Venators in the Galactic Empire

[FTeik]

Venators seem to be the main destroyer at the end of the clone-wars and during the early years of the empire. A large part of their function is to act as carrier for up to four-hundred fighters.

Now, if Venators are still used at the height of the empire (there are only twenty years between the PT and the OT), do you think they still carry V-Wings and ARC-170s? TIEs are stored in racks below the ceiling, so the Venators might have some difficulties to transport and deploy those.

So what do you think happened? Did the empire scrap them, keep the old fighters or modify the Venators to transport TIEs? And if it modify the Venators for TIEs, how do you think they did it in a reasonable way?

[Dakarne]

And if it modify the Venators for TIEs, how do you think they did it in a reasonable way?

Simple, take a Venator in, modify it, rinse and repeat until they're done.

[Manus Celer Dei]

Wasn't there a ship in one of the comics that looked a lot like the Venator only with a much wider split in the middle? I always figured that the VenStar design ended up evolving into that and being used as the Empires main fighter carrier.

Now, IIRC, the V-wings were micro-fighters with a similar aim to TIEs, so they would probably be refitted to launch them instead, I would think. AFAIK, there isn't any info on how V-Wings launch, so I don't know how htey would go about refitting them.

[Edward Yee]

In my Empire of the Hand concept, Venators were redesigned to act as a "strategic" supercarrier, redesigned to base/deploy the new TIE designs and the doors were made to open/close faster, although if Venators became plentiful enough they could actually accompany Imperators as a task force's primary carrier.

[FTeik]

I'm not asking about a ship that might replace the Venator, i'm asking about the Venator being made into a TIE-carrier. It would take to long for hundreds of fighters to be launched through the small hangar-gate in the bow of the ship and V-Wings stand on the ground until the dorsal side splits up and they fly through those openings - something, that wouldn't work for TIEs since they're hanging down from the same.

[Illuminatus Primus]

I'm not asking about a ship that might replace the Venator, i'm asking about the Venator being made into a TIE-carrier. It would take to long for hundreds of fighters to be launched through the small hangar-gate in the bow of the ship and V-Wings stand on the ground until the dorsal side splits up and they fly through those openings - something, that wouldn't work for TIEs since they're hanging down from the same.

No, because the hangars are actually nestled perpendicular to the axis of the dorsal landing strip and are completely covered - thus TIEs could be mounted.

[Darth Fanboy]

Isn't it insinuated that due to flaws in the Venator design that they were phased out of service entirely? If that was the case then why adapt the Venator for TIE Fighters when the Venators would be gone soon and the TIEs just reassigned to the newer ships? Of course I don't know for certain how long it was after RoTS that TIEs were developed and how long it took for the TIEs to replace the VWings

[Edward Yee]

Perhaps the concept of a supercarrier was worth it? (I mean, perhaps designing a similar carrier, also named Venator, to carry TIEs.)

[Dakarne]

Or maybe they were just outdated and scrapped (EG: the Enterprises)

[Vympel]

I like both the Venator and Acclamator designs. Bar any explicit evidence as to them being out of service, I don't see why they'd be phased out.

[Dakarne]

I like both the Venator and Acclamator designs. Bar any explicit evidence as to them being out of service, I don't see why they'd be phased out.

The immense superiority of Star Destroyers perhaps?

I think they may have still been in use, and might have been at the battle of hoth... Just never shown on screen.

[Glimmervoid]

I like both the Venator and Acclamator designs. Bar any explicit evidence as to them being out of service, I don't see why they'd be phased out.

The Venator and Acclamator (and other Clone War ships) might be what Han was talking about when he said “I can out run stardestroys and not just the local once” (or something to that effect). If the main military role was taken over by the ISD the Clone war ships might become Glorified Police craft which Hans "local once" comment was referring to.

[Crazedwraith]

Han says: I'm not talking about your Local Bulk cruiser here, I'm talking about the big Corellian Ships.

Which is strange becuase the Empire's Big ships are Kauti.

[Dakarne]

Which is strange becuase the Empire's Big ahips are Kauti.

Maybe they also have Big Corellian Ships as well...

just a thought.

Of course, he could be talking about the point that Corellian ships are generally faster and thus: Harder to outrun.

[Firefox]

Han says: I'm not talking about your Local Bulk cruiser here, I'm talking about the big Corellian Ships.

Which is strange becuase the Empire's Big ahips are Kauti.

Weren't some of Admiral Giels' ships of CEC manufacture, particularly his command ship? Han may have had particularly bad experiences with those.

[Connor MacLeod]

The Rebel fleet in the ROTJ novel had Corellian "battleships, carriers, cruisers and destroyers and bombers", so we can conclude that the "Big Corellian ships". However, compared to KDY vessels, the Corellian ones are probably less massive and much faster. (The Corellian BB's from the novelization were mentioned to be smaller than Home One, for example..)

Corellia probably builds alot of the smaller "warships" - cruisers and destroyers and frigates, and probably some of the smaller "fast" battleships. That might explain why KDY had built only 25,000 ISDs for the Empire (Corellia built most of the rest.)

[Illuminatus Primus]

You're really a fan of the idea of CEC as an alternative shipbuilder to KDY all the time, aren't you, Connor?

[Ender]

I don't think the Venators were the main destroyer of the OR. They look to be a kind of fast response stop gap, a role which the heavier Imperator and later Endurance class also filled. I would expect the primary destroyer of the OR was the Victory class, and my suspicions are that the Tector was the big boy of the Empire, hence the limited production run of the Imperator. Of course, that is also strongly dependent on whether my ideas about the relative power between the Imperator and Tector pan out.

[Rampage]

I'll bet the VenStars are supposed to be VicStars. Victory-class Star Destroyers were in service during the Clone Wars, and served very much the same role the VenStars do. Perhaps, after the Clone Wars, the Venator's were refitted, and renamed Victory-class.

VicStars are said to excell at planitary assault, which the VenStars seem to do very well. The VSD and the VenStar also have some simillar design traits, such as a somewhat odd, elongated tower structure, and 'wing-like' structures, thou they are drastically different from eachother.

Footnotes:

Maybe VenStar became VicStar, and we're looking at canon Victory-class Star Destroyers.

[Crossroads Inc.]

Footnotes:

Maybe VenStar became VicStar, and we're looking at canon Victory-class Star Destroyers.

God I hope not!!!

I mean, it would be so like Lucas to edit out Vics totally and say that they where Vens all along. But really, Venators are nothing but glorified Carriers. They have a tone of design flaws and would not fit the roll of a dedicated Anti Capital ship needed. The only thing I can think of is that maybe later they made a non-fighter ALL warship version of the Venator that could replace the Victor class ship, but that doesn't sound too likely.

[Spanky The Dolphin]

I'll bet the VenStars are supposed to be VicStars. Victory-class Star Destroyers were in service during the Clone Wars, and served very much the same role the VenStars do. Perhaps, after the Clone Wars, the Venator's were refitted, and renamed Victory-class.

VicStars are said to excell at planitary assault, which the VenStars seem to do very well. The VSD and the VenStar also have some simillar design traits, such as a somewhat odd, elongated tower structure, and 'wing-like' structures, thou they are drastically different from eachother.

Footnotes:

Maybe VenStar became VicStar, and we're looking at canon Victory-class Star Destroyers.

Nice to see someone who's done absolutely no research whatsoever...

[FTeik]

You're really a fan of the idea of CEC as an alternative shipbuilder to KDY all the time, aren't you, Connor?

Well, the idea that CEC is one of the big three ship-building companies has to come from somewhere.

@Ender:

May i ask, how those ideas on the power of the Tector look?

[Techno_Union]

I'll bet the VenStars are supposed to be VicStars. Victory-class Star Destroyers were in service during the Clone Wars, and served very much the same role the VenStars do. Perhaps, after the Clone Wars, the Venator's were refitted, and renamed Victory-class.

VicStars are said to excell at planitary assault, which the VenStars seem to do very well. The VSD and the VenStar also have some simillar design traits, such as a somewhat odd, elongated tower structure, and 'wing-like' structures, thou they are drastically different from eachother.

Footnotes:

Maybe VenStar became VicStar, and we're looking at canon Victory-class Star Destroyers.

Not true in the slightest (as Spanky made clear). The ROTS:ICS says the following:

The hangars of the Venator-class are much larger than older Star Destroyerslike the Victory-class [...]

-Indicating that the Venator and Victory-class are seperate designs.

[nightmare]

Wasn't there a ship in one of the comics that looked a lot like the Venator only with a much wider split in the middle? I always figured that the VenStar design ended up evolving into that and being used as the Empires main fighter carrier.

Now, IIRC, the V-wings were micro-fighters with a similar aim to TIEs, so they would probably be refitted to launch them instead, I would think. AFAIK, there isn't any info on how V-Wings launch, so I don't know how htey would go about refitting them.

I believe you are referring to this. Which, you can see, is not very much like the Venator at all.

The Acclamator design has certainly become acknowledged in recent spin-off materials (Rand Ecliptic anyone?). It remains to be seen if the Venator design is going be recycled in a similar fashion.

[Ender]

@Ender:

May i ask, how those ideas on the power of the Tector look?

The Imperator is masssivly overpowered compared to where destroyers should and do fall- its in the low cruiser range. Meanwhile, the glimpse we get of the Tector shows that either the reactor is further back, or that it is internal. Its my belief that the Tector is in the high 10^24 range which is destroyer area, but the Imperators are in the low 10^25 range where cruisers fall. I think Impertors are destroyers only because of thier massive multirole capability.


At a totally unrelated note, I figured out the troop compliment of the Venator class. ROTS novel states the Vigilence was carrying 3 batallions (aka regiments), giving it a total of 6,912 troops