"Strike cruiser" is a term used by the Klingon Defense Force (among others) for some mid-range starships, smaller and less versatile than mainline capital ships, but more able to act as a cruiser in combat situations when compared to than mere scouting or patrol ships. They tend to be most effective when operating in groups or supporting larger vessels.
The equivalent terms used by the Federation Starfleet would probably be "light cruiser" or "destroyer".
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|---|---|
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| Alphanumeric | I • II • III • IV • V • VI • VII • VIII • IX • X • XI • XII • XIII • XIV • XV • XVI |
In starship classification, a strike cruiser is a type of cruiser that is designed to penetrate enemy formations to strike at critical targets.
Following the Dominion War Starfleet planned to create a variant of heavy cruisers, tentatively referred to as "strike cruisers" that made use of the latest developments in propulsion technology and design to produce heavy cruisers that had the performance more akin to a standard cruiser in terms of speed and manoeuvrability. (Spacedock: The Advanced Starship and Construction Manual)
The Romulan Star Navy used vessels that it classified as strike cruisers, which were roughly equivalent to the Starfleet version. They also used the swift cruiser designation for vessels that were similar to strike cruisers. (Ship Recognition Manual, Volume 5: Starships of the Romulan Star Empire)
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| Strike-class medium cruiser | |
|---|---|
| Production information | |
| Manufacturer | |
| Model |
Strike-class medium cruiser[1] |
| Class | |
| Technical specifications | |
| Length |
450 meters[1] |
| Height/depth |
90 meters |
| Maximum acceleration |
4 MGLT/s[2] |
| MGLT |
17 MGLT[2] |
| Hyperdrive rating | |
| Shielding |
1600 SBD[2] |
| Hull |
768 RU[2] |
| Armament |
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| Complement |
Depending on configuration: |
| Crew | |
| Passengers |
340 troops[1] |
| Cargo capacity |
6,000 metric tons[1] |
| Consumables |
1.5 years[1] |
| Usage | |
| Role(s) | |
| Era(s) | |
| Affiliation | |
The Strike-class medium cruiser was a medium star 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 mission profiles, yet cheap enough to be produced in large quantities.
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While 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 up to three squadrons of TIEs; the planetary assault loadout included five AT-AT. However, the internal storage spaces and skeletal structure proved weak against enemy fire once the shields were down.
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 forces as the conflict wore on.
During the campaign against rogue TIE Defender technology in the Eva-T system, the Strike Cruiser was used by four factions; loyalist Imperials commanded by Thrawn, the traitor Zaarin, the Rneekii, and the Nami.
Ironically, the one big disadvantage of the Strike-class cruiser was a side effect of its 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 were damaged. If the ship suffered too many critical hits by large-impact weapons (such as proton torpedoes 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 that were considered "disposable" at that time.
However, as the war raged on and large starships started to become a rare sight, the Imperial Remnant 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 decouplings. Nevertheless, these spots remained the most vulnerable parts of the Strike-class, and pilots and commanders on both sides of the Galactic Civil War adapted their tactics to deal with this knowledge.
At least one Strike-class cruiser, Peregrine, was modified by the Rebel Alliance with two large, bulbous housings for gravity well projectors, which were removed from a captured Imperial Interdictor cruiser. This ship was designated by the Rebels as a modified strike cruiser.
The Strike-class cruiser was also redesigned to produce the Eidolon for Sate Pestage, but this prototype never went into full production.
In Polish translations of various Star Wars novels, Strike-class Cruiser is called simply krążownik uderzeniowy (uderzeniowy is adverb form of uderzenie - strike), which refers to the ship role, not the class of particular Loronar design. In every case, name krążownik uderzeniowy refers to the Loronar Strike-class Cruiser precisely. This is probably translator error (not paying attention to the capital letters) or it occurs due the fact, that Uderzenie (thus Krążownik Klasy Uderzenie which is literal translation of the Strike-class Cruiser) is both phonetically and semantically not suitable for naming the ship class, while adverb form is acceptable.
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