ILM production chart from Return of the Jedi. (Courtesy of Curtis Saxton)
When the original Star Wars Trilogy was released it quickly established itself as a favorite for the generations. It was a classic tale of adventure, good versus evil and the inner conflicts of human nature set against a universe of advanced technology, complete with human-imitating droids, immeasurable war machines, and hotrod spacecraft of all sizes, from the tramp Millennium Falcon down to the Rebellion's sleek A-wing interceptor. Many of the most memorable scenes of the trilogy brought the fleets of good and evil together in the battles that would decide the fate of the galaxy.
It was during the time period covered by the Original Trilogy, the Rebellion against the Empire, that the starfighter truly came into its own as one of the vital elements of the modern war fleet. Fighters had always been in existence, from the dawn of atmospheric flight before the development of deep-space travel to the brutal time of the Clone Wars, but until the Rebellion's victory against overwhelming odds at the Battle of Yavin, the starfighter was relegated to support duties. To use a fighter in battle against a heavy combat warship was unthinkable and all but suicide, as their weaponry was insignificant against the shields and hull armor found aboard these massive ships of war. It is therefore quite fitting that the space battles of the Trilogy would be based on events in our own history in which the airplane established itself as a vital weapon of war.
The airplane was first imagined as a weapon very quickly after the first flight at Kittyhawk, North Carolina, but the army and naval traditionalists would relegate the new tool to no more than an observation platform to direct artillery. It was in this role that the first military aircraft took to the skies in combat, soaring beyond the trenches that scarred Europe during the brutality of trench warfare in the First World War. Not long into the fighting fixed weaponry was added, and the fighter was born to interfere with their enemy's observation craft. Soon both sides were producing this new breed of aircraft to hinder and protect such reconnaissance flights, and eventually the first bomber flight took to the skies. Even though movement on the ground was deadlocked by stretches of barbed wire across "No Man's Land," aircraft were free to prowl both sides of the lines of battle. Though the aircraft met with great success, it would be twenty more years before its true potential would be recognized.
After the war aircraft continued to develop at a rapid pace, evolving from primitive machines of wood and canvas into thoroughbreds of metal. Not long after Armistice, the first carrier takeoff was performed as a single plane rolled down a plank runway built on the turret of a battleship. The first naval landing occurred only days later. American pilot Billy Mitchell proved the aircraft to be a lethal platform against enemy shipping when he sunk a captured German battleship with a single bomb dropped from his plane in a move that enraged Navy brass in the United States. Mitchell was court-martialed, but his demonstration did not fall on deaf ears. Americans would later learn first-hand the lethal power of the airplane against surface fleets on a Sunday morning in December, 1941 when the Japanese left the US Pacific Fleet smoldering on the bottom of Pearl Harbor, Hawaii.
World War II marked the beginning of modern military aviation. For the first time, aircraft were used on a vast scale and in an unprecedented variety of roles. Massive bombers flew thousands of miles from bases in England or China, dropping millions of bombs on the heart of the Third Reich or Imperial Japan, harried all the way by fighters and interceptors struggling to knock the heavy craft out of the air. The dogfight came into its golden age as Spitfires and Bf-109s, and Hellcats and Zeroes twisted and turned in the air. Fighter-sized bombers lashed out at enemy shipping, from the legendary Douglas SBD dive-bomber destroying more surface tonnage than any weapon save the submarine, to the Japanese "Kate" torpedo bombers and their wave-skimming attacks against Allied warships. It was from these brutal seven years of aerial warfare that George Lucas took his inspiration.
Outnumbered and outgunned, one can easily compare the men and women who fly for the Rebellion to the Royal Air Force in their legendary battle against Hitler's Luftwaffe in defense of king and country, or the handful of American Army, Navy and Marine flyers of the Cactus Air Force as they made their desperate stand against the wrath of the entire Japanese military in the fiery South Pacific skies over Guadalcanal. Through courage and defiance, luck, and the quality of both man and machine, the starfighters of the Rebel Alliance, and the men and women who flew them, helped bring down an Empire and restore freedom to the galaxy.
Jutland vs. Midway: a Battle of War Theory
It was brought up to me once by Robert Brown that judging from the designs of heavy combat warships in Star Wars, that naval engagements between the fleets would be more like the close-range battles of the 18th and 19th centuries, and specifically the Battle of Jutland during World War I, rather than engagements like the Battle of Midway, which was largely fought and won by aircraft.
However, Mr. Brown also commented that the Battle of Midway was a rare occurrence. While in the total history of naval combat this is true, in the Twentieth Century things had changed radically! Jutland was the last great battle between surface fleets, and even during the First World War was a rare battle! There were relatively few surface battles between battleships during World War II, notably the Royal Navy's pursuit of the Bismark (which air power was an integral part of, in the form of both aerial reconnaissance, and British Swordfish torpedo planes that crippled the battleship's ability to steer, allowing the fleet to catch her). The great surface battles envisioned by the Japanese in their fight against the United States Navy never happened. American and Japanese battleships met twice (both times ending in American victories) and almost every other surface fight occurred at night, when surface vessels could operate with impunity from marauding aircraft. The Battle of Leyte Gulf marked the last opportunity for a battleship to sink another warship with its guns, but this chance was lost when American Admiral Halsey withdrew his fleet from pursuit of the Japanese fleet when he realized that the invasion forces in the gulf were defenseless.
World War II marked the end of battleship-dominated naval warfare. In December, 1941 almost every American battleship in service was sunk at Pearl Harbor by air-dropped bombs and torpedoes (though many were later repaired and refloated) and the British lost two battleships, the Prince of Wales and Repulse, to Japanese aircraft. Most of the major naval battles in the Pacific, such as Coral Sea, Midway, Santa Cruz, Eastern Solomons and Philippine Sea (in which 500 Japanese aircraft were shot down in one of the largest single-day aerial battles in history) were fought beyond the reach of battleships by aircraft. In fact, the only purpose battleships served in these engagements were to lend concentrated anti-aircraft fire. Japan's mighty Yamato, the largest battleship ever devised, was sunk not by another warship, but by American carrier aircraft. Her sister-ship, the big Shinano, had been converted to a carrier (she was sunk by a submarine during her shakedown cruise). The loss of the carriers Wasp and Hornet, the disabling and withdrawal of Saratoga and the crippling of Enterprise, all the surviving American fleet carriers after Midway, during the Guadalcanal campaign was one of many factors that lengthened the bloody siege of the island. Indeed the fate of the battle itself rested on the Cactus Air Force's ability to turn back waves of Japanese bombers that bombed the airfields almost daily, and to destroy Japanese troop and supply ships attempting to land Imperial Japanese Army reinforcements on the island.
World War II radically changed naval tactics. Battleships were relegated to support duties, protecting the carriers from other battleships and surface warships, and as floating anti-aircraft batteries (like the American South Dakota-class battleships) or mobile siege batteries in bombardments. American Iowa-class battleships did serve after World War II, fighting through Korea, Vietnam, and even the Persian Gulf War (where the battleship USS Missouri had the sole of distinction of watching enemy troops surrender to video cameras and remote-control aircraft). However the battleship in the modern navy has been replaced by smaller, cheaper to operate ships that can fill the new roles in the fleet more efficiently. The last battleship in active service, the Missouri, was decommissioned in 1996.
The development of more advanced weaponry punctuated the threat of aircraft. The air-launched anti-shipping missile has become one of the most lethal weapons against surface ships. In the Falklands, Exocet cruise missiles launched from Argentinean aircraft decimated British warships from outside the range of the surface vessels' defenses, requiring Harrier "jump-jet" fighters, staging off helipads on the fantails of cruisers or light carriers, to intercept the missile-carrying planes before they could release their payload.
In the modern American navy, aircraft are still the center of the military's offense and defense. Aircraft carriers are the center of surface ship formations, defended by rings of cruisers, destroyers and other light ships, with their complement of aircraft searching out beyond the reach of surface-level radar. Fighter and interceptor craft provide the first line of defense, carrier-borne bombers deliver the first punch against global hot spots, and sonar-equipped aircraft and helicopters prowl the ocean in search of submarines. Since the end of World War II, no American aircraft carriers have been touched by enemy fire.
However in the Star Wars Universe, where starships greater than a mile long are a common sight, how do fighters factor into the tactics?
Why Fighters?
A starfighter is fast, highly agile, often durable, and often carries a surprising amount of firepower in a small hull. However, these diminutive spacecraft are ill-suited to the rigors of line combat against combat warships. West End Games and many of its derivative products, such as the X-wing computer simulations, necessarily increased the capabilities of fighters against capital warships in the interest of playability. Simply put, a single pilot in an X-wing normally shouldn't cause much damage to a Star Destroyer, which just wouldn't be much fun (although to a few odd game players such realism is considered fun). To an extent, this has spilled over into the Expanded Universe novels.
This has led to a debate on exactly how important starfighters are in the grand scheme of spacecraft design. Certainly, the RPG and X-wing games are most notorious for the overpowering of starfighters. The Expanded Universe novels are required to follow WEG due to contract limitations imposed by LucasFilm, Ltd., however have been able to maintain a more believable level of realism in the capabilities of the starfighter. Michael Stackpole's excellent X-wing comic and novel series have done particularly well in this regard.
The fighter-centered universe of the WEG-based games has also altered capital ship design in some cases. As pointed out by Robert Brown, it seems that every starship has become a carrier of sorts. Certainly, even some ships in which it is physically impossible have found ways of carrying fighters for the benefit of the role players. The most notorious of these alterations are the Corellian Corvette (particularly in the X-wing computer games, which somehow found a way to cram at least six TIE-series fighters aboard) and the Nebulon-B frigate, in which the two-squadron capacity given by WEG is, simply, ludicrous. Other fighter-based creations include the Night Caller-class ship from X-wing: Wraith Squadron, (often mistakenly referred to as simply a modified Corellian Corvette, although Robert Brown points out in his commentary page that it is a totally unique class of vessel) the Flurry (a Quasar Fire-class freighter converted to a carrier) from Truce at Bakura and the "Escort Carrier" introduced in TIE Fighter.
For their size, starfighters carry considerable firepower, particularly the craft of the Rebellion and New Republic. A single 12.5 meter-long X-wing mounts four heavy laser cannon and carries a magazine of six proton torpedoes, which pack considerable punch. Other fighters like the B-wing are even more heavily armed, with not only three laser cannon, but triple ion cannon and twelve torpedoes. The E-wing has an even heavier payload at sixteen torpedoes! A fighter's laser cannon are quite powerful by most standards but are not particularly significant against a capital ship's shielding. However, torpedoes are. Unfortunately, fighters carry only a limited number of warheads, meaning that it would take a significant number of fighters to deliver enough torpedoes to knock out a heavy ship.
In this is another major advantage of a fighter. These small ships are significantly less expensive to produce, and are far less complex. This means that starfighters can be produced more quickly and in larger numbers than any heavy combat starship. Their small size means that more can be brought into an engagement aboard combat ships. Through these numbers the fighters will now be packing a plentiful warhead load.
Another advantage of the starfighter's combination of diminutive size, agility and high speed is that they are much more difficult to target and destroy by a capital ship's heavy weaponry. This is effectively demonstrated during the attack on the Death Star in the original film, in which an officer tells Vader that the Rebel fighters are too small for the battlestation's heavy weaponry to hit them. Only three fighters in the films are known to have been destroyed by heavy weapons batteries: Jek Porkin's X-wing at the Battle of Yavin, another X-wing in Return of the Jedi, and Arvel Krynyd's A-wing.
A starfighter can also reach areas that a combat ship can't. Starfighters can get in close to a target and deliver damage with pin-point accuracy that a bombarding warship couldn't hope to match. At the Battle of Endor, fighters proved particularly effective at blasting external equipment off of the Empire's massive Star Destroyers, a difficult feat at the ranges at which capital ships could safely operate without fear of collision. Fighters can also operate in an atmosphere far more effectively than a larger vessel. They can also be staged from a wide variety of facilities, from a starship or space station, to atmospheric facilities, and even makeshift bases in the field. All that's required is a minimum of maintenance or other support equipment.
Obviously, the most important reason to produce starfighters is other starfighters. Much like battleships in the closing years of World War II, the presence of such craft in the enemy's military is sufficient threat alone to produce them yourself, and the best weapon for dealing with a starfighter is with another starfighter.
Special Note: Just prior to the Battle of Hoth, Rogue Squadron pilot Hobbie reacts to Princess Leia's escort assignments by saying "Two fighters against a Star Destroyer?" His statement seems more an objection to the number of fighters being sent against the behemoth warships, not the use of the fighters themselves! Either this is just the Rogue Squadron "We're Rogues, we do" machismo at work, or is a clear-cut statement that in sufficient numbers, a fighter does prose a deadly threat to a warship, even one as powerful as an Imperial Star Destroyer!
Autonomy?
Another concern recently suggested to me is the starfighter's autonomy and mission capabilities. In ANH, Rebel fighters at Yavin are being monitored by a very NASA-like ground-based mission control center, constantly being updated on events such as incoming hostile craft or even direct orders (General Dodonna's orders to Red Leader to keep half his surviving fighters as a backup run in the trench). This certainly seems to suggest that starfighters are heavily reliant on coordination from the "ground."
However, ESB suggests that X-wings, and perhaps Rebel starfighters in general, have a degree of autonomy. Certainly we know that the four canon Rebel fighters are hyperdrive-equipped allowing some measure of independence, and X-wings can carry onboard supplies, particularly extra food and water (although the sheer amount of gear Luke removed from his submerged cargo compartment is not only surprising, but ludicrous).
Exactly how independent are fighters? Certainly Yavin suggests the fighters need some assistance from the ground. However it's important to point out that no fewer than four Rebel fighter squadrons are known to have participated in the battle (exact numbers and composition unknown, however X-wing Red Squadron is known to have been at nearly full strength). Including EU references to Commander Narra's "Renegade Flight," late-arrivals hastily launched to run interference with Imperial fighter defenses the number of Rebel units increases to five! This is quite a complex operation for the Rebel fighters to handle without assistance.
In addition, the Battle of Endor is also a quite complex battle, involving four wings of Rebel fighters. Assuming four wings of normal strength as indicated by WEG (three 12-ship squadrons per wing) there are no fewer than twelve Rebel fighter squadrons involved in the battle (if we assume the seven big cruisers are at full fighter strength according to WEG, it would mean as many as twenty-eight: ten from Home One and three each from the six smaller cruisers seen on film). More than likely, the Rebel fighters were receiving coordination from one of the big Calamarian vessels (or perhaps one of the Nebulon-B Escort Frigates, as suggested by some theories about the ship's extensive sensory and communications arrays).
However do fighters require ground control for all engagements? This would certainly limit their usefulness outside of large fleet engagements or planetary defense missions. The various novels of the EU do show New Republic fighters operating with the assistance of a command ship coordinating fighter operations in large and complex engagements. However there are also situations in the EU where fighter squadrons operate autonomously. These are primarily long-range strikes involving smaller numbers of craft (rarely more than two or three squadrons, often as few as one). There is a real-world precedence for this: the Pacific War of the 1940s.
Perhaps the greatest example is the carrier battles fought between the US and Japan. The combat information centers aboard the carriers played an important role in defensive operations. If a carrier came under attack, the ship's CIC would direct its combat air patrol (CAP) in the direction of the enemy, relaying its heading, altitude, and estimated speed to the pilots in the air. This "ground control" would coordinate the air battle, much the way the Rebel mission control technicians did at Yavin.
However most of the time craft on strike missions rarely had the luxury of ground-based coordination. Instead they had to rely on preflight briefings and the strike leader, who coordinated the attack from an aircraft while engaged in action himself. Occasionally strikes had the assistance of spotters on the ground, especially in close support missions involving the attacks on targets close to friendly positions.
While there is considerable historical evidence suggesting starfighters can function independently without the dedicated assistance of ground control stations, these craft can not be considered wholly autonomous. The needs of the pilot will always limit the endurance of a small craft like a fighter regardless of its range, and in terrestrial civilian and military flight, passengers and pilots begin to fatigue when flights extend longer than eight hours. Luke Skywalker's flight from Hoth to Bespin must have included rest-stops along the way, as would any long-distance fighter movements (granted, an X-wing can travel much farther in eight hours than a Hellcat).
Paradoxes of Physics
Because of the nature of vacuum flight, objects in space fall under a set of rules of physics that are somewhat less important to an aircraft in an atmospheric environment. These laws are vital to the function of any spacecraft and are called Newtonian physics.The most obvious example of Newtonian physics, based on Newton's laws of motion, is the fact that in vacuum there is neither drag induced by atmosphere nor (for the most part) gravity to interfere with the motion of the vehicle. Thus, a craft that accelerates to a given velocity will remain there, even if not accelerating its main source of propulsion!
For a spacecraft this is important for two reasons. The first that it doesn't require constant acceleration from the engines to maintain velocity. The second, there is nothing for traditional control surfaces (flaps, elevators, etc.) to work against in order to maneuver the craft. Modern spacecraft like the NASA orbiter shuttles equip thrusters in the nose and tail to rotate the craft in orbit. However these alone can not steer the craft onto a new heading, only alter its orientation. In this way, the space shuttle can literally fly backwards!
Because of Newtonian physics, a spacecraft must have a way to push itself onto its new course heading or else drift indefinitely with its nose pointed the wrong way! This is handled by acceleration of the main engines.
Studying the spacecraft of the Star Wars Universe, most have more than one engine opening, and almost always located off the vessel's centerline. This allows the craft to maneuver through the use of a thrust differential (explained in greater detail in the X-wing commentary) with the added bonus that while the ship is steering, it is accelerating onto its new heading at the same time. Some vessels also appear to have a means of altering the direction of thrust in some way, such as the Y-wing's cruciform thrust vector plates, located in a ring-shaped mount at the ends of each engine.
However, visual evidence in the Star Wars films shows that these craft do not respond to Newtonian physics! Rather they perform almost as if they were traditional aircraft in an atmosphere. In real history, this is due to the fact that Lucas envisioned starfighter combat based off World War II aerial combat. However there must be some internal reason for this.
The likeliest explanation is that all starfighters in the Star Wars Universe have some sort of built-in mechanism that somehow compensates for Newtonian physics. The acceleration compensator is one possible piece of hardware. However in some craft it's a possibility that the engines themselves play a part, perhaps by automatically controlling forward and reverse thrust output (perhaps invaluable for making course changes while maintaining a constant velocity). The obvious advantage of this would be to make the fighter easier to control in combat (for an example, try playing a space combat simulation operating with Newtonian physics versus a standard air-to-air simulator). Of course this would suggest that if the fighter takes damage to whatever systems compensate for Newtonian physics the craft will become more difficult to control.
The Speed of Combat
Another problem with Newtonian physics is that acceleration is infinite, limited only by the craft's fuel stores and the speed of light (an object with mass can neither reach, nor surpass, the speed of light with conventional engines. In addition to problems with time dilation, it is also the simple fact that it would require infinite energy to move infinite mass). The very nature of vacuum flight would put a limit on effective combat speeds.
The first is that in vacuum, craft would be capable of velocities far greater than human reflexes could cope with. Starfighters do not appear to receive massive amounts of computer assistance in-flight--the astromech droid or flight computers mainly monitor secondary systems and navigation. The pilot controls most of the fighter's flight functions. Therefore, in order for the pilot to be effective, battles must take place at sufficiently slow speeds that the pilot can see and react to the battle.
The nature of starfighter flight also provides something of an upper speed-limit in combat. Because starfighters appear to handle, for whatever reason, much like our contemporary aircraft, it's a logical assumption they are affected by inertia in much the same way. Simply put, a fast-moving craft fights more inertia, thus will make wider turns, while a slower craft can turn tighter (historically this led to two distinct forms of aerial combat, the low-speed classic dogfight and high-speed open battles of slashing passes). If starfighters are moving fast enough, this would effectively render battles into long-distance jousts in which it takes a great deal of time for the combatants to turn around for another run. Therefore in order for the fighter itself to be effective, battles must take place at sufficiently slow speeds.
The question, therefore, is at what speeds does starfighter combat, or space battles in general, take place and how does that relate to the craft's overall performance? Unfortunately film evidence is difficult to interpret. However it's obvious that in combat situations, craft appear to not be traveling at more than several hundred kilometers per hour (some suggestions clock the shaft run at the Battle of Endor at no more than one kilometer per second). It may be possible to give an estimated upper-limit on maximum sublight-speed. One of Frank Bitterhof's most likely engine models gives a limit of approximately 30+ km/s. However it's unclear whether or not this is acceleration or velocity, and leaves fuel for maneuvering, decelerating, or other vital flight functions. It also leaves some questions on if this is a universal limit or if it differs between craft.
The speed debate is a long-running one.
The Mysterious Megalight
The production chart used by ILM for Return of the Jedi is rather helpful in comparing the relative performance of the main fighter-scale craft in the film, giving figures for both "speed" and agility for the principal fighters in the Battle of Endor, as well as the Millenium Falcon.
ILM production chart from Return of the Jedi. (Courtesy of Curtis Saxton)
Because this is the nearest to canon source on the relative performance of fighters in the Star Wars Universe and is not directly conflicted by the films, it automatically displaces all subsequent publications.
Worth noting is that the "speed" figures given for the Y-wing, B-wing, A-wing, TIE Interceptor and
Although noted for its poor research and lack of accuracy, West End Games' RPG was surprisingly accurate in its treatment of fighter performance. Most of the space speeds given for spacecraft quite accurately follow this production chart. These speeds appear to use a conversion of 12.5 ILM = 1 WEG. Thus, multiply the WEG speed by 12.5 and you get the ILM speed. The X-wing (T-65B) and standard TIE starfighter receive a WEG Space of 8. Multiplied by the conversion factor of 12.5 yields 100, the exact speed given by the ILM chart! The same case is true of the A-wing, which receives a Space of 12, converting to ILM 150. The TIE Interceptor, however, has a Space of 11, yielding ILM 137.5, 12.5 faster than she should be.
By knowing this conversion it's possible to explain the TG error in speeds. The A-wing and TIE Interceptor receive speeds of 120 and 110, respectively, a multiple of 10! However both the X-wing and TIE in the LucasArts series still have a speed of 100. This can be explained by the model number of the X-wing. While the "canon" X-wing is assumed to be the T-65B, the model used in the games is the T-65C A2, which WEG gives a Space of 10. Using the erroneous 10x conversion, this yields the TG speed of 100. The TIE also has a 10 Space model, the TIE/ln (a slightly more advanced TIE starfighter). Because using the correct conversion yields speeds of 125, neither of these ships could have appeared on screen according to the chart. Thus the TG speeds for the X-wing, (T-65C) TIE, (TIE/ln) A-wing and TIE Interceptor in the X-wing games must be wrong (more frustrating is that this conversion error spilled over into the Behind the Magic CD-ROM).
It's also worth noting that this chart does not reflect lateral acceleration. In space, lateral acceleration would be the rate that a ship would reach it's maximum acceleration (while in atmosphere this reflects overall acceleration to top speed, the infinite acceleration allowed in vacuum allows a modification of this function). In cases where we see slow craft apparently out-running, or keeping pace with, faster ones, this could be a simple explanation that the slower craft has superior initial acceleration and can reach a given rating of acceleration faster. In other words, while the TIE Interceptor may be faster overall, the Falcon's huge main engines would give her better lateral acceleration (Kube-MacDowell supports this by stating that while the K-wing is slower than the X-wing initially, over long distances she can out run the other fighter).
In addition, WEG's agility ratings are, more or less, correct. The chart follows a pattern that the lower on the chart, the less agile a craft. ILM simply designates agility as either "High," "Medium" or "Low." However Nob Akimoto suggests that we can assume based on the flow of the chart that the higher a craft is placed on the list the more agile. Thus the A-wing is the most maneuverable, the Falcon the least. The X-wing is slightly more agile than the TIE, and the TIE is slightly more agile than the Y-wing (the Falcon's ability to outmaneuver TIE Interceptors may be explainable by cornering velocity. Namely, the Falcon performs better at lower speeds than the Interceptor, which possesses it's best turning ability at higher velocities). WEG follows this pattern nearly perfectly! Therefore the Totally Games pro-TIE maneuverability bias is wrong and must be wholly disregarded. This has also spilled over somewhat into the X-wing novels and must be similarly discarded.
However there is a remaining mystery in this chart. ILM does not list their speeds in any contemporary unit of measurement. Instead they use the cryptic "MGLT," an abbreviation for a unit called a Megalight.
This leaves many questions. What is a Megalight? Is it a unit of velocity? Because of the nature of vacuum flight is it a measure of acceleration? What is it in contemporary units of measure?
The nearest official literature, the TIE Fighter hint book, states that an MGLT is a unit of velocity, the specific quote refering to "Megalights per hour." However in that case we would assume it would be displayed as MGLT/h, which is never the case. All references to MGLT is as the abbreviation itself, whether the ILM production chart, the Behind the Magic CD-ROM, and the X-wing games themselves with no indication of per hour or per second. Therefore if it is a unit of velocity the MGLT itself must be understood as referring to distance traveled within a specific time frame.
However the nature of vacuum flight alone suggests that MGLT can not be a unit of velocity. Because acceleration is constant the only limit on craft velocity is fuel supply. Therefore MGLT would most likely have to be a unit of acceleration (giving your current rate of acceleration as any number of MGLT instead of kilometers per second per second would seem far less clunky to work with).
This leads to the last question: What contemporary unit of measure does it refer to? This we just don't know. While we can assume that with metric being the dominant system of weights and measures in Star Wars all ratings would be in metric, we have no canon, nor official, evidence of craft performing at a specific MGLT (it can be assumed that the numbers given on the ILM chart are maximum performance, and that a craft can operate at any MGLT rating lower than this number) to draw conclusions on what its exact comparison may be. However a hypothesis can be drawn from the name itself.
Megalight appears to be made up of two words: mega and light. Light most likely refers to the speed of light (approximately 300,000 km/s). Mega is sometimes used as reference to a number, specifically a million of something (such as megabyte being one million bytes). This would indicate MGLT as being 1,000,000c, or one-million times the speed of light, which relativity points out is impossible. However, what if an MGLT is an inversion of this figure? One-millionth, rather than one-million times? 1/1,000,000c would be .3 km/s giving a measurement of 1 MGLT = .3 km/s or .3 km/s/s depending on whether MGLT represents velocity or acceleration, respectively.
On a ship such as the X-wing, which is rated at 100 MGLT, this gives a maximum performance of 30 km/s or 30 km/s/s. This is significant because it fits in perfectly with the most likely of Frank Bitterhof's suggested engine models for Star Wars craft (assuming both the maximum performance of the engine and the MGLT unit reflect either acceleration, or velocity)!
Although we can't be certain until official word comes down from LucasFilm, the formula 1 MGLT = .3 km/s (or km/s/s) seems a plausible explanation, and can also help provide an example for the performance and power of a Star Wars craft's sublight engines.
Common Technologies
Many starfighters in the service of the Rebellion and New Republic have several common technologies in use. While craft-specific functions or quirks will be discussed in each fighter's dedicated section, the general function will be laid down here. Systems such as astronavigation, sensors or avionics will be covered in each fighter's dedicated section.
Acceleration Compensator
This functions much like the inertial dampers of Star Trek, reducing or outright eliminating the acceleration and deceleration forces placed on a craft's crew by maneuvering. This system protects the pilot from the adverse effects of "Gs," or gravity forces. Because craft in Star Wars can pull so many Gs that it would crush the pilot to death, the acceleration compensator is one of the most vital systems on any spacecraft.
This is shown quite dramatically, and tragically, in X-wing: Wraith Squadron when Wraith Squadron pilot Jesmin Ackbar has her acceleration compensator destroyed, her control systems shot up, and one engine crippled during an ambush. The resulting descending turn she was trapped in put so many Gs on her that it knocked her unconscious and she crashed.
An acceleration compensator is adjustable so the pilot can allow a certain amount of sensation through. This allows them to get a feel for the craft's response to maneuvers, which can be advantageous in a combat situation as the pilot will have a better feel if they're in trouble or if their fighter has been damaged (Jaina Solo calls this "Riding the Gs" in Vector Prime).
An aspect of the device worth noting is that it can alter the craft's actual flight characteristics. This is demonstrated in Heir to the Empire when Luke Skywalker, with his X-wing caught in a tractor beam by the Star Destroyer Chimaera, backfires the acceleration compensator and practically instantaneously jars the fighter to a complete halt, allowing him to slip the beam and escape. Further, ships without some obvious method of reversing thrust for decelerating in flight may be able to use their acceleration compensators for a gentler braking maneuver than Luke's emergency stop.
Probably one of the most interesting applications of the acceleration compensator was in Dark Tide I: Onslaught, in which Gavin Darklighter discovered that the system could be used to counter the Yuuzhan Vong's shield-striping miniature black holes by setting them to full and extending them out thirteen meters (or about equivalent with the deflector shield arc's extension from the surface of the hull). Since the Yuuzhan Vong use the gravity effects of the black hole for destabilizing and taking out a spacecraft's shields, this does make some sense since the purpose of the acceleration compensator is the reduction or elimination of gravity effects from acceleration on a spacecraft. It is also interesting to note that the pilot can now also adjust the diameter of the acceleration compensator's area of affect.
Andrew Tse brings up the possibility that the capabilities of the acceleration compensator are limited. He points out that despite the presence of these devices, that the ship itself, and the people and objects inside are quite noticeably shaken around when struck by weapon fire. This is shown canonically, primarily when the Falcon is under fire, but also in the near-collision scene between three Star Destroyers in Empire Strikes Back. The EU literature itself also states that there are limits to the acceleration compensator's ability to counteract inertial forces, and starfighter pilots are able to pull maneuvers that strain the device to its limits, inducing grey-outs (a partial blackout).
Andrew suggests this is evidence that while the device can handle gradual and predictable changes in acceleration (such as gentle course corrections) it is notably more taxed to keep up in unexpected ones (weapon impacts, and also possibly the rapid course changes required in a dogfight).
This functions to add a further restriction on the speeds at which a dogfight could take place. Because these sudden maneuvers, and possible laser strikes, threaten to overwhelm the acceleration compensator even at relatively low velocities, if a craft is at high relativistic speeds the device may not be able to dampen enough unexpected acceleration to protect the ship and crew!
Andrew also points out that X-wing: Wraith Squadron directly supports this theory when stating that the Wraiths' ground crew were forced to replace acceleration probes that fed information to the compensator.
Astromech Droids
Numerous Rebel fighters, such as the X-wing, equip an Industrial Automaton R-series Astromech droid. These droids serve as copilots and navigators, assisting the fighter's pilot with inflight functions.
One concern of the astromech is what function the droid serves aboard a starfighter. According to some sources, these droid "copilots" are essential for the craft to function, and that the fighter could not operate without them. However not only is there canon evidence to the contrary, but even the Expanded Universe supports evidence that the ship can function without a droid.
In ANH, Artoo-Detoo is knocked out of action during the trench run, however Luke's fighter suffers no observable loss of performance. The ship is still able to fly normally, and Luke's controls are not adversely affected when he pulls out of the Death Star trench. In addition, his torpedo launcher mechanisms are also not put out of action (it is unknown whether Luke's targeting computer would have been useless without Artoo, since at this point he was flying with the Force, rather than on instruments).
The Expanded Universe also has examples of X-wings functioning without an astromech. In Solo Command, Wraith Squadron pilot Lara Notsil is not only able to fly without a serious loss of control, but is able to shoot down several of Zsinj's elite TIE Raptor pilots! Even though she was later shot down by a Raptor, Lara allowed the missile to hit in order to fake her death (allowing her to escape persecution for treason against the Republic after deliberately luring another X-wing squadron to their virtual destruction a few months earlier). Most likely, Lara would have been able to evade the missile with no trouble.
The question is, if canon and EU sources make it clear that a starfighter without an astromech does not suffer in control or performance, what purpose does the droid serve?
WEG maintains that the astromech droid serves the vital function of astronavigation and calculating navigational coordinates for hyperspace travel in place of a built-in navicomputer. In addition, the droid serves as an intermediate between the X-wing's pilot and secondary ship subsystems, fine tuning power flow through the various systems, and directing the fighter's targeting equipment against another spacecraft; all systems that would make handling a high-performance starfighter a trying task. In fact, Stackpole and even Timothy Zahn illustrate in their novels that the pilot rarely controls power distribution personally! Rather, the droid alters power flow between the engines, shields and lasers on verbal command from the pilot. The astromech also stores nearby ships and objects in memory, allowing the pilot to keep track of a specific target or friendly vessel while dealing with enemy fighters, or even select multiple targets; once the pilot finishes off one target, the astromech brings up the second without having to actively search for it.
In addition, the astromech can access parts of the fighter's external hull from its socket. Artoo was seen attempting to physically lock down one of the X-wing's engine stabilizers during the Battle of Yavin, and later on was tinkering inside the upper-starboard engine cowling. Finally, while the droid may not be able to repair a system damaged by weapons fire (not just because the droid can't reach it, but because it may not be there anymore!) but it may be able to reroute energy around it to compensate for damaged equipment.
Standard New Republic maintenance protocols call for astromechs and starfighter computer systems to have their memories wiped on a regular basis. This allows other droids to more easily interface with the X-wing's computer systems. However at times some individual droids simply work better with a specific fighter, and many pilots come to rely on and prefer these fussier partnerships. If the starfighter's computer systems and its typical astromech partner do not receive regular memory wipes, the two can form a counterpart relationship. While beneficial for speed and efficiency of communication between droid and fighter, it makes maintaining the fighter much more difficult, and sometimes even impossible, without the counterpart astromech on hand to communicate with the ship's systems. Personal fighters and astromechs routinely manage to slip through the cracks, however, and "miss" scheduled memory wipes.
Deflector Shields
All Rebel and New Republic starfighters are equipped with deflector shields in addition to their hull armor. This gives them an advantage over the TIE-series fighters used by the Empire. Deflectors play two important roles for a spacecraft. Besides protecting the craft from damage from weapon fire or the environment, they are also vital for the craft to be able to fly in a vacuum. Starfighters can attain such high speeds that even the smallest particle of debris could have catastrophic effects on the craft. More than likely "navigational deflectors," or shields designed specifically for protecting the craft from debris impacts, are a separate system from the combat shields (the separate shield systems would be necessary to explain how a TIE fighter can survive deep-space travel without combat shielding).
There has been some question on how, exactly, deflector shields work, specifically whether they lie flush with the hull or form a "bubble." Film evidence seems to show that the shields stop weapon fire beyond the hull armor, and Episode I clearly shows that the shields on the Naboo N-1 form a bubble that follows the shape of the hull but is slightly larger than the ship itself. Further, the various novels also suggest that the shields extend past the hull, and Dark Tide: Onslaught states specifically that the shield arc extends beyond the hull. Some novels also suggest that the depth of the shield arc can be adjusted.
Life Support
As with deflector shields, all Rebel fighters have an onboard life support system. The cabins of all Rebel fighters are also pressurized, meaning the pilot doesn't need a closed helmet. However, this proves to be a problem when combined with ejector systems, which are also featured in all Rebel fighters.
Because of the limited time the pilot has to eject in an emergency, it's unlikely that they will be able to grab a breath mask before they are shot clear. The novels cover this with the pilot's chest control box, suggesting that one of the systems is a small force field that can temporarily protect the pilot from the nasty effects of vacuum exposure, primarily the lack of air, differences in temperature, and radiation. This field has a short lifespan, and the pilot must be recovered within a few minutes or their life support "bubble" will fail.
Note that early design sketches gave Rebel pilots enclosed flight helmets, much like a TIE pilot's, and some Rebel pilots seen in RotJ wear helmets that could fully close over the face.
Ejector Seats
All Rebel starfighters are equipped with ejection systems in the case of catastrophic failure, either from an emergency or accident, or damage inflicted in combat.
Hyperdrive
One of the most vital components to the success of the Rebellion's starfighters was the hyperdrive. The mobility and independence from a mother ship or carrier provided by faster-than-light travel became a major tactical advantage for the Rebel Alliance, and later the New Republic. Rebel fighters could strike with impunity across significant distances and unsupported by capital ships, allowing the scattered Rebel fleet to engage the Empire without placing their precious supply of combat warships in jeopardy. Common Rebel fighter tactics revolved around jumping into a system to attack Imperial military assets, such as a convoy, factory, or training area, then escaping again before the enemy could respond in force. This mobility remained important even after the Rebellion succeeded in overthrowing the Empire by allowing New Republic fighters to respond quickly to attacks by the Remnant.
Hyperdrives are notoriously susceptible to damage or failure. The Empire's Interdictor Cruiser was designed specifically to counter the hyperdrive-equipped Rebel starfighters.
One interesting question about the system is the use of the terms hyperdrive, and hyperdrive motivator. The terms usually seem to be used independently, and may be similar to the difference between a shield generator and a shield projector.
Warhead Launchers
All Rebel and New Republic fighters, in addition to laser cannon, mount warhead launchers of one type or another. Most of the fighters mount their warheads internally, however the K-wing slings warheads and ordinance under the wings. Recent editions of the X-wing computer game series have raised a major question about how warhead launchers work.
It's been generally accepted that a proton torpedo tube and concussion missile launcher are two different pieces of equipment. Indeed, most images of the physical warheads show that the warheads themselves are significantly different. Because of the differences in the warheads (a proton torpedo is a small cone, and some concussion missiles are similar in appearance to a modern air-to-air missile) it is physically impossible for a concussion missile launcher to fire a proton torpedo. The Expanded Universe literature, and even West End Games, supports this theory (although the films are difficult to judge since in the Original Trilogy both proton torpedoes and concussion missiles glow red, and trail red exhaust. Torpedoes in Episode I are blue, suggesting a different model of warhead). However, beginning in Tie Fighter multi-purpose warhead launchers were introduced and have carried on through the rest of the game series.This is a bizarre contradiction. A proton torpedo and concussion missile are too different in shape for the same launcher to fire both weapons, yet in the later X-wing games there are no less than seven different types of warheads, all with different shapes and designs!
Certainly, individual warhead types will share the same design for ease of use. Ammunition standardization is vital in a galaxy-spanning civilization, and indeed even the United Nations today does the same (the 9mm round has become a standard for UN ground forces). A proton torpedo is a proton torpedo, regardless of manufacturer, but the differences between the torpedo and concussion missile remain because of the difference of target and function.
If the differences in weapon design mean a universal launcher is unfeasible, then there must be another option. This has given rise to the "modular armament" argument. While this is certainly possible, the design of some ships would make swapping warhead launchers difficult enough that making quick armament changes for specific missions too costly or time-consuming to be feasible. Internal launchers would require the total removal of not only the launcher itself, but a redesign of the magazine to fit the new warheads, and may even require that the targeting system be reconfigured to handle to new weapon system! This is a lot of work, and many fighters don't even have large enough access hatches or service doors in the right position to remove the launchers!
The K-wing's external weaponry has some interesting implications of its own.
This commentary will treat warhead launcher systems according to the "stock" types and configuration and under the assumption that alternate armaments for most craft must be factory-installed and that circumstances normally prevent field modifications.
Fuel
The laws of thermodynamics state that energy can neither be created nor destroyed, only transferred. A vehicle has forward motion because energy released by the power plant is moving the craft forward. In order for a craft to produce the energy required for forward momentum it must be receiving this energy from another source. Modern cars and aircraft get their energy for motion by burning fuel oils, and craft in Star Wars are no different: To move, the craft must be burning something to propel the craft forward.
The question is, what do craft in the Star Wars Universe use as fuel? This has been a long and ongoing debate in most technical forums without any sign of an answer in the near future. However Frank Bitterhof suggests that Star Wars craft may rely on a form of electrodynamic propulsion which seems to match most of the requirements of the sublight engines seen in Star Wars.
While in most cases fuel substances cannot truly be analyzed, other concerns can. One of the most notable arguments about fuel is how long a starfighter's reserves last before they are depleted. The first mention of fuel depletion in starfighters in the Expanded Universe was in The Last Command by Timothy Zahn. Luke's X-wing was damaged during a skirmish with the Star Destroyer Chimaera, and he developed a leak in his fuel cells.
By far, the most detailed treatment of fuel aboard starfighters came with Michael Stackpole's X-wing novels. Stackpole discusses that starfighters burn fuel at different rates depending on their flight mode. Traveling through hyperspace burns very little fuel, while burning the sublight engines rapidly depletes the fuel reserves. Some members of the fan community repeatedly bring the validity of Stackpole's statement into question, however it makes a great deal of sense.
In a vacuum, acceleration is constant for as long as fuel holds out. This allows the craft to accelerate infinitely until the ship runs out of fuel. Similarly, there is no drag to slow down a craft once it reaches a given speed, allowing an object to drift in one direction at a given speed infinitely unless countered by gravity or otherwise acted against (such as by collision). A craft only needs to accelerate to its maximum hyperspace velocity, (or decelerate from it) it does not need to continue to burn fuel once it reaches this velocity. Since once the craft reaches the target speed acceleration ceases, the engines are no longer burning up precious fuel. The craft would essentially "coast" the rest of the way until the ship decelerates from hyperspace again.
Sublight speeds are a different matter. A ship can travel long distances at sublight without running out of fuel in a similar manner as a ship traveling at hyperspace would: by accelerating up to the desired speed and "drifting" the rest of the way. The only reason the engines would need to be burned again is if the ship must maneuver (however, fuel burn would limit the upper velocities a ship can travel at, since a craft can not logically accelerate to the point where it exhausts its fuel reserves and can't decelerate again, or because a craft can only travel so fast before it is unable to maneuver).
The necessities of maneuvering a ship in vacuum is the key. As stated above, without lift, drag, or other forces found within an atmosphere, the use of control surfaces such as the ailerons and elevators found on modern aircraft would be useless on a ship in space. In order to change course, a ship must have some method of altering its angle of attack, and pushing the ship onto the new heading (or else the ship would simply "skid" along its original course). To actually change course, the ship must burn its main engines to provide forward thrust onto the new heading and to cease movement along the old one, and as stated firing the main engines will deplete fuel reserves.
For this reason, a spacecraft in situations requiring multiple course corrections will force the ship to fire its main drive engines more often, depleting fuel at a much higher rate than it would while maintaining a straight trajectory. Obviously, combat flying requires almost constant course changes, which means the starfighter will almost constantly burn precious fuel in order to maneuver in a dogfight.
In addition, the more the pilot opens up on the throttle the more fuel the engines will burn. A craft with a firewalled (full) throttle will burn fuel at a much greater rate than a ship operating at 50% throttle. While during the course of a dogfight pilots will make constant throttle adjustments to alter turning performance, (due to the effects of inertia on maneuvering, and the phenomenon known as "cornering velocity") the ship will spend most of its time at full throttle (often called combat power) to take advantage of the greater acceleration. Because a ship operating at combat power burns fuel at such a high rate, the craft will exhaust its reserves much more quickly, drastically limiting the amount of time available over the target area before the craft must break off or risk running out of fuel on the return trip. Obviously, a defending fighter will have a shorter trip to and from the engagement, so will have much more fuel available to fight with.
Stackpole also states that atmospheric flight essentially leeches available fuel. The nature of atmospheric flight differs drastically from a vacuum. Acceleration is no longer constant or infinite due to the restrictions of drag and gravity, and the introduction of the requirements of thrust and lift to maintain level flight adds even more complications.
In order for a craft to remain airborne, it must be traveling fast enough to produce enough lift for its mass. Heavy craft must produce more lift than light ones, which is usually accomplished by traveling at high speeds. Because drag places resistance against the airframe, a craft must not only constantly have its engines running to propel the craft forward, but must also be producing enough thrust (engine power) for the craft to overcome drag and travel fast enough to produce the lift it needs to remain aloft. The craft is now running its engines full time, so will now be burning fuel at a much greater rate than it would in a vacuum (repulsor lifts would help minimize how much power is needed to maintain lift, however the requirements of overcoming drag for propulsion will still put a significant drain on fuel reserves).
Adding the requirements of atmospheric flight and greater burn rate of combat maneuvering further increases how quickly a fighter will deplete its fuel reserves. Operating under full combat power within an atmosphere will potentially burn more fuel than any other flight mode. Reaching escape velocity and maintaining controlled (non-freefall) re-entry will also have a high fuel consumption rate, possibly even higher than atmospheric combat maneuvering (although ships may only use full-power escape and re-entry in emergency situations, and make use of the repulsors under normal conditions)!
Starfighter Unit Organization
Despite its standing as a rebellion against a legitimate government, the military forces of the Rebellion show a surprising level of coordination and organization. In part, it is largely due to superior commanders, particularly the talents of non-human leaders like Admiral Ackbar who were untapped due to principal by the largely racist Imperial Starfleet (Thrawn's impressing Palpatine, and his later position as a Grand Admiral is a great testimony to his military genius).
Although often plagued by shortages of manpower and equipment, the fighter units of the Rebellion enjoy a level of organization that has allowed them to survive in the face of the Empire's greater numbers of cheaply produced TIE-series starfighters. This organization has carried over into the New Republic's military.
Fighter Level
The very core of fighter tactics is the individual craft and pilots that make up the unit. A full unit is only as good as its weakest pilot, so if one fighter doesn't know his stuff, it places the rest of the unit at risk. Tactics for individual fighters are rather limited to encompassing basic combat maneuvering, and a lone fighter is one that's highly vulnerable. An engagement that breaks down into individual fighter-level combat is a confused every-pilot-for-themselves melee and loses any semblance of organization. Often called the furball, these frantic battles are the true classic dogfights glorified in John Wayne movies and by the exploits of the great aces of World War I.
Section Level
The fundamental base for all fighter units and tactics in the Rebellion is the two-ship section (often called an element). The pair of fighters consists of a leader and a wingman, with the latter pilot charged with the protection of the leader. These two may easily swap positions as needed, for example if the leader is in a bad position and can't fire on a target, but the wingman can. The section leader and wingman work together, watching each others' backs and using group tactics to knock out targets.
In some cases, a three-ship element is used. The problem is that the odd fighter in the group tends to make teamwork clunky and close fights crowded, and the third fighter tends to be somewhat more vulnerable (historically, the three-ship section developed early in the history of aerial combat and was retained by the British Royal Air Force into the early part of World War II. The German Luftwaffe played a part in developing, and quickly displayed the advantage of, the two-ship element during the Battle of Britain. The RAF, and later all other air forces throughout the world, adopted tactics based on paired aircraft which are still used today).
Flight Level
A flight, or division, consists of two sections grouped together (four fighters). A flight operates in much the same way as the individual sections, with a lead and covering section whose positions can swap during the course of an engagement. The two sections cover each other and work together against a shared target. If the situation warrants, the flight can easily be broken into its constituent sections.
Squadron Level
A standard full-strength Rebel fighter squadron consists of twelve fighters, organized into three four-ship flights. Some units have extra personnel to fill in as relief pilots when available. Some units operate as half squadrons (six ships) and others are extended squadrons with more than twelve fighters. The standard 12-ship unit is most effective since it breaks up nicely into three four-ship flights without having to tack an extra fighter into one section, or leave an extra section with no covering section.
Wing Level
The largest standard organized fighter unit is the wing. Typically, a Rebel starfighter wing consists of three twelve-ship squadrons, making for a total of thirty-six fighters.
Much like with a squadron, there are deviations. Some Rebel capital ships, like the Mon Remonda-class Star Cruisers carry an extended wing of four starfighter squadrons. A short wing typically ranges from a squadron and a half to two full squadrons of fighters (18-24 fighters).
Numbers Concerns
A serious wrinkle in fighter organization is brought to light by the A New Hope novelization, which states that the Rebels used four fighter squadrons: two each of X-wings and Y-wings. X-wing Red Squadron (known as Blue in the novel) is known to be at least ten pilots strong, and presumably is a full squadron of twelve. Y-wing Gold Squadron's size (Red in the novel) is largely unknown, however there are at least four ships in this unit confirmed by the film (three destroyed during the trench run, one which withdrew with Luke, Wedge, and the Millennium Falcon). Assuming Red Squadron is at full strength, and Gold Squadron functions as a half unit, this may imply that the other two squadrons are also half squadrons: one of X-wings, one of Y-wings, to match the thirty-fighter count made by the Imperials. However we also have the Expanded Universe discussion of Commander Narra's so-called "Renegade Flight," attributed to have arrived as extra support against Imperial fighter defenses. It's possible these ships are not included in the initial count.
Another serious problem comes up at the Battle of Endor, in which we see ships of different types responding to the same unit designation (IE, an X-wing, A-wing and Y-wing all responded to "Red"). This may be an example of wing-level organization, however, supported by a key difference in the pilot check ins prior to Yavin and Endor. At Yavin, Red Leader made the call "All wings report in." The only pilots to respond were Red Squadron's pilots, all flying X-wings, and all responding with "Red." However at Endor, General Calrissian makes the same call, and the pilots who respond all use different colors, specifically Red, Green and Gray (Calrissian in the Falcon answers as Gold Leader). Obviously, if we are seeing the same situation, the responses in both circumstances would be the same! This suggests that when Wedge calls for Red Two or Three, and the A-wing and Y-wing respond, that we're seeing what appears to be squadron leaders of units that make up Red Wing, not Red Squadron (for example, Wedge leads Rogue Squadron in addition to Red Wing. For wing-level communications, he responds as Red Leader, and at squadron-level he's Rogue).
Attrition
An unfortunate result of war is the loss of life and equipment that comes with combat, and to a fighter pilot death is an almost constant enemy. The average life expectancy of a Rebel starfighter pilot is only one or two missions (although the rigid construction of their craft has helped large numbers of individual pilots beat these odds).
Because the Rebellion is unable to consistently supply its units with replacement ships or pilots, units may often be undermanned in combat, or hastily assembled from extra ships and pilots of other decimated units. At the Battle of Yavin, the Rebels fielded roughly thirty starfighters. Assuming that Red and Gold squadrons were normal units at full strength (Red Squadron at least has had a roster for a full twelve pilots given) this still leaves an extra six ships unassigned to either squadron (there may have been an excess of Y-wings, ships in greater supply to the Rebellion than X-wings, and may have been lumped together with Gold Squadron). For sure, a flight of at least four X-wings led by Rebel Commander Narra was quickly assembled under the call sign of Renegade Flight (also reported as Black Flight) and helped distract Imperial fighter cover over the Death Star while Red and Gold Squadrons made their attacks (if the Rebels did use one full X-wing squadron, a half squadron of X-wings and two of Y-wings, Renegade Flight may have been the X-wing half squadron).
The Rebellion's inability to easily replace lost men and equipment has contributed greatly to their demand for rugged ships that can bring their pilots home in one piece. Dead pilots don't learn from their mistakes, and it's the reliability and toughness of the Rebellion's fighters that have contributed to the growing ranks of experienced starfighter pilots in the Alliance's military. Against an enemy that can quickly process and train replacement pilots, and effortlessly build them ships to fly, this hard-earned skill and experience has allowed Rebel flyers to repeatedly best the numerically superior but shorter-lived and less-skilled pilots of the Imperial Navy.
Rebel Fighter Pilot Flight SuitsThe flight suits worn by Rebel starfighter pilots varies depending on the craft. It has been suggested that it may also change between the different Rebel cells.
X-wing/Y-wing
X-wing and Y-wing pilots wear identical flight suits. The suit itself is bright orange, over which the pilot wears a white flak vest. The control box for the flight suit is worn on top of the flak vest, hanging around the neck, and also fastening behind the back. The pilot also wears a black belt, on which a blaster or other weapon (such as a lightsaber) can be carried, and a brightly-colored crash harness reminiscent of the support straps on a parachute back that encircle the pilot's legs. The boots and gloves are black, and the pilot wears a strap around one leg that carries emergency flares. The helmet has an orange visor and a tall, decorative crest. Helmet markings are by pilot preference.
T-47 Airspeeder, Hoth Units
The crews of the T-47 Airspeeders stationed at Echo Base on Hoth wore an identical flight suit to the X- and Y-wing pilots at the base. The exception is that under the flak vest they wore a thick orange jacket, and the identical boots and gloves to the Rebel army troops guarding the base (both are heavy, gray, winter boots and gloves) to protect themselves from the harsh cold on Hoth.
A-wing
A-wing pilots wear a strikingly different uniform than X- and Y-wing crews. Their flight suit is dark green with no identifiable flak vest. Their boots are dark brown, although they wear the same silver crash harness around their waist. Most A-wing pilots wear a dark-colored (often green) flight helmet that fits close to the head, resembling the leather helmets of WWII more than the heavy crash helmet worn by X- and Y-wing pilots.
B-wing
B-wing pilots wear the same orange flightsuits as X- and Y-wing pilots. Their flak vest is dark green, and their boots are brown.