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Snoke's fleet consists of the Supremacy and several additional Star Destroyers. I assume they have specialized ships for every mission type.

When the

Rebels flee from Snoke's fleet, why did Snoke or Hux not have/send additional ships?

Does the First Order not have specialized ships (interceptors) on a capital ship like a Star Destroyer or the Supremacy?

Intercepting fleeing ships should be a pretty common situation and a standard tactic for the Empire and the First Order.

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    What do you mean did they not have "specialized ships" as in fighters? They were recalled because they were out of range for the cruisers to protect them.
    – Edlothiad
    Commented Dec 20, 2017 at 22:05
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    Absolutely. I assume the Empire and First Order knows the speed of enemy ships. I assume there are standard operating procedures for such situations. Rebel fleets have Blockade Runners. American fleets have different types of ships to protect carriers. Why does the First Order not have other ship types in their fleet or why does the Supremacy not have it in its hangar(s)?
    – Martin Sand
    Commented Dec 20, 2017 at 22:11
  • Given the situation they had much more than was necessary to handle the situation. They did not need to call in more ships. They could follow the Resistance where ever they went and it was literally only a matter of time.
    – Odin1806
    Commented Dec 21, 2017 at 2:36
  • @Edlothiad Protect them from what exactly? Of course the Resistance/Rebel cruisers would have fighters on board, but those would be vastly outnumbered by those of the FO fleet. The cruisers would also have turbolasers and the like, but as we've seen in Star Wars time and time again (even in TLJ) turbolasers seem to have trouble tracking and picking-off smaller craft. A much more plausible approach would have been to overwhelm the cruisers with the FO's smaller attack craft and damage them enough to weaken the shields so that the larger turbolasers from the Supremacy could finish them off.
    – Steven Rands
    Commented Dec 21, 2017 at 10:01
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    Given the rebels were pretty much forced to travel in roughly a straight line (or whatever the space-equivalent term for that would be), I wonder why the First Order didn't just have a single Star Destroyer make a small hyperspace jump to get ahead of them. Are hyperspace jumps not accurate enough to pull that off? They seem pretty accurate when dozens of ships can all arrive in close proximity at the same time without ramming each other.
    – delinear
    Commented Dec 22, 2017 at 12:19

2 Answers 2

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According to Star Wars physics, lighter ships go faster. First Order could have used faster and lighter ships to reach to the rebel fleet but there is a catch, faster and lighter probably also implies weaker shields. MC85, the command ship of the rebel fleet, is a capable ship and could probably take down these fast ships easily.

Moreover, the First Order did not need any interceptors or reinforcements. They both outnumber and outclass the rebel fleet. Their strategy was based on the very accurate fact that they could win the war of attrition.

Finally, tracking through hyperspace happened for the very first time in Star Wars. Prior to that, ships managing to jump to hyperspace were simply gone. Hence, interception as you suggested is not part of the routine warbook of the First Order. However, there were some designs by other parties that prevent enemy ships from jumping to hyperspace. The best example is Malevolence. It was equipped with ion cannons disabling all systems, including the hyperdrive generators.

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  • This makes sense. But there is a question: are the Rebels' capital ships better in taking out these small ships than the Star Destroyers? And coming back to my original question, does the Supremacy not have such ships onboard in her vast hangars?
    – Martin Sand
    Commented Dec 21, 2017 at 10:46
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    Actually good question. I will edit my answer according to it. But for now, all I can say is that the small fighters would have a small range, so they cannot travel alone for large distances. (lone tie fighter scene, IV) They could engage MC85 or the support ships. Rebel fleet would expend more energy to deflect attacks from shields and would expend even more to bring them down, but they would probably bring them down. This engagement would hasten the FO victory at the expense of fighters and from Hux's perspective, there was no need for that.
    – user65648
    Commented Dec 21, 2017 at 15:39
  • Even if FO had ships large than tie fighters, say around the size of the Falcon, they could indeed travel further and monitor the rebel fleet from all directions. However, they still cannot engage because even Falcon is nothing compared to the power of Rebel fleet. But they could monitor the rebel fleet from all directions and possible monitor the escape pods, but this depends on the range of the weapons on MC85. Besides, I've never seen neither the empire, nor the FO use such sized ships, except for transport purposes.
    – user65648
    Commented Dec 21, 2017 at 15:43
  • Interesting. Reading your comment I get the impression that the operation and order were quite accurate. I was just wondering if this is appropriate. I guess it was not the first time a ship jumping to lightspeed was used as a weapon (although this was never shown in a movie). So why did they not consider this and is the tactic of following the Rebel fleet still the best tactic?
    – Martin Sand
    Commented Dec 21, 2017 at 21:34
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    It is an entirely different question. My response to it is here: scifi.stackexchange.com/questions/176287/… but I disagree that Rebel fleet is the best tactic. It relied on their allies rallying forward and no one really rallies to a cause about to be destroyed. Disabling the tracker and jumping to hyperspace was definitely a better tactic.
    – user65648
    Commented Dec 22, 2017 at 0:22
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It's also important to remember that the First Order isn't just a military, but a nascent government as well. A militaristic government. So you can't just pull everything to go after a handful of rebels. Those star destroyers were needed elsewhere. Remember this line from Return of the Jedi

Mon Mothma: With the Imperial Fleet spread throughout the galaxy in a vain effort to engage us, it is relatively unprotected.

That's, more or less, what you'd expect. The military government spread out to ensure the Empire is still strong. More importantly, there's the inevitability of it all. By the time you call a ship or two from several sectors away, it probably would have been over (as far as Hux and Snoke were concerned).

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