Praetor III-class battlecruiser

The Praetor III-class battlecruiser was a larger capital ship within the Galactic Empire.

Cost
"These new battlecruisers are expensive, but they are useful, so I suggest the cancellation of several orders for star destroyers in order to cover the costs."

- Grand Admiral Thrawn, circa 3 BBY These ships costed 874,020,000 Imperial credits, making them more expensive then Imperial-class star destroyers by several magnitudes.

Crew requirements
The ship was crewed by 26,800 officers, 139,250 enlisted personal, and 1,100 gunners, as well as by over a hundred pilots. The Praetor III-class also had 20,000 stormtroopers on board for security and ground operations.

Dimensions
At 8,000 meters long, it was several times larger then normal Imperial-class star destroyers, and it had several key features that distinguished it from the aforementioned ships. It had a slightly slanted upper super structure, with the "neck" slanted backwards. Its bridge tower had 4 EDY shield generator domes built into the structure, and on top of the tower was a tractor beam targeting away, which also served a duel purpose of being a communications tower.

Armament and Shielding
The Praetor III-class was heavily armed, with 4 main weapon batteries on the dorsal side. The two main batteries were on each side of the tall superstructure and held 3 octuple barbette heavy turbolaser turrets, and 1 octuple barbette heavy ion cannon turret each. The next two weapon batteries, which were towards the center of the ship on both sides of the lower super structure held 2 octuple barbette heavy turbolaser turrets and 1 octuple barbette heavy ion cannon turret each. The rest of the armament was rounded out by 100 XX-9 turbolasers and 100 NK-7 ion cannons, and 250 point-defense laser cannons, which were dispersed all over the ship. Shielding was provided by 4 EDY shield generator domes that were built into the command tower

Complement
Two hangars were built on the Praetor III-class, following the same design as the Imperial-class, with a single large assault hangar close to the reactor dome on the ventral side of the ship, and a small shuttle hangar forward of the assault hangar. The assault hangar held 168 TIE series starfighters, and the forward hangar held 48 Sentinel-class landing craft, and 12 Lambda-class shuttles.

Propulsion systems
Powering the ship was a I-a3b solar ionization reactor, which was a larger version of the I-a2b solar ionization reactor used by Imperial I and Imperial II-class star destroyers. The ship was propelled by 5 large engine units, which was unusual as Imperial-class ships were powered by 3 main engines and 4 secondary engines.

Command tower
The command tower was similar to the Imperial-class, and had its 4 EDY shield generator domes built into it. The tower had a tower that was used as both a tractor beam targeting array and as a communications tower. A bridge area with a similar lay out as the Imperial-class style bridge was retained.