The Discovery-class Scout Cruiser is built by the Loronar Corporation, who also manufactured the famous Strike-class Medium Cruiser. The Discovery is the first attempt of creating a larger scouting vessel instead of the common smaller scout ships. But as its smaller brothers, the Discovery is assigned to the typical scouting missions, such as searching and exploring unknown planets.
The Scout Cruiser was created on demand of the Imperial Survey Corps (ISC), that saw more efficient scouting when using larger ships. The ISC is a small division of the Imperial Navy, whose primary assignment is tracking down and cataloguing new worlds. They are famous for being able to record a new planet every 207 minutes. However, the ISC still leaves the mission of recording new worlds to the small and quick scout ships of the corps. But when a world is discovered that might mean a profit for the Empire, larger scout ships like the Discovery are sent for a more detailed exploration of the planet.
The ship is sufficiently equipped for this kind of missions. It features a large ground vehicle complement. For every imaginable mission the Discovery Scout Cruiser has the appropriate vehicle in its complement, be it Sky Swoopers for high altitude exploration, Hover Scouts or AT-STs for different surfaces or even Waveskimmers for travelling on water. But there are also common speeder bikes included in the ground complement for standard research duties, and even a Mobile Command Base. In case of a small scouting group having to go on a long-term exploration on the unknown planet, this group is usually accompanied by the Mobile Command Base.
Another great feature of the cruiser is the pre-fabricated scout outpost they have on board as well. The outpost is a relatively large and solid building, well protected from the forces of nature. It is the base for the examination missions on the planet, whereas the cruiser stays in orbit. The outpost can take up two thirds of the ship's scouting personnel. The other third of scouts stays aboard the ship, helping the operating crew analysing sensor data and piloting the carried scout ships and shuttles if necessary. The ship's sensor package is quite capable. The long distances, which can be covered by the sensors, help the scouts to get a detailed image of the surrounding space without leaving the planet's orbit.
Apart from the ground complement, the cruiser also offers an adequate starship complement. The Discovery has enough hangar space for two Lone Scout-A2 scout ships, two long-range shuttles for supply and research duty, and one heavy landing barge which transfers the ground vehicles to the planet's surface. The starship complement also includes 12 TIE Fighters, either for planetary support or for defending the cruiser in the case it should be attacked. Therefore, the cruiser is armed with Turbolaser Batteries as well. To guarantee safe docking of the carried craft, the cruiser is equipped with two Tractor Beam Projectors, which help the ships with their docking maneuvers.
Although the ship has a large amount of cargo space, most of it is used for plants, building material and labour droids, all useful goods to run the scout outpost successfully. The ship comes along with 80 additional Army Troopers. Scout logs of successful missions revealed that these troops were important as there were sometimes enemy activities on the new discovered planets, for example, small outposts of the Rebel Alliance or other unknown forces.
After the collapse of the Empire, the Discovery-class Scout Cruiser was later adopted by the New Republic Scout Service, due to its efficient design.
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| Stats: | Christopher Deck |
| Illustration: | Mike Vilardi in Planets Collection, West End Games. |