Science fiction of a military orientation is rife with huge fleets of combat starships plying the galaxy, engaging each other in titanic exchanges of missile and laser fire. While there are many different types of these vessels, a commonly seen class is the heavy cruiser. In some universes, heavy cruisers seem to represent the pinnacle of naval shipbuilding, serving as the heavy hitters and centerpieces of battle fleets. In others, they are commonly deployed as patrol and fleet support ships, or as escorts for still heavier classes of warship. In all universes, heavy cruisers are presented as large, powerful starships.

List of fictional spaceborne heavy cruisers

• Star Trek: Federation Constitution-class heavy cruiser, Klingon Vor'cha-class heavy/attack cruiser
• Star Wars: Rebel Alliance/New Republic Mon Calamari Star Cruiser (various models), "Dreadnaught"-class heavy cruisers, some texts claim Imperial Star Destroyers as heavy cruisers
• Babylon 5: EarthForce Hyperion-class heavy cruiser, Narn G'Quon-class heavy cruiser, Minbari Sharlin-class war cruiser/heavy cruiser
• Andromeda: Systems Commonwealth Glorious Heritage-class heavy cruiser
• Wing Commander: Confederation Waterloo-class, Tallahassee-class, and Plunkett-class heavy cruisers, Kilrathi Fralthra - and Fralthi II-class heavy cruisers
• Gundam: Federation Salamis- and Alexandria-class heavy cruisers
• Stargate SG-1: Earth Stargate Command Prometheus (ostensibly)
• BattleTech: Star League Aegis-, Avatar-, Luxor-, and Sovetskii Soyuz-class heavy cruisers, Free Worlds League Agamemnon-class heavy cruiser, Draconis Combine Kirishima-class heavy cruiser
• Honorverse: Star Kingdom of Manticore Fearless
• Starfire: Terran Federation Majestic-, Iowa-, Bulwark-, Swiftsure-, Goeben, and Pommern-class heavy cruisers

This is only a partial listing. There are many other vessels in science fiction which, while not specifically designated as heavy cruisers, are of a tonnage and armament to fall within that category, and many others that are classified as such but are given no class name.

List of fictional warships that could be conjectured as heavy cruisers

• Star Trek: given its role as the Constitution class's successor, the Federation's Excelsior class can be conjectured as a heavy cruiser, and the same with the Ambassador-class to the Excelsior
• Star Wars: New Republic Majestic-class battlecruiser (referred to in some texts as a heavy cruiser, but in the Black Fleet Crisis trilogy as a battlecruiser)
• Robotech: Robotech Defense Force/Robotech Expeditionary Force Tristar- and Ikazuchi-class large cruisers
• Macross: UN Spacy Haruna-class stealth cruiser
• BattleTech: Federated Suns Avalon-class cruiser, Capellan Confederation Feng Huang-class cruiser
• Galaxy Quest: National Space Exploration Administration Protector