What do the Death Stars do, other than destroying planets?

Question

We know that each Death Star has enough firepower to obliterate a planet. But other than this, what are they good for? For one, I have trouble imagining a practical situation where "blow up the whole planet" turns out to be the preferred strategy. More generally, it looks like anything that can be done with a Death Star can also be done, more efficiently, with a fleet of smaller vessels, e.g., (Super) Star Destroyers and their supporting spacecrafts.

I could see a use for a Death Star as a support craft (e.g., as a mobile hangar, or a means to transport very large amounts of soldiers and supplies), but not as the autonomous flagship vessel of your fleet.

The whole "fear of this battlestation" line implies it was supposed to be an invincible symbol of the Empires might and authority (and megalomania). As a tool of war, you're right, it's strategically useless and inefficient. As a tool of control and intimidation, it's not bad, — Radhil, Jul 11 '16 at 13:07
We know that each nuclear missile has enough firepower to obliterate a city. But other than this, what are they good for? — Paul D. Waite, Jul 11 '16 at 13:27
Just out of interest, in The Jedi Academy Trilogy, Qwi Xux, a designer of the Death Star, thought it was going to be used to break up lifeless planets to allow easier access to the precious resources contained within. — M_the_C, Jul 11 '16 at 15:03
You have trouble imagining a practical situation, but you are not evil-incarnate, with your soul swimming in the Dark Side of the Force. — PoloHoleSet, Jul 11 '16 at 16:11
Provide millions of jobs to imperial citizens & a place for incarcerated aliens to be "processed" — thegreatjedi, Jul 12 '16 at 05:23
It's a weapon of terror, as well as destruction. It's a totalitarian tool to bring people in line under The Empire. Plus, The Empire hates non-humans, so they don't really consider alien life important, they might actually be fine with blowing up planets. — AJFaraday, Jul 14 '16 at 09:49
They look cool as a symbol of power, that's why the Empire keeps building them — Dylan Czenski, Jul 14 '16 at 14:28
I'm sure that there is at least one toaster on the Death Star so it can, at the very least, lightly toast, in addition to completely atomize, bread. — zero298, Jul 14 '16 at 15:05
Nuke the entire site from orbit. It's the only way to be sure. — Mnebuerquo, Jul 14 '16 at 15:08
@PaulD.Waite: I've never met a PaulD.Waite comment I didn't like. Just sayin'. — Praxis, Oct 05 '16 at 15:16
@zero298 - it's like the lightsaber bread knife in Hitchhiker's Guide, only it toasts ALL the bread on the planet while it's slicing. — Omegacron, Mar 31 '17 at 00:59
@M_the_C - you should definitely type that up as an answer. It may not have been the true purpose, nor a military purpose, but it DOES present an alternative use for the station. And it's something relevant enough to the involved technology that even one of the designers, albeit a very naive one, believed it. — Omegacron, Mar 31 '17 at 01:01

Rogue Jedi · Accepted Answer · 2016-12-08T00:24:12.760

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The primary purpose of the Death Star is to create order through fear, as stated by Tarkin in A New Hope.

TARKIN: The regional governors now have direct control over territories. Fear will keep the local systems in line. Fear of this battle station.

...

TARKIN: Princess Leia, before your execution I would like you to be my guest at a ceremony that will make this battle station operational. No star system will dare oppose the Emperor now.

The Empire wasn't planning on destroying planets willy-nilly, but believed that the Death Star would cause potentially rebellious governments to reconsider.

Additionally, Return of the Jedi shows that a

fully operational

Death Star can take out a command ship in a single shot. A Star Destroyer, on the other hand, would have generally required a sustained barrage, making the Death Star a very viable warship.

edited Dec 08 '16 at 00:24

answered Jul 11 '16 at 13:12

Rogue Jedi

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This is certainly the primary purpose of a Death Star. Is the question not actually asking about other purposes? It seems to be additionally a mobile seat of power (the conference room in DS I, the throne room in DS II), mobile barracks, probably mobile supply point, and even a kind of star craft carrier. – Todd Wilcox Jul 11 '16 at 13:37
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Not to mention their near indestructibility. (Save for the poor decisions of the exaust port construction workers) – Ferus Olin Jul 11 '16 at 14:28
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Literally a self-described tool of "technological terror." – BTownTKD Jul 11 '16 at 14:57
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@FerusOlin Be fair! The construction workers didn't design the exhaust port, they just built what the architect(s) designed. Blame the architect(s) if a design is flawed, and blame the builders if the construction of a flawless design was flawed. – Mar Jul 11 '16 at 15:02
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@MartinCarney No architect would ever design a giant exposed vent right over a Death Star's core reactor, that's Space Architecture 101. It had to be the contractor. – Jimmy M. Jul 11 '16 at 15:20
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@JimmyM. You have no idea what the design constraints were. After all, you're trying to cool down a weapon that has enough energy to spectacularly blow up a planet - it's quite an achievement that they managed to do that through a tiny exhaust port. And who could ever hit such a tiny target while under fire, while also managing for the torpedo to make a 90° turn at just the right point in its absurdly fast speed? The rebels cheated. Or the whole destruction hero thing was a bit of carefuly constructed propaganda. – Luaan Jul 11 '16 at 15:47
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@jimmym The port was "ray-shielded" and required navigating a highly armed trench to access, so it wasn't entirely exposed. – Rogue Jedi Jul 11 '16 at 16:17
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@Luaan, blame the space wizards. The whole point of an exhaust port is that it's ejecting things, and yet the neophyte space wizard threw something into the exhaust port after turning it 90 degrees, and it still traveled all the way to the center of the moon-sized space station. – Brian S Jul 11 '16 at 16:18
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To be fair, my "source" was HIMYM (S6,E3) and not meant to be taken seriously. Decent chance not many remember that quote thinking about it now. – Jimmy M. Jul 11 '16 at 16:19
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If you're going to use spoiler-hiding for a movie that's over 30 years old, you should probably just hide the entire sentence. The ability of the Death Star 2 to participate in the fight at all is the reason the revelation is horrifying: it doesn't much matter that the station is "fully" operational--there aren't any nearby planets the Emperor wants destroyed anyway. – Kyle Strand Jul 11 '16 at 19:08
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@KyleStrand I laughed when that was what was in the spoiler tag. I read it in the Emperor's voice, too. The tags are on point. – Brad Jul 11 '16 at 20:32
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@Brad Ah, if the tags are just for humor value, then that makes sense. – Kyle Strand Jul 11 '16 at 21:01
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@Martin Carney- One could start quite the debate over who's fault it was... – Ferus Olin Jul 12 '16 at 04:06
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I love the spoiler tag for a movie that's probably older than the majority of people on this site :) – Taegost Jul 12 '16 at 16:10
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@taegost Don't want to spoiler it for Rand. – Rogue Jedi Jul 12 '16 at 16:30
@Luaan Irrespective of the design constraints, why would a vent for gas preclude physical object or projectile impediments? Or bends that are too sharp for guided projectiles to navigate? That was Space Balls grade stupid. – Shiv Jul 13 '16 at 01:59
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@Shiv- It does seem like they could have put a grating near the entrance, or even used a valve. – PointlessSpike Jul 13 '16 at 06:39

score 40 · Answer 2 · edited Oct 23 '16 at 13:09

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After blowing up Alderaan, the Death Star's role is Power Projection (aka Force Projection) for the Empire. See Wikipedia's article on Power projection.

The Death Star was supposed to be impervious to all threats. So strategically where it goes, the Empire's at its strongest.

It doesn't have to blow up any more planets. Being able to travel Faster-Than-Light means the Empire can show up with the biggest ~~johnson~~ gun.

Yes a fleet of super Star Destroyers can blockade (badly) or bombard (also badly) or fight (very badly) or interdict (supremely badly). Small ships seems especially effective against the Empire's Capital ships.

edited Oct 23 '16 at 13:09

Ken Graham

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answered Jul 11 '16 at 13:27

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Do not confuse the games and the movies. In the games (and some EU material), the small ships are effective against capital ships. In the movies, this certainly isn't the case - it's assumed they can do no harm to the capital ships until their shields are brought down. And while I agree that the Death Star is a superb logistic platform (though apparently quite slow, and obviously horrendously expensive), its main asset is still the huge superlaser, which says "you can't hide safe behind your planetary shields". Destroying the planet is just an unfortunate side-effect of that primary role. – Luaan Jul 11 '16 at 15:51
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I like the game vs movie comment, but I've never played the games. My comment on the relative vulnerability of Empire capital ships to small craft comes basically from 1) x-wing takes out original Death Star 2) Millennium Falcon is effective as smuggler and to outwit Star Destroyers in Empire Strikes Back 3) Rebel Blockade runners in ESB. – paulzag Jul 12 '16 at 14:58
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oh and all my "badlys" were to emphasise that George Lucas's Empire shoots blasters badly and it all goes downhill from there. – paulzag Jul 12 '16 at 15:07
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Luke Skywalker is a Space Wizard and that design flaw shouldn't have been there in the first place. 2) The Millenium Falcon was... Well, not necessarily designed, but heavily modified for the purpose of smuggling, which means things like passive stealth and excellent engines and maneuverability for when it's time to Run Away.

Shadur-don't-feed-the-AI

Jul 13 '16 at 07:31

The Falcon is also significantly smaller than regular transport ships. In case of a planet-wide blockade you'd need entire fleets of YT-1300 freighters to continue to support a planet that can't effectively feed and supply itself. – Shadur-don't-feed-the-AI Jul 13 '16 at 07:32

score 32 · Answer 3 · answered Jul 11 '16 at 14:11

Tarkin put it best when he said

Fear will keep the local systems in line. Fear of this battle station.

_{Star Wars: Episode IV A New Hope}

The Death Stars' superlaser is not intended to destroy planets so much as provide a credible threat that those planets can be destroyed. Think of the nuclear arsenals of countries like the United States and the former Soviet Union: these arsenals are more than enough to kill everyone on Earth, but no one wants to actually use them. They exist only to prevent other countries from launching an attack, lest they invite a retaliatory nuclear attack on themselves.

The use of the Death Star superlaser on Alderaan was intended mainly to demonstrate that the Empire possessed the ability to destroy planets. It is similar to how the atomic bombs dropped by the U.S. on Japan in World War II were partially intended to demonstrate to Japan (and the rest of the world) that the U.S. possessed such a powerful weapon. With Alderaan a demonstration of the Empire's capabilities, the Death Star would theoretically never need to destroy a planet again.

The Death Star is so huge that it is also theoretically invulnerable to even the largest Rebel fleet, whereas Star Destroyers are small enough that they can be destroyed by Rebel capital ships:

Tagge: Until this battle station is fully operational we are vulnerable. The Rebel Alliance is too well equipped. They're more dangerous than you realize.

Motti: Dangerous to your starfleet, Commander, not to this battle station!

_{Star Wars: Episode IV A New Hope}

The Empire of course did not realize the first Death Star had a vulnerable thermal exhaust port which would allow a starfighter to destroy the whole station. Theoretically, the completed second Death Star would be invulnerable to both starfighters and capital ships.

The Death Stars are also mobile battle stations which house hundreds of turbolasers to be used against enemy capital ships, innumerable troops for deployment on planets, any supplies necessary for military campaigns, etc. It's essentially a massive Imperial base/fortress, except that it's mobile and capable of hyperspace travel.

As seen at the Battle of Endor, the second Death Star's superlaser was accurate enough and could be fired quickly enough to be used against enemy capital ships (in addition to all the turbolasers on the station). The Battle of Endor had two primary purposes from the Empire's perspective, one of which was to take advantage of this capability of the Death Star and destroy the entire Rebel fleet (the other to turn Luke to the dark side). The Death Star systematically destroyed the Rebel fleet with its superlaser:

...while the Imperial Starfleet, originally hidden on the far side of the Endor moon, pinned down the Rebel fleet:

@RogueJedi The point is there only to make a real-world analogy to the demonstration purpose. As I stated, the atomic bombs were "partially intended to demonstrate" the weapon. It certainly served an actual military use by helping force Japan to surrender. — Null, Jul 11 '16 at 16:26
According to Winston Churchill - who can perhaps be considered to have a somewhat valuable opinion - the purpose of the Atomic Bombings of Japan was as a show of force in the coming tensions (now known as the "cold war") with the USSR. In any event, I'm sure politics is not appropriate here: Null was making a broad general example, as Null says. — Fattie, Jul 11 '16 at 17:05

score 2 · Answer 4 · answered Jul 12 '16 at 16:30

Besides the intimidation factor, it is also known that Death Stars are used to house prisoners ("Prisoner transfer from cell 1138"). It is also at least speculated that Death Stars serve as an operations base where various Imperial officers perform day-to-day clerical and investigative work for the Empire. (For example, in the Family Guy parody of Star Wars, two officers pretend to act busy with "Empire Stuff" when Vader is watching.)

Paul LeBeau · Answer 5 · 2016-07-13T22:02:18.230

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Don't forget also that it can undoubtedly carry an enormous number of men and fighters.

edited Jul 13 '16 at 22:02

answered Jul 12 '16 at 16:59

Paul LeBeau

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The OP didn't forget that. He's mentioned it right in his question. – b_jonas Oct 04 '16 at 18:31

What do the Death Stars do, other than destroying planets?

5 Answers5