Venaor Star Destroyer, Imperial Complement?

I know that the Venator was phased out of production in favour of the Imperial/Imperator-class Star Destroyer, but I imagine that there would still be many V/SDs left in service, ala Victory-class. I was just wondering what you guys think that the Venator would carry, fighterwise:

Republic V/SD

192 V-19 "Torrents" or Alpha-3 Nimbus "V-wing" Starfighters
192 Eta-2 Actis Interceptors (Jedi Interceptors)
36 ARC-170 Starfighters

So I'm guessing

Empire V/SD
382 TIE Starfighters (T/F) (Including Basic TIE variants such as TIE/gt's, TIE/fc's etc. Maybe even a few TIE Interceptor squadrons, but I would imagine that these would be few and far between)
36 TIE Bombers (T/B)

or Maybe

382 TIE Starfighters, Bombers and Interceptors (Various models)
36 Xg-1 Starwings "Assault Gunboats" (GUN) or Skipray Blastboats

What do you guys think?

 

Empire at War seems to be implying that the Venators were retired from duty circa several years before the Battle of Yavin.

 

I haven't read it, but I heard there were Venators in the Jabiim story arc of Star Wars: Empire.

 

Why shouldn't they keep the original fighter-complement?

 

Because the Empire had phased out all other fighter craft to make way for the TIE series. It makes sense that they should do the same for the Venator complement.

 

^ Not necessarily. Post-RotJ they use I-7 Howlrunners, A-9 vigilances, and Sorosuub Preybirds at times. Also, remember that the X-wing was originally designed for the Empire.

A retrofitted Venator could of course carry TIEs, but a standard one could be used with other fighters (Skipray Blastboats come to mind, and someone else mentioned the XG-1 assault gunboats) well after the ARCs and V-wings are retired.

 

Emphasis on post-ROTJ. At the height of the Empire all that was used was the TIE series. The others were invented after Endor by companies wanting to use the situation to peddle their own fighter designs, claiming that perhaps it was the TIEs' fault that the Empire was losing the war and their designs would be a better option.

And the X-wings were designed for the Empire, but as we know the Incom design team stole the plans, and the Empire (wrongly) considered them antiques, meaning that they preferred the TIE design.

If the Venator was used as a fleet carrier, I could see it being used for mass TIE carrying, or even as you suggested, a complement of heavy fighters/bombers which could add to the use of TIEs deployed from Star Destroyers and other models.

 

^ Yeah, I don't even want to think about a Venator literally filled with blastboats. Though it might want TIEs from other carriers flying CAP because I wouldn't rely on blastboats as fighter defense.

 

Why would you phase out perfectly well working fighters? You'd have to make major modifications to the Venator to carry TIEs (since those things have to hang from a ceiling).

 

This is the Empire we're talking about. Sienar Systems basically won the Empire's highest starfighter production contract, and Imperial fleets all stocked up on TIEs. In the early Imperial years, I would bet that many of the old Clone Wars fighters were still used, but as the years progressed, you can bet that the fighters were phased out in favour of the TIEs, a cheap, disposable fighter that was easily mass-produced. The Empire had a policy of quantity over quality, barring the TIE Interceptor and Defender models. And anything the ARC fighters and others could do, I bet Sienar claimed their models could do better.

 

For being cheap and disposable fighters the TIEs did pretty well in the OT.

As long as the TIE didn't provide the empire with an advantage the V-Wing could, there is no reason for the V-Wing to be phased out. And there were fighters aside from TIEs in the Imperial Fleet like Assault Gunboats and Missileboats. Even the X-Wing was originally developed by Incom for the empire.

 

As long as the TIE didn't provide the empire with an advantage the V-Wing could, there is no reason for the V-Wing to be phased out.

If the TIE´s were cheaper to build and cheaper to maintain than the
Clone Wars -era fighters nd as there were no major challengers to the Empire´s supremacy in the galaxy, it would be financially sound - but later militarily disastrous - decision to retire the older fighters. TIE´s could handle the starfighters of occasional local opposition the Imperial fleets would encounter.

 

They did phase out the V-Wing, but they phased out the venator too. Plus the Empire ha some non tie fighters like the Assualt gunboat and...nope. That's pretty much it for pre-Endor. Wouldn't be surpised is V-Wings and ARcs show up in the Empire's EU-forces though.

 

Yeah, but starfighters get destroyed a lot more often then Venators would, so assuming that there are still Venators in service, there could very well be Venators who have lost most of their fighter compliment, and need new fighters. NOw your not exactly going to give them fighters taht aren't being produced anymore, so they get TIEs instead.

 

I doubt they will, post-Purge. Incom defection and all that...not to mention that SoroSuub went out of business, the ARC-170s are large and probably a lot more expensive to maintain than even XG-1s, and Sienar won the contracts for pretty much every class of Imperial starfighter. Outside of planetary defense forces, security, and low-hazard patrols, there'd be no need for V-wings - TIE/ln fighters are more economical and probably more agile.

 

Subpro went out of business, not Sorosuub.

 

The Empire would use ARC-170 and the V-Wing for at least a few years after RoTS, until their TIEs were ready.

 

@ AWJ: D'oh, meant Subpro

But larger and with more complexities (S-Foils, heat radiators, other miscellaneous technobabble). I've played enough XWA and XWvTF to know that those XG-1s are pretty good stuff; but they're doubtless cheaper to maintain a fleet of, even if they are better than the ARC-170. And so...it renders the ARC-170 obsolete. My point.

 

Well before the TIE/IN, there was the TIE fighter which had/has as armament one double laser cannon instead of the Tie/In's 2 laser cannons although I dont really know what the difference is between the double laser cannons, except that the double laser cannon is a single cannon system which comprises two barrels while the tie/in has two seperate cannons firing one at a time or at the same time, also I think the orignal TIE fighter is considered less quick and manueverable than the Tie/In.

The V-wing is a capable ship but is I think going to be too expensive for the early empire's needs. The same way for the ARC-170, although it is a heavy hitting ship, with all of the bells and whistles it has it will be a nightmare to fix and to get supplies/maintenence on. They will need small cheap mass producable ships to arm their new empire and eventually it will be to cost prohibitive to use the former clone wars stock of fighters/bombers/attack craft. The TIE series of models all use the same basic ship design and all you really have to do is switch out some electronics and materials and add hardpoints/weapon accessories to get many different models out of the same template.

I could see the Venator serving on for awhile, say 5-15 years but the other models such as the Victory I,II/Imperial I,II/Acclamator I,II/Tector,etc can do the job of the Venator, they may not carry as many fighters but they can serve as more multipurpose type ships able to perform many different military roles. The Venator class from what I can see and read from does not really properly perform the role of a troop transport, it seems to not carry as many troops as will the Acclamator I,II class and the Imperial I,II class of ships, which are able to hold more troops and weapons/combat vehicles/supplies. They should really only be useful as a dedicated carrier class of ship with some offensive/defensive armament. But, with the new empire in force there wont really be a need for carriers carrying 500+ ships, since they would hold the superiority in sthe number of ships/weapons in any major battle.

There will not be major fleet battles, (hundreds of capital ships) bewteen capital ships/fighters for another 17-20 years, and those engagements can be fought with less because the rebellion is more of the hit and run and hide type of advesary, where if they hide say on or in an asteroid they can be blown away, or if they hide on a planet and set up a base they can be rooted out with ground forces or bdz'd from orbit, there will probably not be a combat action with thousands of fighters until the battle of Endor.

 

I don't believe they do, actually...

 

Do we even know, how expansive ARC-170s and V-Wings are in comparison to the TIE/ln and Assault Gunboat?

And as far as i know, why should we compare the Assault Gunboat and the ARC-170? The first is a kind of bomber, the other a heavily armed scout.