Wraith cruiser

Escort vessel for Wraith hive ships, substantially smaller in size compared to their counterparts. The primary purpose of the cruiser is for transporting and deploying ground assault teams. Cruisers are armed with a number of Wraith offensive weapons, but do not appear to have Dart bays. (If the hive ship is destroyed the Darts make kamikaze runs.)

Three cruisers attach themselves to the undercarriage of a hive ship while traveling with the mothership through hyperspace, likely to conserve energy.

In the event that all escorted hive ships are defeated the cruisers typically enter hyperspace to rejoin another fleet. It is not known if the ships are also required to make hyperspace "pit stops" like the hive ships.

DETAILS

USED BY - Wraith
FIRST APPEARED - Letters From Pegasus

KEY EPISODES

Letters From Pegasus - Sheppard and Teyla witness several Wraith cruisers escorting the larger hive ships during their hyperspace journey to Atlantis.
The Siege, Part 3 - A multitude of Wraith hive ships engages in battle with the Earth ship Daedalus, and break their attack when the ship manages to defeat all of the hive ships.
Critical Mass - Two Wraith cruisers pause their in-fighting to make a detour to Lantea to inspect a distress beacon recently transmitted by )the now cloaked) Atlantis.
Travelers - When the Travelers' Lantean warship is attacked by a Wraith cruiser, Colonel Sheppard manages to activate the drone weapon control chair and destroy the enemy vessel.