Star Citizen ship: Drake Caterpillar, medium freight

Drake Caterpillar, official image — Official image © Cloud Imperium Games

The Caterpillar, first introduced in 2871, is a reliable, cost-effective multi-role ship, configurable from trading to combat support: the alternative to MISC’s Hulls, with extra weapons and customisation.

📜 Its history

After the Cutlass’s success, CEO and designer Jan Dredge wanted to apply the same principles to a much bigger ship. Unveiled at the 2871 Intergalactic Aerospace Expo, the Caterpillar was first criticised for its dated look, then won people over with its swappable cargo modules and its price. On 21 June 2903, a Caterpillar broke out of traffic, latched onto an eriesium transport with its front sensors and pirates poured in: within five minutes the cargo was gone, the command module had detached and the pirates had vanished. The culprits of the “Kesslering Heist” were never found, and the image of a Caterpillar clamped to the transport’s husk has stuck to it ever since.

📐 Specifications

Manufacturer	Drake Interplanetary
Role	medium freight (transport)
Size	large
Crew	4
Dimensions (L × W × H)	13.4 × 39.5 × 111.5 m
Mass	1,508,063 kg
Cargo	576 SCU
Combat speed (SCM)	130 m/s
Maximum speed	900 m/s
Rotation (pitch / yaw / roll)	16 / 16 / 25 °/s
Status	flight ready

🔫 Stock armament and equipment

Type	Size	Count	Equipment
turret	S4	2	2× CF-447 Rhino Repeater (S4) Manned Turret

Components:

Shield: 3 × Stronghold (S3)
Power plant: Ginzel (S3)
Cooler: 2 × ThermalCore (S3)
Quantum drive: Pontes (S3)
Jump module: Exodus (S3)
Radar: FullSpec (S2)
Life support: ComfortAir Max (S3)
Hydrogen tank: Internal Tank
Quantum fuel tank: Internal Tank
Utility item: Remote Turret (S4)

🏭 All Drake Interplanetary ships · 📚 All ships (contents)

Sources: the official Roberts Space Industries Ship Matrix (specs, stock loadout and description, checked 19 October 2026), the Star Citizen Wiki for the ship’s history. Text rewritten by Beacon Mag. Official values may differ slightly from the current game, which is rebalanced every patch. Official images © Cloud Imperium Games. Star Citizen® is a registered trademark of Cloud Imperium Rights LLC.