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The Strike-class cruiser was a medium cruiser designed by the Loronar Corporation during the Galactic Civil War for the Imperial Navy as a general-purpose vessel capable of modular modifications to allow it to fit many missions profiles, yet cheap enough to be produced in large quantities.
A departure from the Navy's trend towards increasingly large warships, the Strike-class cruiser was an admission to diminished ability to defend space superiority against the Rebel Alliance and other "rogue" forces as the conflict wore on. While closer to a frigate in size, the 450-meter long Strike-class was capable of challenging larger Alliance cruisers with its surprisingly heavy load of firepower, strong shields and high sublight speed. The Order of Battle considered two Strike-class cruisers the equivalent of one Victory-class Star Destroyer.
In addition, the interior storage space of the Strike-class could be modified for different missions. The most common sets were designed for planetary garrison, space superiority, and planetary assault. Planetary garrison loadouts included an assault company, two AT-STs, one AT-AT and several support speeders; space superiority included three squadrons of fighters; the planetary assault loadout included five AT-ATs.
Ironically, the one big disadvantage of the Strike-class cruiser was a side-effect of it's biggest advantage. Due to the modular design of the ship, a single, well-placed hit could shut down entire systems or weapon batteries if the densely arrayed power connectors between two sections of the ship are damaged. If the ship suffers too many critical hits by large-impact weapons (such as proton torpedos or heavy turbolasers), it was also possible that it might simply break apart, losing large portions of its structure. By the time the ship was introduced into full naval service this was only considered to be a minor flaw, as the Empire had enough resources to replenish damaged or lost components which were considered "disposable" at that point of time.
However, as the war raged on and large starships started to become valued commodities, the Imperial Navy felt the need to make this otherwise reliable, versatile and thus tactically important class of cruisers more durable, which resulted in reinforcing the connections between the cruiser's basic integral structure and the attached modules in order to prevent easy break-off's. Still, these spots remain the most vulnerable parts of the Strike-class, and pilots and commanders alike on both sides of the Galactic Civil War have adapted their tactics to deal with this knowledge.
Notes[]
The Strike cruiser is manufactured under license from Loronar by Rendili StarDrive.
| Strike-class Medium Cruiser |
| In Imperial Navy Service HIMS Broadsword |HIMS Flail |HIMS Warhammer | HIMS Ravager |
| In Service Elsewhere CSAV Authority |