The Dreadnaught was originally designed and commissioned by the Old Republic. And at their time, they were the largest heavy cruiser class in service in the Old Republic. The Dreadnaught first came into existence before the start of the Clone Wars. They were among the largest ships in the Old Republic Navy before the Victory-class Star Destroyer was created. A number of Dreadnaughts had been refitted for service for the Empire over the years. The standard Dreadnaught in the Imperial Navy is not significantly different from the original used in the Old Republic's. The ship maintained its weaponry. Even after refitting, this ship's sublight speed barely matched the speed of the Victory I-class Star Destroyer and still required the extremely large crew. The reason for the large crew was that this ship made little use or no use of droid assistance. The Empire was able to construct flight decks in most of its Dreadnaughts because the Old Republic never had flights deck on their version.

    These six engine ships were normally assigned to patrol in the remote sectors of the Empire or they were used to protect supply convoys due to their relatively slow speed. They have also been regulated for prisoner transportation for captured Rebels and later Bothan spies. By modern standards, these ships are slow, poorly shielded and lightly armed. The deflector shield projector bays are located in two of the blisters on either side of the ship. While the other blisters contain some of the Dreadnaught's weapons. The forward docking port is located in the ventral bulge in the forward section of the ship and the main cargo hold is located behind that. Its flight deck/hanger bay is located between the main cargo hold and the reserve power generators. Above those generators is a docking port. After the generators comes the power core housing and then the engines. The Dreadnaught also comes equipped with a dorsal primary sensor transceiver and a ventral secondary sensor transceiver.