Ship Designations

    What I plan to do on this page is to discuss the inconstancy of how the term cruiser is used in the some of the SW novels and a few other official sources. There are already two prominent theory's attempting to explain these problems. The first theory was created by Curtis Saxton and can be found on his website. there is also a second explanations, as far as I'm aware, has no single author and is a joint work by several debaters of ASVS.

    Curtis Saxton on his site attempts to explain the problem by saying that the differences in cruiser and frigate (for example) are caused by the manufacturers. So the Nebulon-B is made by Kuat Drive Yards and they call it a Frigate. The Carrack class Cruiser is made by Damarion Manufacturing Corporation, and for marketing reasons they call the vessel a Cruiser. This is the basis of the theory, manufacturers decide the classification of there vessel and that classification is then used by the buyer.

    My problem with this theory is that in my mind it just doesn't make sense and is rather unfulfilling. Let me explain why, lets say a maker of motorboats in the US decided to build a motorboat armed with an RPG and called it a Battleship. If the USN then bought it for spec-op missions they would not classify it as a BB. Yet according to the above theory if the USN was the Imperial Navy that's exactly what would happen. Seems rather ridiculous doesn't it?

    The next theory says that the designation changes based on the assigned mission. So an ISD operating has a flagship for a force of Carracks and Strike's is a Battleship or Battlecruiser. While if it was escorting an Executor or similar ship it would be a Destroyer.

    This is an interesting explanations and covers many instances of naming problems. I have no real problems with it's basis, other then it seems somewhat to complicated as I favor a simpler explanation. So I just don't think it's the best explanation that can be had. There is also a minor variation on this theory that says that designation has to do if the ship is operated by the Imperial Navy or Imperial Starfleet. This theory is pretty good and works fairly well, but according to this theory Carracks and Strikes would be defensive ships operated by the Starfleet, while the Navy used Star Destroyers and such for offensive operations.

    My explanation, is simple (at least I think so). To understand it first let me show the standard Naval designations in listing from smallest to largest.


Corvette
Frigate
Destroyer
Light Cruiser
Heavy Cruiser
Battle Cruiser
Battleship
Dreadnought

    There are in actuality several designations that follow dreadnought, but they are not in mainstream use, and anyway are basically just Dreadnought with prefixes such as "super," "mega" or "hyper" tacked on. This is pretty simple, now let me show you my proposed classification system.

Star Corvette
Light Star Frigate [Light Patrol Cruiser]
Heavy Star Frigate [Heavy Patrol Cruiser]
Star Destroyer
Light Star Cruiser
Heavy Star Cruiser
Star Battle Cruiser
Star Battleship
Star Dreadnought
Command Ship

    My system appears simple, and is. What's great about it is you can easily explain any ship classification and fit it in the above chart. Let me show you.
Carrack Class = Light Patrol Cruiser
Strike Class = Heavy Patrol Cruiser
Dreadnaught Class = Heavy Patrol Cruiser
Assault Class = Heavy Star Frigate
Nebulon-B Class = Light Star Frigate
Allegiance Class = Light Star Cruiser
If you can think of any other ships that you'd like me to show on my little demonstration section just E-Mail me. Now the next question is why they have two different classifications for two size ranges. I think it has to do with the role assigned to the ship design. A Carrack class and a Nebulon-B are of similar sizes but have different roles. The Carrack is designed for more independent operations, while the Nebulon-B is not made for operating alone, instead it should be part of a larger task force or fleet. So the Nebulon-B is able to devote a larger portion of it volume to weapons since it is a more specialized design then the general purpose Carrack.

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