulk cruiser in the books, games and other sources appears to be an utter waste of resources. Why would anyone buy, contsruct or use one of these things?

The appear to have less firepower than a Correlian Corvette yet are bigger, slower and seem to be utter pieces of junk.

Other than be left over from years before, what are they good for. They are too slow to catch smugglers, hence why Han would make sure to mention he can out run an Imperial Cruiser but not bulk cruisers.

Maybe they're some antiquated clone wars or earlier ship that got pensioned off to the outer rim 'Not your local bulk cruisers, the big corellian ships.'

The 'Bulk Crusier' may be a cheep, non-military hull given armor, sheilds, a bigger reactor and heavy weapons, a bulk Freighter like the Lucrehulk. This would be a way to get a warship without paying Kuat Drive Yard's prices for a chop job you can do in system for a pocket warship that can serve to defend your mid-level sector capitol. However, certain design concessions have to be made and it can't make significant Gs, probably not more than 500.

That's one possible interpretation of the name, another might be that it's a cheeply produced 'Crusier' that is produced in massive numbers and sold to outer rim governments, kinda like an AK-47 in third world countries.

Isn't the various bulk cruisers supposed to be cargo vessels that have enough guns to not need an escort?

Lower cost?

The bulk cruiser, I think, bears a similarity to the armed merchant cruisers of the last century. It's probable that they were used as the Allies used them in a convoy escort role, especially by minor governments in the outer rim who wouldn't be able to get purpose-built escort ships like the Nebulon-B.

There are larger correlian vessels in existance (correllian frigates, light frigates etc).

Also wasn't the solo quote that he could outrun both ships, not that they were more/less powerful I can't remember. Also Warlords mod makes them effective against fighters, whether that has any truth im not sure.

The first appearance of Bulk Cruisers in the EU was TTT, where in tandem with a Neb-B it escorted a convoy, in the book it was used as an escort carrier, which doesn't seem too far fetched when the typical convoy only has to worry about pirates using ships like the Bulk Cruiser and other frigate or lesser ships most of which are old and obsolete. The fighters and quad turbolasers of a Bulk Cruiser are enough to deal with anything smaller than a Destroyer.

LeftWingExtremist wrote:There are larger correlian vessels in existance (correllian frigates, light frigates etc).

Also wasn't the solo quote that he could outrun both ships, not that they were more/less powerful I can't remember. Also Warlords mod makes them effective against fighters, whether that has any truth im not sure.

No the Solo quote implies he thinks anyone can outrun a local 'Bulk Cruiser' so he make sure that in his boast they aren't thinking of one of those things. "Not your local bulk cruisers" implies that Han has uter contempt for the ships in general.

Well, to make things more complicated, you have them Bulk cruisers in Rebellion and X-wing Alliance. What are those? They hardly look like dedicated warships but..

Isolder74 wrote:

LeftWingExtremist wrote:There are larger correlian vessels in existance (correllian frigates, light frigates etc).

Also wasn't the solo quote that he could outrun both ships, not that they were more/less powerful I can't remember. Also Warlords mod makes them effective against fighters, whether that has any truth im not sure.

No the Solo quote implies he thinks anyone can outrun a local 'Bulk Cruiser' so he make sure that in his boast they aren't thinking of one of those things. "Not your local bulk cruisers" implies that Han has uter contempt for the ships in general.

Point but still there are larger "correllian ships" like cc9600s and Starwarswiki does mention things like "corellian battlships", "corellian cruisers" and "corellian frigates". So im sure the vessels he mentions can be all types of ships. Not to mention how tough corellian gunships are for their size.

If a Bulk Cruiser is all that you can afford then yes there is a use for it. It might be slower than a Corellein Corvette but it will have a longer range and more staying power if nothing else than for its greater size.

LeftWingExtremist wrote:Point but still there are larger "correllian ships" like cc9600s and Starwarswiki does mention things like "corellian battlships", "corellian cruisers" and "corellian frigates".

To be technical, that comes from the ROTJ novel, which lists: Corellian battleships, cruisers, destroyers, carriers, bombers

LeftWingExtremist wrote:Point but still there are larger "correllian ships" like cc9600s and Starwarswiki does mention things like "corellian battlships", "corellian cruisers" and "corellian frigates". So im sure the vessels he mentions can be all types of ships. Not to mention how tough corellian gunships are for their size.

CC-9600's are much smaller than either Battle Horn, Neutron Star, or Quasar Fire Bulk Cruisers.

nightmare wrote:

LeftWingExtremist wrote:Point but still there are larger "correllian ships" like cc9600s and Starwarswiki does mention things like "corellian battlships", "corellian cruisers" and "corellian frigates". So im sure the vessels he mentions can be all types of ships. Not to mention how tough corellian gunships are for their size.

CC-9600's are much smaller than either Battle Horn, Neutron Star, or Quasar Fire Bulk Cruisers.

Well im not saying that correllian ships are larger, im just saying that the gap in terms of firepower may be smaller than some people may imagine. But I agree for their size bulk cruisers are pathetic in terms of firepower (although I think the quasar is a carrier).

Again starwarswiki says that the ship is mainly armed with "laser cannons" which I assume are anti starfighter point defence weapons. Thats said if I was going for anti-starfighter defence i'd rather something like a good nebulon B or lancer (will the empire let a militia have one of those?).

Aren't they effective as aircraft carriers? Pellaeon mentioned that they would be effective as that in the beginning of Dark Force Rising, easily able to carry 3 squadrons.

3 squadrons in a 600-m ship isn't very "effective" for a carrier.

Bulk cruisers aren't very good warships, but they're not supposed to be. They're basically armed cargo ships that can escort themselves. The Rebel Alliance Sourcebook says that these ships are mostly used by planetary defense forces and corporate fleets. Even the Rebels don't think very highly of these ships, since they can't be depended on in battle against the Imperial Navy.

Jim Raynor wrote:3 squadrons in a 600-m ship isn't very "effective" for a carrier.

it is in the SW verse where very few ships have more then 6 Squadrons of fighters at best.

The Venator and Saxton giving it a huge amount of fighters non withstanding, in the classic era, capital warships even of ISD size didn't have THAT many fighters.

And the ship wasn't DESIGNED to carry 3 squadrons of fighters, it was a conversion by the Rebels/New Republic to turn them into a cheap carrier. The only time we really see this is in TTT, specifically I think in DFR to "counter ambush" any ambush on the convoy.

Which is in turn declared useless when the fighters inside the Bulk Cruiser are A-Wings and not X-Wings cause A-Wings are too fast and maneuverable to be effective convoy escorts...

Anyway. I always thought of Bulk Cruisers as a poor mans armed bulk freighter. Much larger then the typical shipping freighters and with enough weapons to at least make the average pirate with a handful of starfighters and a transport or two think twice, but really the concept didn't hold up with the increasing firepower people had to bring to bear against convoys. Hence the introduction of the Nebulon B frigate in the escort role. Nativly carries two squadrons of fighters, with enough turbolasers to drive off light starships like blockade runners and armed civilian craft, with enough laser cannons to provide point defense for the convoy and itself.

Then the Rebels thought 'well we've got to do something with these POS's, what about a light carrier?'

Chris OFarrell wrote:

Jim Raynor wrote:3 squadrons in a 600-m ship isn't very "effective" for a carrier.

it is in the SW verse where very few ships have more then 6 Squadrons of fighters at best.

Most of those ships aren't dedicated carriers though. They're combat ships that also carry fighters. For something like the Bulk cruiser carrier modification, carrying fighters is ALL it's supposed to be good for, so IMO it should be pretty damn good at the carrier role if it's to be deemed an "effective" carrier.

I've always thought of them simply as armed transports as their modular underbelly always reminded me of the modular underbelly on the rebel transports that were used at Hoth.

Running with the idea of modifying them into light carriers however seems sensible enough to me, it can't be that hard to replace modular and detachable cargo pods with bolted on landing bays like was done with the transport/carrier at Bakura.

Jim Raynor wrote:3 squadrons in a 600-m ship isn't very "effective" for a carrier.

true, but they aren't horrible for a ship either. It's better than nothing.

Bulk cruisers aren't very good warships, but they're not supposed to be. They're basically armed cargo ships that can escort themselves. The Rebel Alliance Sourcebook says that these ships are mostly used by planetary defense forces and corporate fleets. Even the Rebels don't think very highly of these ships, since they can't be depended on in battle against the Imperial Navy.

True. I wonder what would happen if they were modified to be better warships.

Warsie wrote:

Jim Raynor wrote:3 squadrons in a 600-m ship isn't very "effective" for a carrier.

true, but they aren't horrible for a ship either. It's better than nothing.

Bulk cruisers aren't very good warships, but they're not supposed to be. They're basically armed cargo ships that can escort themselves. The Rebel Alliance Sourcebook says that these ships are mostly used by planetary defense forces and corporate fleets. Even the Rebels don't think very highly of these ships, since they can't be depended on in battle against the Imperial Navy.

True. I wonder what would happen if they were modified to be better warships.

I think the main problem is they are so old that it cost so much to tear them apart and rebuild them from the bottom up that its a better use of limited recources to just build a new ship rather than fix one of the things up.

Isolder74 wrote:I think the main problem is they are so old that it cost so much to tear them apart and rebuild them from the bottom up that its a better use of limited recources to just build a new ship rather than fix one of the things up.

true as well. Also, what about the MC40s being modified, they were smaller....and it was more complicated as each cruiser was highly individualized (good in a way for combat, the enemy doesn't know how to shoot but it is bad after combat with fixing specialized damage, but it depends on the crew. If the crew has been on the ship for some time, it's okay)

But you're right. Thank you

Warsie wrote:

Isolder74 wrote:I think the main problem is they are so old that it cost so much to tear them apart and rebuild them from the bottom up that its a better use of limited recources to just build a new ship rather than fix one of the things up.

true as well. Also, what about the MC40s being modified, they were smaller....and it was more complicated as each cruiser was highly individualized (good in a way for combat, the enemy doesn't know how to shoot but it is bad after combat with fixing specialized damage, but it depends on the crew. If the crew has been on the ship for some time, it's okay)

But you're right. Thank you

You mean MC-80's? MC-40's were I think light cruiser that were good at their job of being light cruisers. The idea that they were pleasure ships is a bit silly and Its generally thought that Mon Cal Ships are actually purpose built warships anyway.

I always figured frrom ANH that a Bulk cruiser was a cheap, mass produced, and second rate starship (military or otherwise) that was considered inferior compared to top of the line vessels (the "big Corellian ships", or Star Destroyers) It would make sense you'd see them in local defense fleets or backwater navies.

I also suspect that "bulk cruiser" is a catch-all term for different kinds of vessels along those lines.

IIRC the Daley novels have something called a "pocket cruiser" which is kinda along those same functions (and spirit, I believe.)