THE WING COMMANDER ANNOUNCES MAJOR SHIP UPGRADES AND COMMAND CHANGES

In order to keep up with the ever growing size of the Emperor's Hammer, the Wing Commander has petitioned Emperor Palpatine to allow the Emperor's Hammer to use the third Super Class Star Destroyer (Executor Class) as its flagship. Since the third of four Super Star Destroyers (SSD) has just been completed and the Emperor has forseen yet undisclosed future uses for the Hammer, he has approved the request. As reflected in the Flight Roster, the ISD Avenger, which is being retired after a long and distinguished career, will be replaced by the SSD Avenger, her namesake, which will continue as the Emperor's Hammer Flagship.

In addition, the frigates FRG Ardent and FRG Imperator will be replaced with more combat worthy Victory Class Star Destroyers, the VSD Formidable and the VSD Monitor, respectively. Finally, at the request of the Flight Officer and in honor of the recently deceased General FoxyRoxy, the Wing Commander has replaced the INT Harpax II with the more versatile Task Force Cruiser (TFC) Roxanna. The TFC Roxanna is a prototype modular cruiser with the ability to carry alternate payloads to accomodate different mission objectives. The replacement of the ISD Avenger with the SSD Avenger, has resulted in the creation of 6 additional Squadrons for the Emperor's Hammer. These are detailed in the Flight Roster Section of this Newsletter.

The TIE Fighter Squadrons currently stationed on the ISD, FRGs and TFC will be immediately transferred for Active Duty...In addition, the Flight Officer has been given authority to begin filling the expansion Squadrons...Finally, all of the TIE Squadrons in the Emperor's Hammer have been upgraded to the latest Imperial Fighters available.

Finally, the Wing Commander has created a Command Flight (CF) to consist of the four Command Officers:

The four Command Officers each command one of the capital ships, as detailed in the Flight Roster Section of this Newsletter. In addition, these officers have the option of choosing the type of fighter they may fly (primarily restricted to ceremonial events). As presented in TIE Fighter (LucasArts, 1994), the highest Naval rank a TIE Pilot may obtain is General.

To fill their vacant Squadron Commander positions, the Wing Commander has made several Squadron Commander appointments and transfers. ALL Members are revised to review the Flight Roster Section of this Newsletter in detail.

The following presents the capabilities of our new ships, as presented in the Imperial Sourcebook (West End Games, by Greg Gorden, West End Games, 1989) and the Dark Empire Sourcebook (West End Games, by Michael Allen Horne, West End Games, 1993, pp. 92-93):

Super Star Destroyer

The newly commissioned flagship for
the Emperor's Hammer Fleet, the SSD Avenger...
(Photo: Zach EXCO, 11/94)

Except for the Death Star battle station, the Super-class Star Destroyer is the largest warship ever constructed. Five times the length of an Imperial Star Destroyer, each carries more than a quarter million troops and crew. Over 1,000 turbolaser batteries, ion cannons, and tractor beam emplacements dot the eight kilometer length. These vessels are like a fleet unto themselves. Twelve squadrons of TIE class fighters await within the huge confines of the massive ship. Other carried vessels bring the total aboard the Super Star Destroyer to over 200 ships. Even more weapons of destruction are within the Super Star Destroyer, including a full corp of stormtroopers and other soldiers, 25 AT-AT walkers, 50 AT-STs,and various other ground assault vehicles. In addition, the ship carries three pre-fabricated garrison bases for immediate deployment. The Super-class Star Destroyer is the dream of the Emperor and the epitome of his new navy. It represents the best and newest vessel available in the Imperial inventory. It is a command ship, a spacegoing headquarters from which to guide planetary invasions,space battles, and the like. Four of these massive vessels are now in service. The first, Executor,was presented to Lord Darth Vader by the Emperor to serve as his personal flagship.

Craft: KDY's Executor
Type: Super-class Star Destroyer
Length: 8,000 meters
Crew: 280,734
Troops: 38,000
Weapons: 250 Turbolaser Batteries, 250 Heavy Turbolaser Batteries, 250 Concussion Missile
Tubes, 250 Ion Cannons, 40 Tractor Beam Emplacements
Starfighters: 12 squadrons Consisting of various TIE-class Ships(TIE-Interceptors, TIE-
Defenders, TIE-Advanced,TIE Bombers)and others( Assault Gunboats,Missile Boats). 2 wings
with the total of 144 fighters.

Victory Star Destroyer

The VSD Schematic
(E-Mailed by EmpSeverus, 4/95)

Technological advancements is a byproduct of war. The battle-marred era marked by the Clone Wars saw the creation of bigger, faster, more heavily armed and armored combat vessels. The best of this bumper crop was the Victory-class Star Destroyer. Designed by Republic engineer Walex Blissex, the Victory was commisioned into service as the wars were drawing to a close. Consequently, though these ships saw little action during the wars, they formed the bulk of the Republic Navy for years following. For a time it seemed these vessels would be replaced by the larger, newer Imperial-class Destroyers, but since the Rebellion moved into full swing the Victory has served in the defence of the Empire. The Victory Star Destroyer carries out three standard mission types: planetary defence, planetary assault and troop support, and ship-to-ship combat. It is much better at the first two than the latter. One of these vessel's most powerful advantages is the ability to enter the upper levels of a planets atmosphere-something the newer Star Destroyers cannot do. This permits precision ground attacks and the pursuit of smaller craft hoping to escape by diving toward planet. The Victory-class vessel's main deficiency is its slow sublight speed. However, it does have rapid hyperspace capabilities and can make jumps quickly. To augment its slow speed, the Victory carries two TIE Fighter Squadrons.

Craft: Rendili StarDrive's Victory I
Type: Victory-class Star Destroyer
Length: 900 meters
Crew: 5,200
Troops: 2,040
Weapons: 10 Quad Turbolaser Batteries, 40 Double Turbolaser Batteries, Concussion Missiles,
10 Tractor Beam Projectors
Starfighters: 2 Squadrons of TIE-class Fighters for a total of 24
Cargo Capacity: 8,100 metric tons

Task Force Cruiser

When one thinks of the Imperial starfleet, the great Star Destroyers, Dreadnaughts and other warships of the line come easily to mind. Important as they are, no less needed are the uncounted support vessels that maintain Imperial presence and perform the less glorious tasks of the Navy. Chief among these ships are the hospital cruisers, communications ships and survey cruisers.

Previously, the Empire maintained thousands of each different type of craft. The sector and oversector Navy worlds had to carry dozens of support ships to cover any contingency. Colony exploration might require survey or first contact ships. Spy cruisers were always useful for monitoring pirates and potential Rebel activity. Many ships weren't in common use, but it was better to have too many ships than not enough. Still, it took money from warship production.

Following a report on streamlining fleet operations, a new approach was urged and from proposals, Tagge Industries won the contract and construction began in earnest. The result was the modular taskforce cruiser. Realizing the underlying design for many of these craft is very similar, rather than make the same ship over for new fuctions, the design was a ship that could be reconfigured as needed. The cruiser boasts a single framework, including engines, skeleton crew quarters, life support system and command compartments. Interchangeable modules with mission specific equipment can be added as necessary. With only a day at a space station or orbital facility, a hospital cruiser can be transformed into a long range scout or mining survey explorer.

The cruiser's weaponry is quite light for a ship of this size, but the cruiser's main mission is not combat, but support. In dangerous situations, a group of these cruisers will often have an armed escort.

Craft: Tagge Industries Shipyards Ltd. Modular Taskforce Cruiser
Type: Multi-task medium transport
Scale: Capital
Length: 1,150 meters
Crew: Varies according to mission profile
Passengers: Varies according to mission profile
Cargo Capacity: Varies according to mission profile
Consumables: 6 months
Cost: 2.5 million (base cruiser), additional cost for individual modules
Nav Computer: Yes
Atmosphere: 280, 800 KMH
Sensors: Standard sensor suite; more advanced sensors can be installed as needed
Weapons: 15 Medium Turbolasers

Mission Function Modules

Each individual mission function module is an entirely self-contained unit. The module need only be attached to the skeleton and be hooked into the power generators, life support and communications ports.

Each ship can only contain one module at a time. It is believed that Tagge Industries is working on mini-modules so a ship can be outfitted for a variety of smaller-scale functions.

Typical Mission Function modules (MFMs) are as follows:

Hospital Module

Crew: 225 doctors, 400 nurses, 1,500 medical technicians, 1,000 medical droids
Passengers: 2,750 (bacta tanks), 1,000 (quarantine ward), 19,600 patients
Cargo Capacity: 5,000 metric tons
Cost: 750,000 credits
Capsule: The hospital module is used in planetary disasters, anti-terrorist clenup functions and
space battle recovery. The hospital module can handle any number of disasters from combat, to
radiation leaks. Equipment includes thousands of medpacs, repulsorlift stretchers, five shuttles
for transporting casualties and a centralized medical computer.

Survey Module

Crew: 2,000 scouts, 1,500 techs, 5,000 droids
Cost: 1 million credits
Capsule: This module is used for the rapid exploration of planets and entire systems. Besides
the crew, the module contains over 100 observation airspeeders for rapid surveys, 500
exploration droids, and five skipray blastboats and six TIE bombers for defense. The module
has a centralized computer for quick analysis of all gathered data. this module and its crew can
completely analyze a planet within a standard 24 hour day and determine likely colony sites,
mineral and agricultural resources. The computer and its techs can also calculate likely
astrogation routes from any nearby trade routes.

Observation Module

Crew: 1,550 intelligence officers and comscan specialists
Cost: 6.3 million credits
Capsule: This module is used for espionage and long range observation for intelligence
gathering. The cruiser itself does not infiltrate into enemy territory sinced it would be easily
detected by enemy sensors. Instead, the ship is equipped with 500 probots and observation
droids, which are deployed around the perimeter of enemy holdings for passive observation.
The probots can run the standard light/energy spectrum analysis and eavesdropping on
communications frequencies. Some specially equipped (and very expensive) probots can scan
very localized hyperspace and cross-channeled radiation (as is used with the planetary security
net). With the subspace link-up, the probots can be deployed up to 30 light years away and still
have instantaneous communication with the cruiser. The ship has 12 TIE fighters for defense.

Rescue Module

Crew: 140 doctors, 2,130 techs
Cargo Capacity: 40,000 metric tons
Cost: 500,000 credits (plus parts)
Capsule: The rescue module is used for space battle cleanup and repair. When a cruiser is
dispatched to a battle scene, it is loaded with a variety of replacement parts for the ships that
were involved in the battle. Doctors search any wrecks that weren't already checked for
survivors (presumably a hospital ship is sent with these ships to the battle scene). The primary
mission of the techs is to repair what ships they can so that they can be flown back to dockyards
for complete repairs (naturally, only drive systems and life support systems are repaired at this
stage). Those ships that can not be repaired are analyzed and the techs note what must be done
to the ship so that it can be returned to the nearest Imperial Shipyard. Military planners at the
shipyard will then determine whether repairs will be attempted or simply scuttled.

Inquisition Module

Crew: 100 Inquisitors, 3,600 CompForce/observation staff, 10,000 interrogation droids
Cost: 425,000 credits
Capsule: This module is the most recent addition and it is used for punitive actions against
insurgents and rebellious worlds. Aboard the module's cavernous cargo holds are 15,000 pre-
fabricated disintegration chambers, two garrison bases, an Orbital DataNet Eraser unit, probes
with sterilization spores, five cluster bombs with magnetapulse bombs (see page 67 of the
Imperial Sourcebook) and a complete orbital nightcloak system.

Wing Commander's Notes:

The TFC Roxanna, attached to the Emperor's Hammer Fleet, is currently outfitted with the Observation Module. ALL of the other modules are docked at the PLT Daedalus in case they are needed for rapid deployment.