Craft: Republic Engineering Corporation Defender Starfighter
Type: Short-range defence fighter
Scale: Starfighter
Length: 5.3 meters
Skill: Starfighter piloting: Defender
Crew: 1, gunners: 1
Crew Skill: Varies
Cargo Capacity: 50 kg
Consumables: 1 week
Cost: 45,000 (new)
Maneuverability: 4D
Space: 8
Atmosphere: 350; 1,000 km/h
Hull: 2D+2
Shields: 1D
Sensors:
Passive: 30/1D
Scan: 60/2D
Search: 90/3D
Focus: 4/3D+2
Weapons:
3 Laser Cannon (fire linked)
Fire Arc: Front
Crew: 1 (gunner)
Skill: Starship Gunnery
Fire Control: 2D
Space Range: 1-5/20/35
Atmosphere Range: 100-500/2/3.5 km.
Damage: 6D
Background: The Defender starfighter, or Republic Systems Defender, was a starfighter developed by the Republic Engineering Corporation as part of the Defender design program. It was based on the ATL Interceptor used by the Fromm Gang 15 BBY.
The Defender starfighter was an improved version of Incom Corporation’s ATL Interceptor. The Defender was 5.3 meters long and armed with three laser cannons: one in the nose of the craft, and one each on either side beneath the wing. To save space and weight, the standard Defender starfighter was not equipped with a hyperdrive.
Although the Defender was slow by contemporary standards in starfighter design (at only two-thirds of the top speed of an A-wing or TIE Interceptor), it was far faster than the aging Republic Y-wing and Z-95 Headhunters that were usually relegated to planetary defense.
Its extendible S-foil maneuvering struts could retract into the spaceframe for non-combat situations, but once an enemy had been engaged, the struts swung down and forward to give the Defender better positioning for maneuvering-jet bursts. While sudden maneuvers in an atmosphere actually risked tearing off the struts (due to the G-forces, the gravity of the planet itself, and atmospheric drag), in space, the Defender could literally spin around 180 degrees in mid-flight by firing one maneuvering jet forward and one backward.