Capital Ships

The term capital ship refers to any armed military starship whose length is greater than 100 meters. Within this definition, very fast and maneuvrable ships or very slow and almost immobile ships were included.

Capital ships are typically designed for fleet warfare, often positioned in armadas stationed in high orbit around a strategic planet. They usually form the primary attack groups in most fleets. Their most common equipment is ship-to-ship and anti-fighter defensive weaponry, ranging from heavy ion cannons to turbolaser turrets.

They were also employed as carriers and were able to deploy starfighters, landing craft, and other resources as required.

An easy method of classifying capital ships is to use the Anaxes War College System, which attempts to introduce a standard that can be used universally, based on the ships' lengths. By this system, they can be divided into:

• Corvettes: 100 to 200 meters
• Frigates: 200 to 400 meters
• Cruisers: 400 to 600 meters
• Heavy Cruisers: 600 to 1,000 meters
• Star Destroyers: 1,000 to 2,000 meters
• Battlecruisers: 2,000 to 5,000 meters
• Dreadnaughts: over 5,000 meters

However, many other parameters must be taken into account - such as armament and intended role - and the Anaxes classifications are flexible so that it could happen quite often that a ship is moved up or down in classification.

There are also other methods in the galaxy to classify ships such as the Kuati system, the Lantillian Spacer's Brotherhood system, and the Bureau of Ships and Services system. Although these other classifications are no less important or precise than the Anaxes system, the Galactic Museum has adopted the Anaxes War College System.