The 41 most powerful Star Wars spaceships, ranked

We scoured the Star Wars universe in search of the most powerful ships. We selected craft that play key roles in the movies and TV series. And then, largely using StarWars.com and Wookieepedia as references, we parsed the ships for size, speed and weaponry, if any. Here are our final standings.

Originally published September 2016.
Update, Jan. 10, 2020: Adds Razor Crest from The Mandalorian. 

About 66 feet (20 meters) long, this relatively little guy packs a punch thanks to cannons, hyperdrive and a host of famous users, from Darth Vader to Luke Skywalker, who uses one to escape Death Star II in Star Wars: Return of the Jedi.  

This weaponless, workmanlike Republic Cruiser is the first craft seen in Star Wars: The Phantom Menace. It literally and figuratively sends the franchise to a new world when it delivers Qui-Gon Jinn and Obi-Wan Kenobi to Naboo.

While Padmé Amidala's sweet-looking, approximately 128-foot-long (39-meter) craft looks a bit like a sleek, stylized B-29 bomber, it has no bombs. But give it credit for this: Its swift destruction at the beginning of Star Wars: Attack of the Clones sets the plot in motion.

In a galaxy full of cruisers and battleships, this Trade Federation-aligned starfighter, first seen in Phantom Menace, is a gnat, less than 23 feet (7 meters) in length. But it can do what no battleship can: It can transform itself into a walking land fighter.   

This warworn entry -- "a former military craft," per StarWars.com -- is the title character's ride in Disney Plus' The Mandalorian. While info regarding its specs is currently scarce, we know that it impresses its Mythrol bounty in the series' first episode ("She's a classic," the E.T. gushes). We also know it's trustworthy enough to transport "The Child," aka Baby Yoda.  

Introduced in the animated series Star Wars: The Clone Wars, this more than 180-foot-long (55-meter) craft reminds us that nothing in this franchise -- not even a space yacht -- should be underestimated. Luxury ride or no, this hot number can absolutely zip past pursuers. According to StarWars.com, some models are even armed with cannons -- make that tastefully concealed cannons. 

This nondescript Rebel convoy ship, boasting a moderate number of cannons, turbolasers and tractor beams, is distinguished by a sick sickbay: Luke Skywalker gets a new hand sewn on while aboard one of these at the end of Star Wars: The Empire Strikes Back. 

Developed for Rogue One: A Star Wars Story, this transporter/gunship is also known as the U-wing. It has wings that can face forward or backward, and it's got a pair of not-to-be-trifled-with laser cannons. Its most notable weapon, however, may be the crafty felons it's been known to transport -- Jyn Erso among them.

This 416-foot-long (127-meter) ship, equipped with turbolasers and cannons, is dwarfed and overtaken by Darth Vader's Imperial Star Destroyer. But in a way the Tantive IV will always be untouchable: It's the very first ship seen in the very first Star Wars.

This is kind of cool: The proton-bomb-equipped Resistance spacecraft looks like a giant, flying Star Trek phaser. This is definitely not cool: Two squadrons' worth of this clunky ship get wiped out by swarming First Order TIE fighters in the opening battle of Star Wars: The Last Jedi. 

Though weaponless like the royal cruiser, Padmé Amidala's ride in Phantom Menace is nearly twice as large as that Attack of the Clones craft, and, in the estimation of MTV.com, boasts a design that helps "shape the aesthetic of the prequels -- and for the better." 

With two orbital guns and more than two dozen cannons, there's a lot to dread in this more than 25,000-foot-long (7,700-meter) Mandator IV-class siege dreadnought from Last Jedi. This First Order behemoth may have taken the most-powerful title here but for one not-so-minor detail: This thing doesn't even last 15 minutes in Last Jedi before it's blown up by a lone Resistance bomber. 

This stealthy, 144-foot-long craft, first flown by Hera Syndulla in the animated series Star Wars Rebels, stands out from the crowd, thanks to what StarWars.com describes as a "360-degree dorsal laser cannon turret." It gets bonus points for making a live-action cameo in Star Wars: The Rise of Skywalker's climatic space battle. 

This approximately 3,900-foot-long (1,200-meter) gray whale, a Rebel-aligned, Mon Calamari ship from Return of the Jedi, is heavily armored -- and armed. Most notably, it has a bridge that gives Admiral Ackbar a clear view for spotting an Imperial trap.   

This heavy starfighter (branded "rb" for "reinforcement battery," per Wookieepedia) is nicknamed the Brute, and it's easy to see why. It's the brutish version of the Imperial-era TIE fighter. First seen in Solo: A Star Wars Story, this variant is bigger and heavier than the standard TIE. But with great size comes, well, slower speed and acceleration.  

This insta-classic, immortalized in Lego collections the world over, is piloted by Anakin Skywalker in The Clone Wars. The ship belongs to a class of Jedi starfighters that's noted for being lightning-quick in combat.

This crescent-shaped beast, the symbol of doom in Phantom Menace, should rule this power list. It's nearly as wide as it is long (about 11,100 feet, or 3,400 meters). It boasts hundreds of crew, plus thousands of weapons and starfighters. It remotely controls droid armies. Its flaw? It gets taken out by a 9-year-old.

This Naboo ship, another standout from Phantom Menace, zips and zaps through space with ease. It's so easy to fly, a kid can do it. Its proton torpedoes are so easily fired, a kid can do that, too -- to the detriment of a certain Trade Federation battleship. 

From its design to its hypderdrive, this TIE fighter is like no other. It would rank higher here but for the fact that to date, the ship has only been seen in Star Wars Rebels.  

Looking like a winged predator, this 56-foot-long (17.2-meter) TIE variant does damage to the Rebellion's X-wing force during Rogue One's Battle of Scarif. It's formally classified, per Wookieepedia, as a TIE/sk x1 experimental air-superiority fighter.  

Luke Skywalker and his X-wing get the glory for bringing down the Death Star in Star Wars: A New Hope, but a squadron of this Rebel fighter is there, too. One even makes it out of the bombing run intact -- and the model lives on in Empire Strikes Back, Return of the Jedi and more.  

At just 30 feet (9 meters) long, this nifty number, as first seen in Star Wars: A New Hope, is one of the smallest craft listed here. But size doesn't matter when you've got laser cannons, proton torpedoes -- and iconic staying power.  

Per StarWars.com, these bent-winged assassins, measuring 31 feet (9.6 meters) in length, and seen in Return of the Jedi's Battle of Endor, are the "faster and better-armed [descendants]" of the Imperial TIE fighter. 

This nimble, 31-foot-long (9.6-meter), twin-engine craft is a keeper, used by the Rebels of Return of the Jedi and the Resistance of Last Jedi.  According to StarWars.com, it's faster than a TIE interceptor. 

Darth Maul knows how to do lightsabers -- and ships. This distinctive vessel from Star Wars: The Force Awakens sees your laser cannon, and raises the stakes with a cloaking device and, per Wookieepedia, "experimental ion engines." 

The seismic charges emitted from Jango Fett's ship from Attack of the Clones are devastating, audibly unsettling -- and all-around awesome. 

At some 7,200 feet (2,200 meters) long, this hawk-nosed, angry-faced battleship from Count Dooku's Separatist fleet is a fearsome fixture of the Clone Wars (and first seen in episodes of Star Wars: The Clone Wars). 

Beauty isn't everything. In Rogue One's climatic Battle of Scarif, this drab but undeniably powerful warship rams an Empire Star Destroyer into another Star Destroyer -- and helps deliver an early win to the Rebellion. 

This mega-sized, mega-weaponized, Mega-class Star Destroyer from Last Jedi is another example of bad-guy omnipotence -- and impotence. More than three times the length of the Executor, Supreme Leader Snoke's seemingly unbeatable and impeccably art-directed ship is literally sliced in two by the Resistance's Raddus. 

In Solo: A Star Wars Story, we meet the Falcon as it was when it was owned and operated by the cape-clad Calrissian. This version of the ship is bright, clean and boasts a non-bifurcated nose. It's fast, too (though not as fast as Han Solo will make during the Kessel Run). 

In Last Jedi, the Resistance's MC85 Star Cruiser is no match for TIE fighters, which destroy Leia's bridge -- and kill Admiral Ackbar. But when Vice Admiral Holdo leads the Raddus on a hyperdrive-powered suicide mission against the First Order's vastly larger, vastly more weaponized Supremacy, it's the Resistance ship that prevails. 

This ship may look like the TIE fighter used by the Imperials in the first three Star Wars movies, but according to StarWars.com, the First Order's version, first seen in Force Awakens, is distinct. It's more advanced, more lethal and all around more powerful.

According to Yahoo's math, if you landed this 62,000-foot-long (19,000-meter) Super Star Destroyer in New York City, "it would occupy most of Manhattan." But the Empire's overkill apparently doesn't extend to shields. It gets knocked silly by a kamikaze Rebel pilot in Return of the Jedi, and crashes into the Death Star. 

At more than 55 feet (17 meters) long, this lethal ship is bigger and sleeker than a TIE interceptor. Under the deft control of Kylo Ren in Last Jedi, it slices through space like a set of steak knives -- a set of really fast steak knives.  

This approximately 3,800-foot-long (1,155-meter) war horse debuted in Star Wars: Revenge of the Sith already looking battle-tested. When you're packing as many laser cannons (50-plus), crew members (7,400) and starfighters (200-plus) as this bruiser, you don't get called in on peace missions.   

According to Wookieepedia, this über-iconic craft is a TIE Advanced x1. But StarWars.com is more direct: It identifies it solely by the name of its pilot. And we can't quibble: This is Darth Vader's TIE fighter, the one he flies into the Death Star's trenches -- and into film history -- in Star Wars: A New Hope.  

It's on this predator, capable of launching 20 squadrons of droid starfighters, that Anakin Skywalker kills Count Dooku on Emperor Palpatine's command in Revenge of the Sith, and inches ever closer to the dark side. The ship is 3,280 feet (1,000 meters) long.   

Darth Vader's nearly 5,250-foot-long (1,600-meter), Imperial-class Star Destroyer, teaming with 40,000 crew, delivers the first jaw-dropping moment in the first Star Wars as its massive self swoops over us in pursuit of the comparatively puny Tantive IV.   

At some 9,500 feet (2,915 meters) long, Kylo Ren's and General Hux's flagship ride in Force Awakens and Last Jedi is nearly twice the length of an Imperial-class Star Destroyer. But what really takes this battle cruiser to the next level is her weaponry: Per the book Star Wars: The Force Awakens -- Incredible Cross-Sections, the Finalizer boasts more than 1,500 turbolasers and ion cannons.

As the all-too-mortal Executor proves, size is not the end all, be all. This compact (41-foot, 12.5-meter long) Rebel spitfire gets the job done in the first Star Wars, when, under the control of Luke Skywalker, one of its proton torpedoes explodes the Death Star.  

There's a reason this version of the ship is the star attraction at Disney Parks' Star Wars: Galaxy's Edge: Battered or no, it is the star attraction of the Star Wars universe. What it lacks in size (it's a modest 115 feet, or 35 meters long), it makes up in swagger, longevity -- and evasive-maneuvering capability. Though many have tried, Han's modified ride can't be caught. The Falcon isn't just regarded as one of the fastest ships in the Star Wars franchise, but in the entire sci-fi universe.