APPENDICES II
THE NAVIES

NAVAL DESIGN

The warships used in the galaxy (ca. 0 ABY) came in almost limitless variations and designs. The principal designers of ship designers during and before the Galactic Civil War were the companies working in tandem with the Imperial Navy, such as the Kuat Drive Yards, the Corellian Engineering Corporation, and Sienar Fleet Systems.

Warships were designed with three basic principles in mind: Acceleration rates, endurance, and tactical capabilities.

Acceleration rates were governed by the capabilities of the inertial compensator(s) mounted aboard the ships, and not according to the size and power of the engines. Military-grade inertial compensators are designed to allow safe acceleration rates of over four-hundred gravities aboard capital ships, and of over six-hundred aboard strike-craft. Inertial Compensators are dangerous when used past their safety margins, and may fail without warning when pushed beyond design limits. Compensator failure is one of the most gruesome ends that all spacers dread.

Endurance is not as simple as it may seem on flimsi, for the incredible size of the known galaxy, the relative speeds of hyperdrives, and the large compliments of warships make provisioning a fleet of vessels a nightmare for the logistical officers.

Tactical capabilities are perhaps the most obvious portion of naval design, and one of the most controversial, as there is endless debate among the designers and tacticians about the ideal warship design.

In the days of the Clone Wars, starfighter carriers dominated naval warfare, and all contemporary tactics involved force projection and starfighter sorties. In the days of the Galactic Civil War, however, starfighter carriers had fallen out of favor as anything more than a distraction, and the navies of the interstellar powers were dominated by battleships and battlecruisers.

NAVAL DOCTRINE

Naval doctrines in the time of the Galactic Civil War were varied, but the basic premise remains unvaried through both time and space: The denial of space superiority to the enemy.

Denial of space superiority could be achieved through numerous methods, but the surest method was the destruction of the enemy naval forces in battle.

The respective navies of the First Galactic Empire and the Alliance to Restore the Republic used naval doctrines that, by necessity, contrasted each other's.

The Empire's naval doctrine is unique, as the military leadership in the Imperial Navy did not believe there was a significant military force in the galaxy that could challenge them, and, as of 10 BBY, that assumption was proven correct in the Pravda Skirmishes.

The Empire's forces were, thus, on a whole, dedicated to peacekeeping roles, and commanders were trained in civilian control operations more than combat scenarios against equally well-armed foes. The lack of fleet combat training in Imperial officers have led to staggering losses from tactical blunders.

Perhaps nowhere is the modern Imperial Navy's doctrine more perfectly epitomized than in Imperial Communiqué #001044.92v, also known as the Tarkin Doctrine, which led to the production of superweapons and planetoid-sized battlestations. In keeping with prior Imperial doctrines, the Tarkin Doctrine was not designed to combat external threats of comparable size and effectiveness to the Imperial Navy, but instead to keep potentially rebellious sectors and star systems in line.

After the defection of Thrawn, and the death of Grand Moff Tarkin, the Tarkin Doctrine slowly fell out of favor with the Imperial High Command. Though, one of the side-effects of the Tarkin Doctrine—the construction of thousands, and occasionally millions, of lightweight low-cost warships—has remained popular in the Navy.

The Alliance's naval doctrine is less unique than that of the Empire, being descended from a long lineage of practitioners of a stateless strategy, and is far less dogmatic than their opponents'.

A practitioner of a stateless strategy out of necessity from it's inception, the Alliance Navy was plagued with disjointed leadership throughout its early years. The majority of flag officers had been trained in the Imperial Navy, and had been taught that tactical warfare was a grinding, attrition-based affair. This contrasted sharply with the need for a stateless strategy, and led to many defeats for the early Alliance.

Once firm, centralized control of the Navy was established under Thrawn, the Alliance's tactical doctrine was changed to match it's strategic doctrines. Maneuver warfare, multi-layered deceptions, and innovative uses of interdiction fields were the highlights of the Alliance's tactical doctrines.

Once the Empire of the Hand joined the war in Thrawn's second year, intervening at the Admiral's behest, strategic doctrines were changed slightly, as the resources of the Empire of the Hand allowed the Alliance to fight on an equal strategic footing with the Empire. Because of this, the strategic doctrine of a stateless strategy became impossible to maintain, and the capture of strategic hyperlanes became the focus of their strategic plans, forcing the Imperial forces into fortress-world choke-points.

The Galactic Civil War would forever change Naval doctrine, and would remain relevant until the collapse of the Fel Empire.

NAVAL WEAPONRY

The long-range shipkiller at the outset of the Galactic Civil War was the torpedo, capable of maximum accelerations as high as 2,000 gravities, and are typically fitted with defensive ECM, shield penetrators (of varying effectiveness,) and a proton warhead.

Because of the limited acceleration time of torpedoes, their maximum velocity is almost always under the speed of light, making them trackable by sensor systems, and destroyable by anti-missile systems.

Anti-missile systems are usually split between medium-range anti-missile missiles which use kinetic kill warheads, and a mixed battery of turbolasers and lighter plasma cannons to destroy incoming missiles. Kinetic cannons are occasionally used, but multi-use turbolasers have replaced them aboard modern warships.

Energy weapons come in all shapes and sizes, but can be roughly categorized into two types; directed-energy, and bolted.

Directed-energy weapons are rare in modern naval warfare, as, while they are lightspeed weapons, the energy input to output ratio is lower than modern plasma cannons. In Xim the Despot's time, directed-energy weapons were the mainstay of capital warships, but they have fallen out of favor for the reasons stated above, as well as improvements in shielding technology. They have recently made a resurgence, as the main armament of the DS-1-class battlestation, and similar Imperial superweapons.

Bolted weapons are almost exclusively plasmatic in nature, using superhated tibanna gas to generate highly volatile plasma, and utilizing a magnetic bolt to contain the plasma. The magnetic bolt acts as a sabot of a sort, allowing electromagnetic acceleration coils to grab it, and launch it at high speeds.

Unlike kinetic weapons, (torpedoes and kinetic cannons,) bolted weapons have a maximum range determined by the speed of the degradation of the magnetic containment bolt.