Though outwardly similar to the Victory I-class Star Destroyer, the Victory II-class was designed for deep space combat. With this in mind, the designers fitted the ships with Hoersch-Kessel Drive, Inc. engines in place of the Victory I's LF9 ion engines to overcome weaknesses of the earlier design. Where the LF9 ion engines could not produce sufficient acceleration to engage faster and newer vessels in ship-to-ship combat, the new drives were far more powerful and added significantly to the newer ship's sublight speed and maneuverability.[3]