TIE Scimitar
When Grand Admiral Thrawn returned from his missions on the
galactic fringes to wage a campaign against the New Republic, the
TIE Scimitar was developed and commissioned on his orders. This
heavy bomber design also seems to have reached the forces of the
Palpatine Clones on Byss. [The fugitive Royal Guardsman Kir Kanos
possessed a TIE Scimitar in Crimson Empire.]
The hull is an elongated unipod design, with the cockpit extending
forward beyond the wings to provide superior crew visibility. The
two crewmen enjoy extensive viewport strips along the cockpit
ceiling, and below to port and starboard. In an emergency, the
entire cockpit pod can detach to jettison the wings, main hull and
payload.
A TIE Scimitar is propelled by a single ion engine, augmented by a
pair of powerful manoeuvring repulsor drives mounted on the wings.
Repulsors are the most efficient form of propulsion within the
gravity well of a significant planetary body; and bombers naturally
spend many missions attacking ground targets.
The wings are an unusual shape: scalloped so that the panels turn
back slightly around the pylon. This increases the craft's forward
or rear profile, and hence its vulnerability to enemy fire. The
explanation for this design compromise is not obvious. It may be
less a concern for this bomber than other TIE designs, since the
Scimitar is equipped with strong shield generators. It may be an
aerodynamic concession of some kind, owing to the fact that these
bombers often operate in atmosphere; or it may have something to do
with leverage and the action of the repulsors to turn the
craft.
TIE Drone
This is a droid/computer controlled starfighter mass-produced from
the factories of the World Devastators of the Battle of Calamari
and the Shadow Hand campaign. The vehicle is often called a "TIE
Droid", although it would be more specific and appropriate to call
it a TIE drone instead, since a "drone" is literally a starfighter
with artificial intelligence whereas "droid" usually refers to an
independent ambulatory android that could be separated from a
vehicle. SFS had experimented with drone TIEs for many years, but
they were impractical as long as the Empire dominated the sapient
and material resources of the galaxy. The drone fighter's
programmed piloting and combat tactics tend to be idiosyncratic or
inferior to a living pilot. Therefore the ability to mass-produce
it is the only major advantage. The TIE drones are deployed only in
overwhelming numbers, and in situations when the efficiency of
manufacturing outperforms the effectiveness of Imperial pilot
recruitment and training.
TIE Phantom/TIE [V38] (Sentinel?)
A fighter design which apparently was well-known in the STAR WARS
universe but thusfar has only been glimpsed in the literature in
the form of a modified cloaked variant. At this time we have no way
of knowing which of the Phantom's features are shared by the parent
model. The basic hull, engine and wing configurations are probably
the same; if there were fundamental changes then Ackbar would not
be justified in calling the cloaked ship a mere modification. The
cockpit is certainly a standard TIE ball, attached to the main
hull, rather than the makeshift conical alternative used on the
transitional Phantom.
The military and colloquial names for this fighter have not yet
been revealed. The technical designation used by Admiral Ackbar is
V38. Perhaps it would be listed as TIE/V on tactical displays (with
this ship being the 38th sub-model), and the common name (analogous
to "Interceptor" or "Defender") beginning with a "V".
Alternatively, it may be the "TIE Sentinel" mentioned in the Hasbro
online survey; this designation fits the V38 better than its
cloakable descendent. Of course these speculations may actually be
meaningless, since the Galactic Empire does not use the Latin
alphabet and all fighter designations are translations from
Imperial Basic.
The three wingtip cannons on the TIE Phantom may be a hint at the
role of the mainstream TIE Sentinel production model. If these
weapons are ion cannons they would compliment the laser cannons on
the cockpit chin, and also would help to round out regular TIE
starfighter forces, which generally lack ion cannons. The absence
of ion cannons on common TIEs may have a tactical reason, or else
it due to technical constraints (eg. ion cannons may require power
systems that are not easily contained on compact starfighters). The
TIE Sentinel is not a rare vessel, but not a dominant and common
design either. Its tactical role must be special in some way, and
the ion cannon hypothesis seems a good possiblity (though not a
unique solution).
(TIE Phantom)
This is a little-known experimental two-man fighter produced in
limited quantities at a secret facility sometime before the Battle
of Endor. According to Admiral Ackbar, it is a modified version of
an extant fighter model called V38, with the most important
addition being a special set of sensor/scanner
countermeasures.
In the computer game the prototype craft appeared to be named
"Phantom", but the term "TIE Sentinel" has also appeared (most
prominently in a Hasbro online survey about future toy concepts).
Most likely a TIE Sentinel is the V38, lacking a cloaking device,
and the cloakable experimental fighter is the TIE Phantom.
The triple wings total a radiator area equivalent to over double
that of a TIE interceptor. There are three engine outlets in an
equilateral triangular configuration on the stern, which is a flat
rather than spherical surface.
The cockpit configuration is unusual; it looks more like part of a
Corellian freighter than a spherical Sienar design. This may have
been used only on prototypes; production models, had they ever been
built, probably would followed SFS conventions. Crew enter through
an elevator hatch under the primary hull.
The vessel is armed with two chin-mounted laser cannons in addition
to the three which appear to be mounted on the wingtips. It also
carries some remarkable power-consuming extras, which might reduce
its propulsive performance to something less than an older fighter
or bomber. These luxury devices including a shield generator, a
hyperdrive, and some sort of cloaking device which is capable of
operating even during a hyperjump.
The latter feature is most surprising for a ship of this size. The
Imperial Navy only used cloaking devices for very special tactical
purposes, and full cloaking shields were technically impractical on
anything but large warships or cargo vessels. A cloaking device
mounted on a starfighter must have some drastic hidden or overt
drawbacks. Perhaps there are dangerous side-effects for the pilot?
Perhaps the fighter contains a compact but unstable energy source
that produces a gargantuan explosion when the ship is crippled? In
any case, the cloaking devices on the prototypes were flawed, the
cloak effect tended to flicker on and off, and was prone to
outright failure.
