I'm going to try not to be spoiler-y, mostly because I don't think anything in Catalyst is even spoiler-worthy. It's a boring story that just makes you get to know the characters from Rogue One....

But anyhow, in the audio book's chapter 14 (maybe actually chapter 13), Krennic is meeting with Tarkin and they mention the newly completed DREADNAUGHT!

Krennic says how it's already obsolete, but Tarkin says that it'll do fine as a placeholder until the Death Star is complete.

I don't know if they talk about it in further detail, as I didn't get much past that part yet, but that is awesome regardless!!!

How did this entire topic double post? (plz moderators delete one of these two)

It's not talking about the executor is it? They are considered Star Dreadnoughts.

That's what I was thinking, too. The SSD.

Does anyone have the printed or e-book? Is "dreadnought" capitalized? Ie, is it a generic category they're referring to, or the Dreadnought-class specifically?

It does kind of sound like they're talking about Executor from context though. A Dreadnought-class as we know it is hardly a stand-in for a Death Star when you have ISDs in your navy...

Executor

Here's the full exchange. And yes, dreadnought is lower case:

They stopped at a massive viewport to observe at a new capital ship—a dreadnought—being inaugurated for launch from its bay.

“Completed in less than a standard year,” Tarkin said, as if he had built it himself. “And yet already obsolete?” Krennic said.

Tarkin glanced at him. “A placeholder. I’m certain, however, that it will do until the battle station is deployed.”

The two officers had begun to circle each other as they spoke. “Our main weapon will have more firepower than ten vessels that size,” Krennic said.

They mean that the dreadnaught is obsolete because the death star will make all capital ships obsolete, yes?

Here's the full exchange. And yes, dreadnought is lower case:

They stopped at a massive viewport to observe at a new capital ship—a dreadnought—being inaugurated for launch from its bay.

“Completed in less than a standard year,” Tarkin said, as if he had built it himself. “And yet already obsolete?” Krennic said.

Tarkin glanced at him. “A placeholder. I’m certain, however, that it will do until the battle station is deployed.”

The two officers had begun to circle each other as they spoke. “Our main weapon will have more firepower than ten vessels that size,” Krennic said.

Definitely Executor, then.

But which one?

Is it the Executor?

Or is it the Executor that they secretly buried on Coruscant?

( )

Or is it a Mandator dreadnought, which were in service at the time?

Currently, despite slightly predating the Executor itself, the Yavin-era Annihilator is thought to be Executor-class - but in a period as early as this, it's possible that this ship is not Executor-class but another SSD/Star Dreadnought class - the newcanon Complete Locations does allude to classes other than the Executor.

Surely it can't be the Executor, Vader's flagship, as Catalyst takes place almost a decade and a half prior to ANH. Also the Darth Vader comic clearly showed the Executor under contruction during the time between ANH and ESB. The ship in question has to be some other dreadnaught class capital ship we've not seen before.