Adjustable drydocks

[Jessica Med-Beq]

My idea is that an adjustable drydock can fit the size of the starship being built in it, or otherwise serviced/repaired. We see many shipwrights, canon or not, but there is very little mention of drydocks either in canon or elsewhere. Yet any shipwright that builds anything remotely resembling capital ships would require orbital drydocks to carry out their work.

I may wonder what equipment is used inside a drydock so as to effect repairs or to build starships in. What kind of droids (or other machinery) are required to operate a drydock? Do drydocks need their own storage areas for parts that make up what's being built in it?

But because I want the adjustable drydock to be usable by even tier-2 shipwrights, I believe it is best to limit the maximum size to slightly less than 1,000 meters, with larger versions that may become constructable on-site if Ringovinda StarYards ever rise in tier (a 1,700-meter version would be designed if it reaches tier-3, and a 2,400-meter one if Ringovinda StarYards reaches tier-4)

I understand that drydocks are often sitting ducks, without armament, or sometimes even without shields. I believe adjustable drydocks are stations; am I mistaken?

 

[Gir Quee]

I have found that there's a lot of vague information about shipyards and drydocks, but not a whole lot that's very detailed.

The Type II Orbital Repair Yard and the Telgorn shipyard are probably among the most detailed shipyard stations available. Both are known to be fairly modular in what they construct, but were pretty much helpless space stations in combat.

I may wonder what equipment is used inside a drydock so as to effect repairs or to build starships in. What kind of droids (or other machinery) are required to operate a drydock? Do drydocks need their own storage areas for parts that make up what's being built in it?

While I have yet to find any droids explicitly made to be used in shipyards (though I imagine a great number of existing repair, mechanical, and astromech droids could be used on these sites), we do know that at least some shipyards used G2-GS beamdrills. That is the only specific piece of shipyard equipment that I've been able to find. realistically, it probably needs typical industrial fabrication equipment such as lathes, mills, welding machines, and so on. A station like this would probably also need various support craft, such as tugs or construction starships. Other things a shipyard might need are tractor beam projectors and large numbers of vaccuum or space suits.

The Telgorn facility that I linked to above is known to have storage areas for parts. I would suspect that most shipyardswould also have such areas, unless parts are stored elsewhere (such as a warehouse on a nearby planet, etc).

I understand that drydocks are often sitting ducks, without armament, or sometimes even without shields. I believe adjustable drydocks are stations; am I mistaken?

Canon drydocks typically don't move at sublight speeds, though many have hyperdrives (such as the Empire's deepdocks). Most don't have armaments (aside from tractor beam projectors), but many carry onboard starfighters or other craft for defense. I would be really surprised if a station didn't have shields of some sort (though they might not be the high-end, military grade shielding).

The Telgorn facility that I linked to above is known to have storage areas for parts.

 

[Camellia Swift]

[member="Charzon Loulan"]

I dunno what the factory staff will say, but I think its a good question.

Because I certainly agree that it is a hard question given that canon doesn't tell us much. Usually an excerpt on a shipyard only states whether the drydocks had the capacity to service Super Star Destroyer size vessels, of which very few locations in canon apparently existed to construct such vessels.

However, given the amount of images we do have of shipyards and the knowledge about some lesser known ones. We can for certain say that adjustable drydocks likely were around, maybe not for every berth, but definitely around. I say this mostly because the wording of most of the shipyards usually state "Up to" indicating they have the possibility to handle a range. I specifically note the 220 mobile dock as an example. That's because the 220 Mobile Dock especially says "up to shashore size" giving the indication it can handle smaller vessels, meaning the frame mentioned can be adjusted to work on ships of other sizes.


I would say non-adjustable drydocks also existed though, since I do not believe given the size of shipyards like Kuat and Mon Calamari which ring the planet that they would have every drydock be adjustable. So given images and trying to apply real logic, I'd say ships like the high end destroyers, battlecruisers, and up to SSDs likely were made in an non-adjustable frame. However, smaller ships like corvettes to cruisers, were probably able to be made in the same drydocks since its not likely smaller shipyards had a frame per class.

Spoiler

As Gir Quee as also very helpfully said. Most equipment for shipyards go unmentioned. However, i would suspect robotic limbs, cranes, a number of droids, tools like hydrospanners that mirror real life tools one might imagine used on vehicle construction and maintenance, on stations refineries to shape the hull for the different ship classes, would all be used.

Defenses are also not typically mentioned for construction yards. However, many stations built for planetary defenses do exist like the Firestar Defense Station or the Golans are typically positioned around such vital positions. Plus as Gir also stated many major shipyards likely carry onboard security personnel and starfighter squadrons for their own defense. Actually most planets typically had their own planetary defense groups depending on the star wars era. Pre-Clone Wars places like Kuat, Mon Calamari, and Rendili each had very impressive fleets, in part because they could easily make them for themselves. Heck, during the Galactic Civil War Kuat Drive Yards used Star Destroyers they made themselves in their own defense. So while the stations are typically unarmed, they are usually well shielded and have the ability to field their own ships. Which I think was staff's intention by allowing Companies to own their own fleets relative to their tier. To reflect the old planetary defense groups in a way outside a faction.

In reality this doesn't affect the factory though. Its cool to describe it in character if that's your aim, but I don't think the actual science is required to submit anything. OOC I believe you merely need to achieve a certain Tier and then you're ok to construct as you see fit.

 

[Jessica Med-Beq]

Sacul-class adjustable drydock

Now finished while taking into account all the stuff in this thread (the images I could find would show said drydock fully retracted)

One would think either shipwrights or factions with sizeable fleets would want adjustable drydocks...