Imperial Navy

The Imperial Navy, also known as the Imperial Starfleet or the Imperial fleet, was the naval branch of the Galactic Empire's military. It was created in the wake of the Clone Wars, when Chancellor Sheev Palpatine transformed the Galactic Republic he led into an authoritarian Empire. Consisting mainly of Star Destroyers and TIE fighters, the Imperial Navy was tasked with maintaining order in the galaxy.

Administration
The Imperial Navy was commanded by Galactic Emperor Palpatine and the Joint Chiefs of the Empire, while admirals and captains assumed responsibility for their respective craft and would be informed of any long-term plans. The Admiralty was the overall leading unit of the navy and included Imperial Navy High Command. Naval Command and Control and the Naval chiefs also oversaw the tactical strategy of the Navy, and reassigned ships to trouble spots and plotted long-term strategy under the oversight of both the Emperor and Joint Chiefs. The Imperial Starfighter Corps also aided in overall naval operations, and disliked the Admiralty's push towards Kuat Drive Yards near monopoly on capital ship production due to a belief that TIE/ln fighters were purposely weakened to ensure continued production and purchases from the company would continue. Similar to the Army, the Imperial Navy contained multiple branches responsible for various aspects of naval warfare, of which the most important and well known was Fleet Command. Fleet Command controlled the Imperial Navy's sub-capital and capital ships, and the lowest recruits to the Admiral of the Fleet fell under its auspices. It was highly unusual for officers to receive captaincy of a Star Destroyer until middle age, while being assigned captaincy of smaller craft was considered to be ignominious. It was common practice for the Imperial Starfleet to often amass ships in an attempt to intimidate various worlds, officers sometimes gathered their respective ships in an attempt to display their power and impress superiors, with the more ships and men under ones command the more important that person was considered. With the Emperor commanding the most ships and men, he was easily considered the most important. The Navy also worked in conjunction with the Imperial Security Bureau, who installed an internal affairs officer aboard every Imperial-class Star Destroyer and Executor-class Star Dreadnought, while the Naval Intelligence Agency and its oversight by Imperial Intelligence provided vital information for the armada.

Tactical organization
The Imperial Navy's tactical organization was defined by the Navy Order of Battle, designed to provide flexible resources for a commander's force requirements.

The Imperial Navy's largest formal organizational unit was the Sector Group, nominally composed of 2,600 starships, of which 24 were Imperial-class Star Destroyers and another 1,600 were smaller warships, under the control of a High Admiral, usually the sector Moff. The Sector Groups were split into multiple fleets of around 400 ships each led by Fleet Admirals, with the Group's combat elements being split between "Superiority" and "Escort". A superiority fleet was a space-combat force spearheaded by six Star Destroyers, each nominally accompanied by a battle squadron of eighteen smaller ships. While superiority fleets were officially assigned to fleet combat, in practice they were normally used as mobile reserves, projecting Imperial power in response to local threats. Escort fleets, meanwhile, were composed of force escorts and were designated for combat against pirates and raiders, which in practice meant that they were the Empire's first line of defense, protecting civilian freighters, attacking corsairs' hideouts, and guarding remote outposts. Additional fleet commands were established for the Sector Group's logistics and support forces, including troop transport, bombardment, deepdock and support fleets. Han Solo when witnessing The Graveyard for the first time also implied that an Imperial fleet composed of an additional thousand starships with a significant amount of firepower would have been sufficient in doing at least significant damage to a planet.

Below the level of fleet was the systems force, led by an admiral appointed as its Commodore. Systems forces totaled around ninety ships in several squadrons, and included force superiority designed to maintain control of space in calm areas; force escort to protect commercial shipments and convoys; systems bombard to carry out planetary bombardments with Torpedo Spheres; and transport forces, force technical services, and force support to supply combat formations. In practice, however, despite their nominal strength, most systems forces contained only a single combat squadron.

Squadrons of 14 to 60 ships were the smallest independent operational units of the Navy, and were designated as light, heavy, battle, or bombard squadrons. Battle squadrons built around an Imperial-class Star Destroyer were the core components of superiority fleets, and were nominally supported by three lines of eighteen smaller ships. In practice, Star Destroyers were normally accompanied by just two or three escorts, if any: the Imperial-class was designed to operate without support, and its hyperdrive was too fast for any escorts except for the speediest light cruisers. The battle squadron was used for offensive operations against a known enemy, and the mere arrival of an Imperial-class Star Destroyer was often enough to put down a planetary revolt or scare off an armed space-threat.

The most basic combat formation in the Imperial Navy was the line of battle, or simply a line, and the smallest organizational unit used for space combat. The Imperial Starfleet shaped four to twenty starships into lines, depending on type. The line was the most amorphous level of organization in the Starfleet. The Imperial Starfleet Order of Battle outlined seven types of lines: attack, heavy attack, reconnaissance, pursuit, skirmish, troop and torpedo. In addition to the seven types of lines, the Imperial Navy considered an Imperial-class Star Destroyer a line in itself. While an Imperial-class Star Destroyer may have been able to act as an attack line and its complement of starfighters as a skirmish line, the decision to give commanders the option to field a ship equivalent to a heavy cruiser as a line unto itself was more political than tactical. After a naval staff study suggested a Star Destroyer was the field equivalent of the smallest of naval squadrons, the Admiralty decided that, as there were more lines than squadrons, designating the Star Destroyer as a line unit would get them more Star Destroyers. The Admiralty's thinking prevailed.

A full ten percent of the entire Imperial Navy was kept in reserve in the Core Worlds, so as to be able to quickly respond to threats throughout the galaxy. A fleet with at least 19 Imperial-class Star Destroyers and three Immobilizer 418 cruisers, the latter supplied by Imperial Drydock IV, was also kept permanently in the Outer Rim Territories.

Roving fleets aimed at specific tasks were also fielded at several points in Imperial history. Notable units included Death Squadron and Scourge Squadron, which hunted for Rebel bases in the Outer Rim. There was also the Vengeance Battle Group, used by the Dark Jedi Jerec to search for the Valley of the Jedi, and the secret armada assembled by Admiral Mils Giel, for the purpose of transporting a vital biological device from the Outer Rim to Imperial Center. At least one Star Destroyer task force was used to punish Imperial sectors that threatened to undermine Imperial rule, as when the Moff of the Trans-Nebular sector established himself as the de facto warlord and was engaged by a fleet of Star Destroyers. This force was large enough to leave behind vessels that would form the core of a new sector fleet, before moving on to other trouble spots. There was also a fleet stationed near Byss, that was formed since the start of the Galactic Empire. The Emperor himself also possessed a personal fleet that he has command over, utilizing it in situations important enough to require him to participate in person.