@@davidordaz5251 are you referring to the now-canon TIE-D or the original one portrayed in media like the TIE Fighter video game and in the X-Wing Novels? They are not exactly the same
Oh yeah, the original defender was a beast. Not sure on the specs on the canon one, but the "real" one was op as hell Edit: it bugs the hell out of me that we never got an "official" version of the stealth-x or the recon-x (other than one pic that i know of)
It is pretty clear neither the original Defender nor the Defender Elite ever went into full mass production. After Thrawn disappeared and the Death Star was destroyed, the impetus seems to have shifted to the more easily and cheaply manufactured TIE Interceptor to speed up getting a faster, more maneuverable successor to the basic TIE out onto the battlefields to face the Rebel X-wings. I imagine the Defenders were like the early German jets in World War II. By the time their value became clear to anyone but Thrawn, the Empire had way too irons in the fire to concentrate on starfighter improvements.
@@kenle2 good point, and im not a fan of the animated series, but i like them keeping thrawn potentially alive. He could really shake things up if he reappears, and take the whole thing in a new direction, esp if the rumors of the sequels getting retconned into oblivion prove true. *please please please* I would love to see thrawn come out as a/the leader against the (now non vong) bad guys, working and manipulating all the groups together, for what is ultimately the good of everyone. Thats one thing i dug about paellion [sp]. He went from a dutiful but bland officer to a great character because of thrawn. Him and kal are probably the best grey characters in SW. And before anyone brings up ashoka, i dont mean in that angsty am i good or bad way. Thrawn, Kal, (and honestly a lot of other mandos) just had the view of "is this going to protect the ones i promised to". They are totally cool w looking like monsters if it progresses their goals. Or more succinctly, "not one f given except for taking care of mine"
Tie-defender and X-wing both should be noted as best Multirole Fighters. They both had strong shields, decent to excellent maneuvrability, and strong armament including torpedo/missile launchers. X-Wing was like Hellcat or Thunderbolt, while Tie Defender was like Mustang.
Id say you missed the heavy strike bomber category. Id suggest either the b wing or k wing for the slot. Both were capable of carrying way more weapons than y wings by a significant margin, and were designed to cripple or destroy larger capital ships.
I thought so too! I would submit the Scimitar Assault Bomber as an alternative candidate. Also, I noticed the lack of a "Strike Craft" category for things like the Missile Gunboat or the glorious Skipray.
@@FieryCheeze shouldn’t there also be a close air support category? Like which starfighter in Star Wars can perform a role similar to the A10 Thunderbolt.
Yeah but since Scariff had the majority of the empires' technology libraries and projects before it was blown off by the incomplete death star. Clearly, the Tie Striker wasn't going to be produced all that often.
The Gauntlet class is definitely more of a drop ship/gun ship in purpose, yet still called a fighter for some reason. Sort of like the U-wing is. Either way, one of my favorites along with the Fang. If I were given a choice of any small sub light-freighter sized ship in SW, it'd be a Gauntlet.
@@cd5sircoupe I think it's classified that way because it still uses starfighter-scale weapons. No tubolasers or capital torpedoes and missiles. It's like the distinction between fighter-bombers and strategic bombers. If you use it to attack a single tank, it's a fighter-bomber. If you use it to level a tank factory, it's a strategic bomber. But both are technically "bombers".
Yes, I’d love to see one converted to a heavy Starfighter or heavy bomber/gunship, as the Kom’rk has plenty of space within it’s hull to add caribou’s other weapon systems. Personally I’d think a single or dual heavy ion cannon, a couple missile tubes and finally a couple torpedo tubes. Use the ion cannons and/or ion torpedoes to knock out the power systems on a mid sized, or even large enemy warship, and then using the lasers, missiles and proton torpedoes to destroy or completely disable the much larger ship. Now imagine the rebellion equipped with squadrons full of identically equipped Kom’rk starfighters/gunships. I’ve always though that even full sized Star Destroyers should be fairly easy to destroy if the Rebel attack force utilized enough ion weaponry, as the full strength of a Star Destroyer means nothing, if your gunships keep hitting it with ion sweating, keeping it’s power systems disrupted, as without power the SD won’t have shields, even once power is restored to the shields they would need to recharge before they would be useful. Additionally with it’s power disrupted, the weaponry of the SD were useless, so the only real threat would be the tie fighters, but those can de dealt with by the gunships or starfighters unit that came with the gunships (to speed things up, as soon as the shields are taken down, the closest X-wings or Kom’rk available would launch a few proton torpedoes into the SD’s hanger, to keep any extra ties from being launched.
The tie interceptor was actually a very good design so I'd take them over an A wing... of course the Tie Defender should've been the best interceptor and space superiority fighter and the fact it didn't show up on the list at all is a travesty.
Most of the Imperial Navy preferred a less expensive, advanced version of the TIE series which didn't have a hyperdrive or shields, to go with the doctrine that starfighters were supposed to stick to providing close picket and scouting forces for their very expensive capital ships. No hit and fade raids, instead send in a Star Destroyer or a fleet to intimidate or flatten any opposition. Also to discourage desertions.
How true, the TIE Defender was so OP that they had to kill one of the main character, and remove Thrawn from the setting to avoid its deployment. Even Vader himself actually praised the defender's performance.
@@bigmekboy175 Back in the old TIE Fighter games the Defender was awesome - first mission I came across with them was flying with Darth Vader on my wing against a renegade Admiral's ISD, to rescue Emperor Palpatine. There was a specific note in the briefing NOT to attempt to give Vader orders! But I always preferred the TIE Avenger for interceptor/space superiority missions and the Assault Gunboat for strike missions. The Avenger lacked the Ion Cannons but was a smaller target, with similar shield strength, speed and agility plus the rest of the loadout was the same (quad Laser Cannons and a launcher system, and iirc sometimes a tractor beam in later missions). The Assault Gunboat had a decent missile load, was remarkably tough and handled surprisingly well - always felt like an Imperial Navy equivalent to my favourite Star Wars figher, the Y-Wing.
Having flown many sorties the best ones are either the fastest so you can make it inside the enemy capital ship quickly or the strongest ones so you can survive getting in to the same ship.
I know it's a question for GT but I'd like to share my thoughts. Jedi Starfighter (Delta 7) is an ok interceptor as it's fast, durable for it's class (good shields) and maneuverable (and extremely deadly when you have a jedi pilot). It's only lacking in the firepower department as it's 4 light laser cannons can struggle to punch through heavier bombers. Also if I remember correctly it's very hard to pilot to people who aren't force sensitive. x-wing is a jack of all trades fighter which was pretty much tailor made for rebels as it can fit any role and be good in it. It outperforms Y-wing in every area aside durability and the bomb bay so it can do surgical bomber strikes much better. It's also a great strike fighter due to high firepower so it can destroy both bombers and interceptors as long as it doesn't get into direct dogfight with the latter. But can't really escort bombers as it can't really break through a patrol craft fighter-killer like a tartan cruiser or raider class corvette easily, unless it get's a lucky torpedo shot at it. Don't know what to expect on a mission or need to fill in for a destroyed squadron? Grab an x-wing if tie defender isn't available. Tie defender elite in canon is basically a direct upgrade to x-wing. It's fast, it's maneuverable, it has proton torpedoes and laser cannons for days. But aside of being a surgical strike bomber, interceptor and space superiority fighter it still can't easily deal with dedicated anti-starfighter ships I mentioned above. That's why tie defender from Legends continuity is better- ion cannons can disable or in the worst case scenario drain shields of enemy space ships quicker than laser cannons.
Honestly I dont know much personally about the TIE defender elite, but on the other two Ill give my best. Personally they all suck. Now I could leave it at that but Ill explain. First off all the iterations of the jedi starfighter were pretty much overpowered on engines and way too undergunned to be realistically high production vehicles. The first generations reliance on a hyperspace ring for independent travel and a droid head only to help plot hyperspace jumps and its positioning on the outer cockpit ment that it was VERY vulnerable to damage that could leave the pilot unable to get home even as a jedi does have a precognitive sense that does not mean he can totally dodge indefinitely. The eta-2 was even worse since it dropped the shield generator and added airfoils to leach heat from the power system which in space is a horrible way to bleed heat if your anywhere near a solar body. The heat foils and cockpit design also limited vision overall and still relied on a hyperspace ring to travel between systems. The X-Wing is a ok design in some respects but has some serious flaws in the execution's of its goals. First off the long wings make for excellent targets and are again there to help dissipate heat from the power systems, which is a big problem near planetary bodies since in space if your near a sun solar heat accumulates regardless. Next off while the overall weapons armoring isnt bad not having the laser cannons be on a spindle mount to off side target or to reverse them so that you can target trailing opposing fighters or any kind of chaff system means they are too overly designed shipkillers. Next is the fact that the weapon system is only armed when the airfoils are separated which is as huge design flaw. The profile of the ship may need to change to get through narrow places and or closer to bigger ships which may or may not have enough room for the foils to be deployed it may get dicey if you cant target lock and fire in a confined space. Lastly is why is the astromech not in a armored compartment so that if you take damage itself isnt taking damage and allowing you to plot a course for a different system. I mean it is your navigation computer why should it be exposed to enemy fire?
@@eonaon6914 So for Delta 7 You would want a smaller cockpit area? Less transparisteel but leave the headspace wide enough to get the same view? Eta at least has powerful weapons compared to Delta 7, but the shield thing I believe was a design flaw that was forced by Palpatine, who wanted more Jedi to die in the war. I would say You're a bit too prejudiced towards S-foils, since in Star Wars universe they are "magic" and are mostly shown as a huge benefit to starships that have them. And X-wing target profile is a huge improvement over Y-wing and ARC-170 while it can perform their tasks just as well aside of real bombing runs and having a rear turret. Also it can shoot with S-foils locked as far as I remember. As for the astromech socket I'd say that the astromech also needs to stick out a bit to help out with surface repairs, it might also need to pop out of it's socket during system failure to repair something, if it was in an internal socket it could be a problem to eject during a system shutdown
Thanks for the great insight. I agree that the delta 7 shouldn’t be on the list given your insight but I still think the x wing and tie defender elite should be on the list. As for my reasoning, though different, the x wing was just as good as the y wing (that’s why it was used so often) and since that was on the list, the x wing should be to. And if the x wing is on the list the tie defender elite definitely should be because it has proven to give the x wing a run for it’s money (in Star Wars rebels).
@@miqvPL Honestly on the Delta I would move the cockpit forwards to the mid section since any attacks could be followers on your rear and a giant dome of transparisteel would be a decently easy nut to crack and rather than a droid head put in a nav com. Having only a third of a droid is pretty useless unless your always needing to get the ship warmed up or started which I could see as a jedi as a need. A secondary system or a second droid in the ring which could keep the ring in a stable orbit and maneuver the ring closer or to a pre planned exit route rather than let the thing just float and be a navigation hazard or weakness on trying to escape a hostile force. I knew about the cannon answer on the Eta but still without particle shields or any defensive measures I would have literally said nope not paying for that. You do realize that any combat situation things like nuts bolts or just paint chips would outright destroy a Eta in combat especially the type of combat we see in the films. NASA has to plan its launches around the current orbital debris for very good reasons. S-foils are dumb. They are the Xbox 360 version of a fix to a heatsink problem that should be accounted for in any small personal fighter craft. Lets say a s-foil gets damaged in the attack or removed by debris, now your operation efficiency in combat has gone way down because of a bit of metal that literally needs to poke out of your ship. Now I agree the ARC-170 had way too big of a profile in general so no fight from me there let alone the horrible pace of its weapon systems regardless of their power. The Y wing on the other hand doesn't trigger my profile hate, actually it has a overall decent profile. You get the same issue profile wise on a Y wing as a X wing with wings closed or a Z-95 headhunter if seen from above or behind. On the chasing starfighter end the Y-Wing is superior to the X-Wing with wings open in the fact that it might be thick in its profile but has less overall target space. My only issue with the Y wing is why it needs the struts on the back for maneuvering when a nose thruster pack of some sort to using a axis fan on the engine exhaust like the falcon in a + configuration would lend it greater mobility rather than a long bridge of metal and the loss of all that power from escaping thrust. That or shortening the bridge to a closer point to lower the length and giving greater responsiveness. On the astromech problem. A independently powered armored top hatch that the mech itself can trigger solves the get out problems and most astromechs are loaded from the bottom and lifted into the slot. Any eject system could just as easily pop it out of the bottom of the slot if it was possible. The point of fixing surface damage is moot in a starfighter unless its in a hanger or landed. Fixing a issue on the outside of a fighter in combat when the droid is basically integrated into your combat and nav system is a bad idea. Now on larger starships like we saw on the Naboo Royal ship this makes actual sense since the droid should still be protected inside the ships shield generators for in combat repair work.
I dunno about saying the Y-wing is a fighter bomber...it's more in the "Attack Aircraft" role like the A-10, A-7, A-4 etc...I'd have to add Multi-Role and that hands down would go to the X-Wing with probably the TIE Defender coming in a very close 2nd
You forgot to include a heavy bomber class of ship. The best ship in this class happens to be the B-Wing starfighter. In Legends, there was also the K-Wing starfighter used by the New Republic.
K-wing yes, B-wing is more of a surgical strike bomber/ starfighter escort ship. It just doesn't have the payload of a real bomber. It can disable shields/subsystems with ion cannons, destroy shield generators, engines or external, exposed bridges but it stuggles to "sink" a ship like a real bomber should. An entire squadron was needed to take down a modified Imperial I battleship after heavy loses and a long fight. I would expect a heavy bomber to much more than that. You need a proton bomb bay for that or something like the K-wing. There's an obscure ship You might like, the absurdly looking Tie/ca "Punisher" bomber. That's a real deal, if you can avoid getting destroyed while flying this brick then the capital ship is dead. Honorable mentions go to the Alpha-class Xg-1 Star Wing that has the same number of proton torpedoes as the B-wing but can release them all at once, hitting one area really, really hard which can probably take out medium sized capital ships in one lucky shot.
@@miqvPL the Tie Bomber can rain some death too. It's tough to say how survivable it was tho. I've seen (youtube admittedly) sources say it was heavily shielded and others say unsheil. Either way it carries a good payload
@@anthonygonzalez2897 as Michel said- tie bomber was unshielded and even though it had much thicker armor than a regular tie fighter it didn't amount to much- it had the speed of the original BTL-B Y-wing when fully loaded and even though it was way more maneuverable than a Y-wing and carried an insane payload (look at it's cross section picture, even though official data usually has lackluster numbers, the crossection shows it packs a bunch of bombs, rockets and thermal detonators at the same time). Tie Punisher has more armor, more shields and nearly 4 times more payload which is absolutely insane, probably more than a K-wing. It has a massive target profile though so I imagine that even turbolasers don't have a hard time hitting it. But if it reaches the target then it doesn't have to worry about turrets on the way back anymore, it should be able to critically damage even something like a Star Destroyer
I'd make an argument for the Missile Boat over the B-Wing. It's whole purpose in life is to launch up to 60 advanced proton torpedoes before withdrawing for rearming or use the tractor beam in consert with advanced concussion missiles to take out Tie-Defenders
Hey GT, you should really go through the Thrawn Campaign from Star Wars Legends since you finished the Clone Wars series. Love the channel keep up the awesome Star Wars content!
God the Vong as the baddies in the Sequal Trilogy could have been SOOOOOO good. Dovin Basals stripping shield off of x-wings would have been such a jaw dropping moment on screen.
@@linkthepaladin5202 well the slave 1 is a firespray31 model, for example the millennium falcon is yt-1300. Slave 1 was just a firespray that jango stole and named.
I’m actually trying to design my own ship that’s about the size of the Millennium Falcon, perhaps a little bigger. Like the Falcon it wasn’t originally designed for combat but was later heavily modified. It’s main function is to be a mobile home that is capable of defending itself against a variety of enemies.
The courier-class yacht comes to mind. I think it is literally only in one Star Wars RPG book (FFG) [The Jewel of Yavin], but the page exists with stats on Wookiepedia. I mention it because I've always liked the idea of a ship like the Hwk-290 (or Hwk-1000 from another SW RPG book) which was built for speed, ruggedness, relatively cost effective, decently sized, but then gets pressed into a variety of rolls, because SPEED, EASE OF MODDING, and FEELS LIKE HOME. I hope this helped in some way. Good luck with your design. May the Force be with You.
Though Iagree to your selection of starfighters, to be honest, in a conventional war like in the prequels, you would not see as many classes of starfighters being operated by a faction due to the fact that waging a war with so many models would be a logistical nightmare because there probably won't be many standardized parts and also the training of pilots would be more difficult and so, a more practical approach would be something like X-Wing and Y-Wing. The low number of designs operated by this navy, mass production of these ships will be a lot easier, and also removing a lot of the logistical demands and also, you would have more hangar space to carry sayed starfighters and thus require a much smaller fleet witch means that you could fight in more places, spreading the enemy thinner, and making them lose the war. This is the reason why in our own world militarys are using a lot of multi-role aircraft
Yes, but the Clone Wars were always meant to reflect a World War II type of environment, where after a long period of peace everyone was scrambling to catch up with the latest technology (especially in aircraft and armored vehicles). So they were throwing everything at whatever designs they had and introducing new models as fast as they could design them. Much like what happened to the Allies in 1939-43, when aircraft literally became obsolete six months after they were introduced, and so they were shifted to less active sectors of the war theaters or assigned to new roles as ground attack aircraft or trainers as new models became available. Even planes like the Spitfire that had been introduced before the war went through more than a dozen different redesigns. Also, before the Clone Wars with no Republic military and individual planetary or sector governments operating their own local defense forces, there would probably have been a fair amount of diversity of designs as they would have different budgets and strategic priorities based on their individual circumstances. Again, much like the individual countries of the Allied Powers did before the German invasions.
Indeed, though I gave The Clone War as an example of a conventional war between evenly matched factions. Also, I talked about strictly the federal government, since, as the name suggests, these defense forces were not meant for operating outside of the planet's vicinity, and so, outside of defensive actions, all military operations would be conducted by the GAR My point is that you would not see Naboo Starfighters fighting above Geonosis for example.
@@cristianniculescu4244 But you might have squadrons of V-19's, Z-95 Headhunters and Cloakshapes flying together, depending on what the Republic was able to scrape together as the different clone pilot units were formed, until the ARC-180's and V-Wings became available and standardized later in the war.
I feel like an N1 would be better for air superiority than a tie striker, as it’s actually designed to be aerodynamic, or well, more aerodynamic than most other star fighters in Star Wars.
Instead of the ARC-170, I think the Skipray Blast boat was better suited to long-range recon. Not only did it have a better rounded armament, but it was actually used by Luke Skywalker for a stealthy mission in the early days of the Vong war.
There is also another problem with the skiprays that need to be addressed. They are not designed with a hyperdrive. A hyperspace sled was an aftermarket modification, plus the craft was truly designed to work in space. It was actually an atmospheric based craft first and foremost.
I feel like you missed the category of Multirole fighter. These are vessels that are not the best at any one task but can perform a large number of tasks quit well. In there real world probably the premier example right now in there F/A-18, equally at home in a dog fight as it is providing close air support. The definitive example in Star Wars I think would be the X-Wing.
Great list and quality content as always. Though I wonder if you also took a look at the starfighters of the Old Republic era. SWTOR's starfighter mode has some really interesting designs. And I don't know if it's just me, or was the lighting a bit too strong in this video? Also me, a German, cringing at the pronunciation of Mannfred von Richthofen. :D
Glad the Y-wing made it on the list, that fighter has grown on me to be one of my favourite SW ships. It's effectiveness isn't in how flashy or advanced it is but by being reliable, simple and efficient.
@@anthonygonzalez2897 Well, it's a robust strike aircraft with a powerful payload that ccacn be altered based on the mission, it's easily maintained, and capable of taking off from minimal support airfields. It also conducts close air support and interdiction missions and is loved by the infantry. I could just be reading into it because I love the A-10, and you're right, the Y-wing is more versatile (because, y'know, space) than an A-10, but there are some definite similarities.
Space superiority fighter: Tie Defender. Interceptor: Tie Defender. Bomber: b-wing Recon: ARC-170 System Patrol Cutter: YT-2000 I almost listed the Defender for the Bomber as well, but the B-Wing has almost 4 times the missile load...
@@dianabarnett6886for short range bombing runs or in battle against a capital ship K wing no contest but without a hyperdrive it couldnt do drop in bombing runs like how the rebels used the Y wing
The B-Wing is far better then the Y-Wing, in fact, the B-Wing out-right replaced the Y-wing during the gap between the originals and the sequels. The gyro system, extremely customizable loadout, targeting jammers, tight lock-on, and overall design makes it far more viable :)
if you look at the engines on the latest model of the Y-wing, you can see thrust vectoring fins, about 10' from the rear of the engines. using it's own thrust as it passes through the fins gives the Y-wing additional steering from the rear, solving a good part of it's maneuvering shortcomings
2:55 "6 forward-facing lasers"... as far as I remember, TIE Interceptors only have 4 cannons... or did Darth Mouse change that, too? 3:20 also, that "Richtofen" pronounciation....
@@MrFlatage well, I have been doing some checking and stand corrected. Back in the old TIE Fighter game days, armament was only four. The reason for the vestigial chin-mounted guns, as I recall, is using as most of the original TIE Fighter parts as possible to reduce cost and maintenance.
I am very pleased that the Mandalorian Fang fighter was included (since that's probably my favorite fighter), but there's no place for the Tie Defender on this list? That thing is OP as hell.
I would say you are missing a category. Space superiority fighter. The best fighter against other fighters essentially. My answer: the Tie Defender. Easily. Before that, the X-Wing
@@davidordaz5251 The tide never turned until after Endor and even that was the Empire in disarray. The Empire could have never lost a battle and still fallen. With each and every super ship and weapon, the Empire falls ever harder. It's their sole purpose.
I think that role is dedicated to the light interceptor. Tie Defender is OP as heck, but it vs it’s cost in droid tri fighters would easily get demolished.
Tie Defenders and Avengers were actually faster than the Interceptor so I’d use that for the role. For space superiority and fighter-bomber, the X-83 Twintail stands out as number one. Fast, agile, shield strength of a freighter, powerful laser cannons that can nearly one-shot almost any other fighter out there, and up to 16 proton torpedoes, it is one of the best fighters in Star Wars. For dedicated bomber role, the K-Wing is a must as it’s just brisling with heavy weapons. As for recon (and by extension surgical stealth strike) one must go with the F-117/F-35 of Star Wars, the Stealth-X
The Alph-3 Nimbus, V-Wing, is a decent short-range Escort Fighter. And one of the few Republic starfighters that came armed with Concussion Missles as well as 2x light laser cannons. Plus with a Hyperdrive Ring was capable of extra-system flight as well.
@@GenerationTech Very true, although that seemed to be a special variant. While even a standard b-wing, which carries, ion cannons, lasers and 12 proton torpedo's without the super laser are a formidable craft that can inflict significant damage on an enemy capital ship. Why is is classed as a heavy assault fighter.
6:10 RE: the "BTL-A4 Y-Wing" sounding like an official manufacturer's designation... I dunno, seems like the Rebellion-era Y-Wing would be right at home in the Inner Sphere. I mean, you take a design older than the pilot, have a shady mechanic with a fourth-grade education courtesy of backwater dirtball planets and/or the prison system hotwire it back into action, and add some alphanumerics to designate a particular loadout. Tell me that isn't _exactly_ how most merc units and Great House militaries keep their battlemechs in action.
My favorite ship is the Naboo N1 starfighter. It has almost all the traits you need, an astromech droid, its incredibly fast and nimble, it's aerodynamic, making it good for in atmosphere combat, and it overall is a cool looking ship. My second favorite would be the X-wing, as it's fast, tough, has a good amount of storage, has quite extreme firepower, and also has an astromech
What about the X-Wing which is the back bone of the rebellion a formidable fighter that won so many battles against the empire and the new order. For me my opinion the best star fighter plus in the hands of the best pilots like Wedge Antiles and Poe Dameron this fighter is extremely deadly.
The tie silencer kylo ren used was a stealthy version of the tie-defender. I would also use the lancer class pursuit ship rather than the arc-170 for recon. The ship you can get up and walk around and use the refresher is gonna be much better for long range recon than being stuck in a cockpit and have to use a hose to relieve yourself
Agreed, The TIE Defender should have been on the list; also, I'm surprised that stealth/cloaking systems were so rare in the Star Wars universe, that it was only on that one ship Anakin once upon time piloted, that we know about.
I think I would've added a heavy starfighter or something similar. My candidates there would be either the TIE defender, the besuulisk or the TwinTail starfighter. All three would be great additions to any navy.
another ship that doesn't get mentioned too often and is my personal favorite of the Clone Wars era starfighters is the NTB-630 Naval Bomber. which looks very similar to the Y-Wing and were rather impressive ships in terms of how effective they were in combat.
Long range patrol, recon: the Mandalorian fighter/freighter Bo-Katan uses in Mandalorian. Cargo space, space for multiple people as well as rations, etc. Murders TIE interceptors.
Glad to see the TIE Baron here. It is a favorite of mine. Oddly, everyone notices the similarities between the TIE Baron and the Interceptor. Mainly because of the shape of the solar panels. Closer examination reveals it has more in common with the TIE Advanced V1 flown by the Inquisitors.The hull is pure TIE Advanced, and the inner part of the S-foils have the same semi circular shape as the V1. It only borrows the dagger like extension from the TIE Interceptor. The Baron is more of a modernized TIE Advanced than an evolution of the TIE Interceptor. Odd that the Defender doesn't rate high on this list. Yoda's Interceptor is almost certainly among the fastest and most maneuverable interceptors, followed closely by the ETA-2 from which it is derived. No need to stick so closely to just the more popular ships if the goal is to pick the best. Most people watching this will likely be fans, and will be familiar with even the more obscure vessels. I enjoyed the Defender when it first appeared in the X-wing games back in prehistory, but it wasn't a favorite. The more I have come to know it, it has become a favorite and I find it to be one of the best, perhaps THE best fighter in the Star Wars universe. Not only a superior interceptor and space superiority fighter, but also an effective bomber and gunship and/or attack craft.
Fighter of the line/space superiority fighter: X-Wing, well rounded fighter with excellent speed, good maneuverability, great crew protection, hyperdrive, and overall good independence. Light bomber/Attack star fighter: Y Wing, good speed, good payload, dependability, point defense weapons. Interceptor/point defense fighter: droid tri-fighter, small, fast, maneuverable, with good firepower. Perfect for keeping attacking fighters away from larger starships, and lack of a pilot means that it’s able to deploy quickly at any time (don’t need to worry about pilots being in the middle of human necessities like showering, eating, sleeping, or bathroom when call to action comes) Long range recon/deep penetration slash attacks/special missions: ARC-170 fantastic sensor package, heavy firepower, fast hyperdrive, multiple crew, and amenities for long range/duration missions the fighter is perfect for scouting the flanks of fleets, long range recon/intelligence missions to locate key targets, and it’s heavy firepower and hyperdrive allow it to conduct slash attacks on enemy shipping and logistics hubs and routes. Anybody got suggestions for Command and Control/ electronic warfare fighter?
You missed out on the empires best tactical fighter the Skipray Blast boat. If you want the best recon/heavy fighter this is what you go with. A group of these can and will take out most things due to the weapons aboard it. For time away you start with 1 month of consumables and a 20 ton cargo bay. It has 4 different roles due to its modular ability and different configurations. It has hyperdrive and shields on all configurations as well, It only needs one to fly and work but it can hold up to 4 different people.
If you haven't, you should read Boyd: The fighter pilot who changed the art of war. by Robert Coram. The fighter mafia he created came up with many innovative fighters including the F-16 and A-10. Boyd was brilliant and would be loved by Thrawn.
Personally, I preferred the Missile Boat as a Fighter-Bomber. ...actually... with enough systems redirected to engines.. I also preferred it as an interceptor.
I would pick the y-wing because although it is a bomber, it was also used as an auxiliary fighter during clone war and empire eras. The blt y wing is the best, but the tech is outdated today
The Y-wing A4 is a completely different model to the Y-wing B alongside the other two versions the Y-wing S3 and the Y-wing S3B, the A4 has the forward mounted ion cannon and is single seated, the B has a bubble turret ion cannon, the S3 is a two-seater with a turreted ion cannon controlled by a gunner, and the S3B is the same as the S3 accept the ion cannon turret is replaced with a rapid fire laser cannon turret
@Alan love your channel, was wandering through is their an explanation about why fighters are named after letters in the Western alphabet, I mean the lexicon for either alphabet seems a lot different, and the characters for say 'A' does not match in both alphabets but the ship looks like an A, and X does not exist in the star wars alphabet as far as Im aware.
I'd love to know what you would choose to dominate the galaxy, you can choose any era of soldier, blasters vehicle and ships but one rule, either Jedi or sith not both.
I was about to talk about how I had the best fighter in Star Wars when I played the Pen & Paper game decades ago but it was a salvaged X-wing with parts from a B-Wing, Y-Wing, Tie Fighter with massive hull and engine modifications on top of having a 0.5 hyperdrive as both its primary and backup with a sensor pack that made it look like it was a junk-built ship dragging around a bulbous back-end with dishes peeking around. When spotted by imperials, the usual response was laughter. Technically speaking, my fighter stopped being an X-Wing fighter right after I salvaged it into a junk-built ship, no matter how great the Frankenstein's Monster that it was worked. It looking pretty much like a ship made of garbage did have its perks. Well, until some by-the-book guy scanned it.
The best intercepter was premiered in the dark empire comic series and sourcebook which was the X-wing V2 this fighter had maneuverability and also the speed of a Tie Interceptor//A-wing. You are wrong on the Tie for in atmosphere combat. The only starfighter which has real world aero dynamics to function as an in atmosphere fighter without repulsorlifts is the Nabu fighter. This has been proven with real world wind tunnel tests on accurate models created from the official schematics of all sw craft.
You wouldn't happen to have the files for this still, would you? I love the idea and would like to print one for my ttrpg group's game. Thanks for the video and the idea!
You talked about a fighter/bomber, but didn't mention a dedicated heavy bomber role. The K-Wing was hands down the best dedicated heavy strike craft to fill that spot.
honestly, I would of chosen the V-Wing Airspeeder over the TIE Striker for in-atmosphere ships due to their outstanding maneuverability, their choice of weaponry (which I would still count the 6 seeker missiles), and for their fast speed. I feel like Gen Tech really needs to dive deep into the EU since there's a lot of ships that could be covered for their use, their pros, their cons, and for their overall designs.
Personally I’d say the X-wing would make a great multirole and could be used in a Swiss-army knife role, besides that I believe there is a far better scout, the Tie Tracker.
Tbh, the Fang-class starfighter kinda felt a bit lacking in weapons... if you were to put another laser cannon between the two laser cannons on the wings, you'd have shorter dogfights.
My only argument is in regards to long range scouts. Yes the ARC 170 could alternate who is awake with its co-pilot. But being cramped in that small an area for a long time would suck. There is no restroom, there is no room to move, and would be a level of hell. For long range recon, I would actually say something like a modified Millennium Falcon
No Missile Boat? Half again more shields than the next most heavily shielded fighter _or_ bomber, afterburners that could push it faster than almost anything else, a 6.0 hyperdrive, and enough credits-worth of missiles to take out a small fleet. Which they did. Also, they had some neat secondary weapons, like a tractor beam to essentially guarantee a missile lock, or in very rare cases, nano missiles. Basically, they were the Empire throwing money at fighter/bomber design and seeing what came out.
I'm surprised that the TIE-Defender didn't show up, in my opinion it's by far the best all around Star fighter together with the X-Wing o.O
@@davidordaz5251 are you referring to the now-canon TIE-D or the original one portrayed in media like the TIE Fighter video game and in the X-Wing Novels? They are not exactly the same
Oh yeah, the original defender was a beast. Not sure on the specs on the canon one, but the "real" one was op as hell
Edit: it bugs the hell out of me that we never got an "official" version of the stealth-x or the recon-x (other than one pic that i know of)
It is pretty clear neither the original Defender nor the Defender Elite ever went into full mass production. After Thrawn disappeared and the Death Star was destroyed, the impetus seems to have shifted to the more easily and cheaply manufactured TIE Interceptor to speed up getting a faster, more maneuverable successor to the basic TIE out onto the battlefields to face the Rebel X-wings.
I imagine the Defenders were like the early German jets in World War II. By the time their value became clear to anyone but Thrawn, the Empire had way too irons in the fire to concentrate on starfighter improvements.
@@kenle2 good point, and im not a fan of the animated series, but i like them keeping thrawn potentially alive. He could really shake things up if he reappears, and take the whole thing in a new direction, esp if the rumors of the sequels getting retconned into oblivion prove true. *please please please*
I would love to see thrawn come out as a/the leader against the (now non vong) bad guys, working and manipulating all the groups together, for what is ultimately the good of everyone.
Thats one thing i dug about paellion [sp]. He went from a dutiful but bland officer to a great character because of thrawn.
Him and kal are probably the best grey characters in SW.
And before anyone brings up ashoka, i dont mean in that angsty am i good or bad way.
Thrawn, Kal, (and honestly a lot of other mandos) just had the view of "is this going to protect the ones i promised to". They are totally cool w looking like monsters if it progresses their goals. Or more succinctly, "not one f given except for taking care of mine"
Tie-defender and X-wing both should be noted as best Multirole Fighters.
They both had strong shields, decent to excellent maneuvrability, and strong armament including torpedo/missile launchers.
X-Wing was like Hellcat or Thunderbolt, while Tie Defender was like Mustang.
Id say you missed the heavy strike bomber category. Id suggest either the b wing or k wing for the slot. Both were capable of carrying way more weapons than y wings by a significant margin, and were designed to cripple or destroy larger capital ships.
I thought so too! I would submit the Scimitar Assault Bomber as an alternative candidate. Also, I noticed the lack of a "Strike Craft" category for things like the Missile Gunboat or the glorious Skipray.
Don't forget about the Tie Punisher
@@FieryCheeze shouldn’t there also be a close air support category? Like which starfighter in Star Wars can perform a role similar to the A10 Thunderbolt.
the fortress bomber sucks, not only is it slow but extremely impractical + y wings can cripple/destroy capital ship, they did that with ease
@@FieryCheeze God, I long for the day when I will hear the glorious "skipray blastboat here" once again
I'm glad to hear that the Tri-Droid Fighter is part of the list. I'm still and always a fan of Battle Droids in Star Wars!
Same! I got it as a Lego Star Wars model, so I got to defend it!
The Empire should've used the TIE Striker more often instead of the standard TIE for atmosphere operations.
Yeah but since Scariff had the majority of the empires' technology libraries and projects before it was blown off by the incomplete death star. Clearly, the Tie Striker wasn't going to be produced all that often.
X-Wing is multi role perfection. Light speed, shields, quality laser cannons, dual proton torpedoes, good speed & agility.
Droid to help out too.
I would love to get my hands on the Mandalorian gauntlet fighter. It can handle in a fight and acts as a troop drop ship
The Gauntlet class is definitely more of a drop ship/gun ship in purpose, yet still called a fighter for some reason. Sort of like the U-wing is. Either way, one of my favorites along with the Fang. If I were given a choice of any small sub light-freighter sized ship in SW, it'd be a Gauntlet.
@@cd5sircoupe
I think it's classified that way because it still uses starfighter-scale weapons. No tubolasers or capital torpedoes and missiles.
It's like the distinction between fighter-bombers and strategic bombers. If you use it to attack a single tank, it's a fighter-bomber. If you use it to level a tank factory, it's a strategic bomber. But both are technically "bombers".
@@kenle2 Good points.
Yes, I’d love to see one converted to a heavy Starfighter or heavy bomber/gunship, as the Kom’rk has plenty of space within it’s hull to add caribou’s other weapon systems. Personally I’d think a single or dual heavy ion cannon, a couple missile tubes and finally a couple torpedo tubes.
Use the ion cannons and/or ion torpedoes to knock out the power systems on a mid sized, or even large enemy warship, and then using the lasers, missiles and proton torpedoes to destroy or completely disable the much larger ship. Now imagine the rebellion equipped with squadrons full of identically equipped Kom’rk starfighters/gunships.
I’ve always though that even full sized Star Destroyers should be fairly easy to destroy if the Rebel attack force utilized enough ion weaponry, as the full strength of a Star Destroyer means nothing, if your gunships keep hitting it with ion sweating, keeping it’s power systems disrupted, as without power the SD won’t have shields, even once power is restored to the shields they would need to recharge before they would be useful. Additionally with it’s power disrupted, the weaponry of the SD were useless, so the only real threat would be the tie fighters, but those can de dealt with by the gunships or starfighters unit that came with the gunships (to speed things up, as soon as the shields are taken down, the closest X-wings or Kom’rk available would launch a few proton torpedoes into the SD’s hanger, to keep any extra ties from being launched.
Most recent episode of Mandalorian really showed it’s potential
I’d have used A-Wings or TIE Defenders instead of TIE Interceptors.
The tie interceptor was actually a very good design so I'd take them over an A wing... of course the Tie Defender should've been the best interceptor and space superiority fighter and the fact it didn't show up on the list at all is a travesty.
@@bigmekboy175 Very much agreed with this statement.
Most of the Imperial Navy preferred a less expensive, advanced version of the TIE series which didn't have a hyperdrive or shields, to go with the doctrine that starfighters were supposed to stick to providing close picket and scouting forces for their very expensive capital ships. No hit and fade raids, instead send in a Star Destroyer or a fleet to intimidate or flatten any opposition.
Also to discourage desertions.
How true, the TIE Defender was so OP that they had to kill one of the main character, and remove Thrawn from the setting to avoid its deployment. Even Vader himself actually praised the defender's performance.
@@bigmekboy175 Back in the old TIE Fighter games the Defender was awesome - first mission I came across with them was flying with Darth Vader on my wing against a renegade Admiral's ISD, to rescue Emperor Palpatine. There was a specific note in the briefing NOT to attempt to give Vader orders!
But I always preferred the TIE Avenger for interceptor/space superiority missions and the Assault Gunboat for strike missions. The Avenger lacked the Ion Cannons but was a smaller target, with similar shield strength, speed and agility plus the rest of the loadout was the same (quad Laser Cannons and a launcher system, and iirc sometimes a tractor beam in later missions). The Assault Gunboat had a decent missile load, was remarkably tough and handled surprisingly well - always felt like an Imperial Navy equivalent to my favourite Star Wars figher, the Y-Wing.
Having flown many sorties the best ones are either the fastest so you can make it inside the enemy capital ship quickly or the strongest ones so you can survive getting in to the same ship.
Last time I was this early palpatine didn’t have a scrotum for a face
How would you rank the Jedi’s fighter, the x-wing, and most importantly the ty defender elite
I know it's a question for GT but I'd like to share my thoughts.
Jedi Starfighter (Delta 7) is an ok interceptor as it's fast, durable for it's class (good shields) and maneuverable (and extremely deadly when you have a jedi pilot). It's only lacking in the firepower department as it's 4 light laser cannons can struggle to punch through heavier bombers. Also if I remember correctly it's very hard to pilot to people who aren't force sensitive.
x-wing is a jack of all trades fighter which was pretty much tailor made for rebels as it can fit any role and be good in it. It outperforms Y-wing in every area aside durability and the bomb bay so it can do surgical bomber strikes much better. It's also a great strike fighter due to high firepower so it can destroy both bombers and interceptors as long as it doesn't get into direct dogfight with the latter. But can't really escort bombers as it can't really break through a patrol craft fighter-killer like a tartan cruiser or raider class corvette easily, unless it get's a lucky torpedo shot at it.
Don't know what to expect on a mission or need to fill in for a destroyed squadron? Grab an x-wing if tie defender isn't available.
Tie defender elite in canon is basically a direct upgrade to x-wing. It's fast, it's maneuverable, it has proton torpedoes and laser cannons for days. But aside of being a surgical strike bomber, interceptor and space superiority fighter it still can't easily deal with dedicated anti-starfighter ships I mentioned above.
That's why tie defender from Legends continuity is better- ion cannons can disable or in the worst case scenario drain shields of enemy space ships quicker than laser cannons.
Honestly I dont know much personally about the TIE defender elite, but on the other two Ill give my best.
Personally they all suck.
Now I could leave it at that but Ill explain. First off all the iterations of the jedi starfighter were pretty much overpowered on engines and way too undergunned to be realistically high production vehicles. The first generations reliance on a hyperspace ring for independent travel and a droid head only to help plot hyperspace jumps and its positioning on the outer cockpit ment that it was VERY vulnerable to damage that could leave the pilot unable to get home even as a jedi does have a precognitive sense that does not mean he can totally dodge indefinitely. The eta-2 was even worse since it dropped the shield generator and added airfoils to leach heat from the power system which in space is a horrible way to bleed heat if your anywhere near a solar body. The heat foils and cockpit design also limited vision overall and still relied on a hyperspace ring to travel between systems.
The X-Wing is a ok design in some respects but has some serious flaws in the execution's of its goals. First off the long wings make for excellent targets and are again there to help dissipate heat from the power systems, which is a big problem near planetary bodies since in space if your near a sun solar heat accumulates regardless. Next off while the overall weapons armoring isnt bad not having the laser cannons be on a spindle mount to off side target or to reverse them so that you can target trailing opposing fighters or any kind of chaff system means they are too overly designed shipkillers. Next is the fact that the weapon system is only armed when the airfoils are separated which is as huge design flaw. The profile of the ship may need to change to get through narrow places and or closer to bigger ships which may or may not have enough room for the foils to be deployed it may get dicey if you cant target lock and fire in a confined space. Lastly is why is the astromech not in a armored compartment so that if you take damage itself isnt taking damage and allowing you to plot a course for a different system. I mean it is your navigation computer why should it be exposed to enemy fire?
@@eonaon6914 So for Delta 7 You would want a smaller cockpit area? Less transparisteel but leave the headspace wide enough to get the same view?
Eta at least has powerful weapons compared to Delta 7, but the shield thing I believe was a design flaw that was forced by Palpatine, who wanted more Jedi to die in the war.
I would say You're a bit too prejudiced towards S-foils, since in Star Wars universe they are "magic" and are mostly shown as a huge benefit to starships that have them.
And X-wing target profile is a huge improvement over Y-wing and ARC-170 while it can perform their tasks just as well aside of real bombing runs and having a rear turret. Also it can shoot with S-foils locked as far as I remember.
As for the astromech socket I'd say that the astromech also needs to stick out a bit to help out with surface repairs, it might also need to pop out of it's socket during system failure to repair something, if it was in an internal socket it could be a problem to eject during a system shutdown
Thanks for the great insight.
I agree that the delta 7 shouldn’t be on the list given your insight but I still think the x wing and tie defender elite should be on the list. As for my reasoning, though different, the x wing was just as good as the y wing (that’s why it was used so often) and since that was on the list, the x wing should be to. And if the x wing is on the list the tie defender elite definitely should be because it has proven to give the x wing a run for it’s money (in Star Wars rebels).
@@miqvPL Honestly on the Delta I would move the cockpit forwards to the mid section since any attacks could be followers on your rear and a giant dome of transparisteel would be a decently easy nut to crack and rather than a droid head put in a nav com. Having only a third of a droid is pretty useless unless your always needing to get the ship warmed up or started which I could see as a jedi as a need. A secondary system or a second droid in the ring which could keep the ring in a stable orbit and maneuver the ring closer or to a pre planned exit route rather than let the thing just float and be a navigation hazard or weakness on trying to escape a hostile force.
I knew about the cannon answer on the Eta but still without particle shields or any defensive measures I would have literally said nope not paying for that. You do realize that any combat situation things like nuts bolts or just paint chips would outright destroy a Eta in combat especially the type of combat we see in the films. NASA has to plan its launches around the current orbital debris for very good reasons.
S-foils are dumb. They are the Xbox 360 version of a fix to a heatsink problem that should be accounted for in any small personal fighter craft. Lets say a s-foil gets damaged in the attack or removed by debris, now your operation efficiency in combat has gone way down because of a bit of metal that literally needs to poke out of your ship. Now I agree the ARC-170 had way too big of a profile in general so no fight from me there let alone the horrible pace of its weapon systems regardless of their power.
The Y wing on the other hand doesn't trigger my profile hate, actually it has a overall decent profile. You get the same issue profile wise on a Y wing as a X wing with wings closed or a Z-95 headhunter if seen from above or behind. On the chasing starfighter end the Y-Wing is superior to the X-Wing with wings open in the fact that it might be thick in its profile but has less overall target space. My only issue with the Y wing is why it needs the struts on the back for maneuvering when a nose thruster pack of some sort to using a axis fan on the engine exhaust like the falcon in a + configuration would lend it greater mobility rather than a long bridge of metal and the loss of all that power from escaping thrust. That or shortening the bridge to a closer point to lower the length and giving greater responsiveness.
On the astromech problem. A independently powered armored top hatch that the mech itself can trigger solves the get out problems and most astromechs are loaded from the bottom and lifted into the slot. Any eject system could just as easily pop it out of the bottom of the slot if it was possible. The point of fixing surface damage is moot in a starfighter unless its in a hanger or landed. Fixing a issue on the outside of a fighter in combat when the droid is basically integrated into your combat and nav system is a bad idea. Now on larger starships like we saw on the Naboo Royal ship this makes actual sense since the droid should still be protected inside the ships shield generators for in combat repair work.
I dunno about saying the Y-wing is a fighter bomber...it's more in the "Attack Aircraft" role like the A-10, A-7, A-4 etc...I'd have to add Multi-Role and that hands down would go to the X-Wing with probably the TIE Defender coming in a very close 2nd
I really hope you keep doing this for all roles in a military force. Ground vehicles, troopers, navy, etc.
You forgot to include a heavy bomber class of ship. The best ship in this class happens to be the B-Wing starfighter. In Legends, there was also the K-Wing starfighter used by the New Republic.
K-wing yes, B-wing is more of a surgical strike bomber/ starfighter escort ship. It just doesn't have the payload of a real bomber. It can disable shields/subsystems with ion cannons, destroy shield generators, engines or external, exposed bridges but it stuggles to "sink" a ship like a real bomber should. An entire squadron was needed to take down a modified Imperial I battleship after heavy loses and a long fight. I would expect a heavy bomber to much more than that. You need a proton bomb bay for that or something like the K-wing.
There's an obscure ship You might like, the absurdly looking Tie/ca "Punisher" bomber. That's a real deal, if you can avoid getting destroyed while flying this brick then the capital ship is dead.
Honorable mentions go to the Alpha-class Xg-1 Star Wing that has the same number of proton torpedoes as the B-wing but can release them all at once, hitting one area really, really hard which can probably take out medium sized capital ships in one lucky shot.
@@miqvPL the Tie Bomber can rain some death too. It's tough to say how survivable it was tho. I've seen (youtube admittedly) sources say it was heavily shielded and others say unsheil. Either way it carries a good payload
@@anthonygonzalez2897 The TB wasn't even mentioned. In canon they had no shielding and required escort fighters.
@@anthonygonzalez2897 as Michel said- tie bomber was unshielded and even though it had much thicker armor than a regular tie fighter it didn't amount to much- it had the speed of the original BTL-B Y-wing when fully loaded and even though it was way more maneuverable than a Y-wing and carried an insane payload (look at it's cross section picture, even though official data usually has lackluster numbers, the crossection shows it packs a bunch of bombs, rockets and thermal detonators at the same time).
Tie Punisher has more armor, more shields and nearly 4 times more payload which is absolutely insane, probably more than a K-wing. It has a massive target profile though so I imagine that even turbolasers don't have a hard time hitting it. But if it reaches the target then it doesn't have to worry about turrets on the way back anymore, it should be able to critically damage even something like a Star Destroyer
I'd make an argument for the Missile Boat over the B-Wing. It's whole purpose in life is to launch up to 60 advanced proton torpedoes before withdrawing for rearming or use the tractor beam in consert with advanced concussion missiles to take out Tie-Defenders
Hey GT, you should really go through the Thrawn Campaign from Star Wars Legends since you finished the Clone Wars series. Love the channel keep up the awesome Star Wars content!
Going through Legends campaigns would be great.
Yess that would be perfect
EckhartsLadder is making a video about every Legends conflict, but it would be nice.
His campaign was the best
@@thechroniclegamer4285 agreed
The fang fighters are my new favorite star fighters. They fly well, they look cool and they pack a mean punch.
God the Vong as the baddies in the Sequal Trilogy could have been SOOOOOO good. Dovin Basals stripping shield off of x-wings would have been such a jaw dropping moment on screen.
Yea I know a lot people don’t like vong but it couldn’t have been worse than those last three lovies
Movie
If only Disney knew how to make a movie.
Yeah, all the disembowelments would have made all the small children super excited
@@levitschetter5288 kids aren’t scared of that shit
Firespray would be mine.
Not really a starfighter though
You mean Slave 1?
@@linkthepaladin5202 well the slave 1 is a firespray31 model, for example the millennium falcon is yt-1300. Slave 1 was just a firespray that jango stole and named.
It's a patrol ship not a fighter
@@linkthepaladin5202 if they do rename it jus name it the el kamino
Always good to review the inventory, and it's many "features".
I’m actually trying to design my own ship that’s about the size of the Millennium Falcon, perhaps a little bigger. Like the Falcon it wasn’t originally designed for combat but was later heavily modified. It’s main function is to be a mobile home that is capable of defending itself against a variety of enemies.
So I'm getting a post-apocalyptic Volkswagen bus feeling
Oh that’s cool I wanna see it when it’s done
So, The Ghost
The courier-class yacht comes to mind. I think it is literally only in one Star Wars RPG book (FFG) [The Jewel of Yavin], but the page exists with stats on Wookiepedia.
I mention it because I've always liked the idea of a ship like the Hwk-290 (or Hwk-1000 from another SW RPG book) which was built for speed, ruggedness, relatively cost effective, decently sized, but then gets pressed into a variety of rolls, because SPEED, EASE OF MODDING, and FEELS LIKE HOME.
I hope this helped in some way. Good luck with your design. May the Force be with You.
What about a long ship? Like, not wide but very long and smooth for straight lines across the sky and the galaxy?
Though Iagree to your selection of starfighters, to be honest, in a conventional war like in the prequels, you would not see as many classes of starfighters being operated by a faction due to the fact that waging a war with so many models would be a logistical nightmare because there probably won't be many standardized parts and also the training of pilots would be more difficult and so, a more practical approach would be something like X-Wing and Y-Wing. The low number of designs operated by this navy, mass production of these ships will be a lot easier, and also removing a lot of the logistical demands and also, you would have more hangar space to carry sayed starfighters and thus require a much smaller fleet witch means that you could fight in more places, spreading the enemy thinner, and making them lose the war. This is the reason why in our own world militarys are using a lot of multi-role aircraft
Yes, but the Clone Wars were always meant to reflect a World War II type of environment, where after a long period of peace everyone was scrambling to catch up with the latest technology (especially in aircraft and armored vehicles). So they were throwing everything at whatever designs they had and introducing new models as fast as they could design them.
Much like what happened to the Allies in 1939-43, when aircraft literally became obsolete six months after they were introduced, and so they were shifted to less active sectors of the war theaters or assigned to new roles as ground attack aircraft or trainers as new models became available. Even planes like the Spitfire that had been introduced before the war went through more than a dozen different redesigns.
Also, before the Clone Wars with no Republic military and individual planetary or sector governments operating their own local defense forces, there would probably have been a fair amount of diversity of designs as they would have different budgets and strategic priorities based on their individual circumstances. Again, much like the individual countries of the Allied Powers did before the German invasions.
Indeed, though I gave The Clone War as an example of a conventional war between evenly matched factions. Also, I talked about strictly the federal government, since, as the name suggests, these defense forces were not meant for operating outside of the planet's vicinity, and so, outside of defensive actions, all military operations would be conducted by the GAR
My point is that you would not see Naboo Starfighters fighting above Geonosis for example.
@@cristianniculescu4244
But you might have squadrons of V-19's, Z-95 Headhunters and Cloakshapes flying together, depending on what the Republic was able to scrape together as the different clone pilot units were formed, until the ARC-180's and V-Wings became available and standardized later in the war.
I feel like an N1 would be better for air superiority than a tie striker, as it’s actually designed to be aerodynamic, or well, more aerodynamic than most other star fighters in Star Wars.
Instead of the ARC-170, I think the Skipray Blast boat was better suited to long-range recon. Not only did it have a better rounded armament, but it was actually used by Luke Skywalker for a stealthy mission in the early days of the Vong war.
not sure if it has sensors and speed to match ARC-170 even though I love Skiprays
There is also another problem with the skiprays that need to be addressed. They are not designed with a hyperdrive. A hyperspace sled was an aftermarket modification, plus the craft was truly designed to work in space. It was actually an atmospheric based craft first and foremost.
I feel like you missed the category of Multirole fighter. These are vessels that are not the best at any one task but can perform a large number of tasks quit well. In there real world probably the premier example right now in there F/A-18, equally at home in a dog fight as it is providing close air support. The definitive example in Star Wars I think would be the X-Wing.
Welcome to Generation Tech, my name is Allen
I want Mando to get a Mandalorian Star fighter. They're my favourite
Maybe he can get Bo-Katan's Mandalorian fighter in exchange for the Darksaber.
Hey, he got it
AND NOT JUST A STARFIGHTRR ITS A B-1
Coolest ship Ive seen. Its judt reqlly really fast.
@@rooast8548 what?
Wait, there is not simply one best star fighter of each class there is only spinning. They are all good if you can do that
What it's a good trick?
Great list and quality content as always. Though I wonder if you also took a look at the starfighters of the Old Republic era. SWTOR's starfighter mode has some really interesting designs.
And I don't know if it's just me, or was the lighting a bit too strong in this video?
Also me, a German, cringing at the pronunciation of Mannfred von Richthofen. :D
Glad the Y-wing made it on the list, that fighter has grown on me to be one of my favourite SW ships. It's effectiveness isn't in how flashy or advanced it is but by being reliable, simple and efficient.
Indeed. I certainly prefer its Clone Wars appearance, though.
I love how the Y-wing is canonically just the Star Wars equivalent of an A-10 with laserguns
Ion cannon go brrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrr
How do you figure? I don't see a ton of similarities
@@anthonygonzalez2897 Well, it's a robust strike aircraft with a powerful payload that ccacn be altered based on the mission, it's easily maintained, and capable of taking off from minimal support airfields. It also conducts close air support and interdiction missions and is loved by the infantry. I could just be reading into it because I love the A-10, and you're right, the Y-wing is more versatile (because, y'know, space) than an A-10, but there are some definite similarities.
I thought that was the K-Wing.
Space superiority fighter: Tie Defender.
Interceptor: Tie Defender.
Bomber: b-wing
Recon: ARC-170
System Patrol Cutter: YT-2000
I almost listed the Defender for the Bomber as well, but the B-Wing has almost 4 times the missile load...
I think you’re missing a troop transport class. Specifically one for ferrying troops from orbit to ground.
If the bomber wasn't the y wing I would commit a war crime
I love the Y-Wing but idk how good it is compared to more contemporary designs
Should have been the K-Wing
B-wing all day
@@dianabarnett6886for short range bombing runs or in battle against a capital ship K wing no contest but without a hyperdrive it couldnt do drop in bombing runs like how the rebels used the Y wing
The B-Wing is far better then the Y-Wing, in fact, the B-Wing out-right replaced the Y-wing during the gap between the originals and the sequels. The gyro system, extremely customizable loadout, targeting jammers, tight lock-on, and overall design makes it far more viable :)
if you look at the engines on the latest model of the Y-wing, you can see thrust vectoring fins, about 10' from the rear of the engines. using it's own thrust as it passes through the fins gives the Y-wing additional steering from the rear, solving a good part of it's maneuvering shortcomings
Cool video, it was very well researched. If you had to pick any starfighters from the EU to focus on for the other categories, what would you choose?
2:55 "6 forward-facing lasers"... as far as I remember, TIE Interceptors only have 4 cannons... or did Darth Mouse change that, too?
3:20 also, that "Richtofen" pronounciation....
I’ve thought it’s always been 6: 1 per each of the wing-things, and two mounted in the central cockpit pod thing in the same manner as the regular tie
Expecting Alan to pronounce names correctly is akin to expecting the sun to rise in the north-west and set in the south.
@@sudoscience5084 Correct 4 wingtip mounted lasers and 2 chin mounted.
@@MrFlatage well, I have been doing some checking and stand corrected. Back in the old TIE Fighter game days, armament was only four. The reason for the vestigial chin-mounted guns, as I recall, is using as most of the original TIE Fighter parts as possible to reduce cost and maintenance.
I am very pleased that the Mandalorian Fang fighter was included (since that's probably my favorite fighter), but there's no place for the Tie Defender on this list? That thing is OP as hell.
That ARC-170 was based on the WWII P-61B Black Widow nightfighter.
But what about the best starfighter for beings with the force (and not just those used by beings with the force)?
I would say you are missing a category. Space superiority fighter. The best fighter against other fighters essentially.
My answer: the Tie Defender. Easily.
Before that, the X-Wing
@@davidordaz5251 The tide never turned until after Endor and even that was the Empire in disarray. The Empire could have never lost a battle and still fallen. With each and every super ship and weapon, the Empire falls ever harder. It's their sole purpose.
I think that role is dedicated to the light interceptor. Tie Defender is OP as heck, but it vs it’s cost in droid tri fighters would easily get demolished.
Tie Defenders and Avengers were actually faster than the Interceptor so I’d use that for the role. For space superiority and fighter-bomber, the X-83 Twintail stands out as number one. Fast, agile, shield strength of a freighter, powerful laser cannons that can nearly one-shot almost any other fighter out there, and up to 16 proton torpedoes, it is one of the best fighters in Star Wars. For dedicated bomber role, the K-Wing is a must as it’s just brisling with heavy weapons. As for recon (and by extension surgical stealth strike) one must go with the F-117/F-35 of Star Wars, the Stealth-X
The Alph-3 Nimbus, V-Wing, is a decent short-range Escort Fighter. And one of the few Republic starfighters that came armed with Concussion Missles as well as 2x light laser cannons. Plus with a Hyperdrive Ring was capable of extra-system flight as well.
Have to say that you missed out a category, capital ship killer in which either x wing or tie defender would come out on top.
B-wing as well especially that prototype one Hera syndulla flew
@@GenerationTech Very true, although that seemed to be a special variant. While even a standard b-wing, which carries, ion cannons, lasers and 12 proton torpedo's without the super laser are a formidable craft that can inflict significant damage on an enemy capital ship. Why is is classed as a heavy assault fighter.
Please do a video on the Naboo N-1 Starfighter and Naboo ships in general please!!!
Always loved the “ARC-170”
6:10 RE: the "BTL-A4 Y-Wing" sounding like an official manufacturer's designation... I dunno, seems like the Rebellion-era Y-Wing would be right at home in the Inner Sphere.
I mean, you take a design older than the pilot, have a shady mechanic with a fourth-grade education courtesy of backwater dirtball planets and/or the prison system hotwire it back into action, and add some alphanumerics to designate a particular loadout. Tell me that isn't _exactly_ how most merc units and Great House militaries keep their battlemechs in action.
During the Succession Wars? Definitely. Eh, let's just call those weapons 4 medium pulse lasers (wow, lostech!) and dual Thunderbolt-5 launchers.
@@bujtorm hang on making this in heavy metal aero
In the Tie Fighter game there was the Missile Boat. I was a bomber that had more speed than a A-wing or the Tie Defender.
I think you are referring to the Assault Gunboat.
I just realized that the arc-170 is based off of the P-61 black widow
GAT-12 Skipray Blastboat has always been my favorite ship.
My favorite ship is the Naboo N1 starfighter. It has almost all the traits you need, an astromech droid, its incredibly fast and nimble, it's aerodynamic, making it good for in atmosphere combat, and it overall is a cool looking ship. My second favorite would be the X-wing, as it's fast, tough, has a good amount of storage, has quite extreme firepower, and also has an astromech
What about the X-Wing which is the back bone of the rebellion a formidable fighter that won so many battles against the empire and the new order. For me my opinion the best star fighter plus in the hands of the best pilots like Wedge Antiles and Poe Dameron this fighter is extremely deadly.
I always liked the Naboo starfighter as an interceptor
REALLY GOOD ! More like this Please . Droid Tie fighter is AWSOME !
You should make a video on top 10 features you want in a droid
The tie silencer kylo ren used was a stealthy version of the tie-defender. I would also use the lancer class pursuit ship rather than the arc-170 for recon. The ship you can get up and walk around and use the refresher is gonna be much better for long range recon than being stuck in a cockpit and have to use a hose to relieve yourself
Agreed, The TIE Defender should have been on the list; also, I'm surprised that stealth/cloaking systems were so rare in the Star Wars universe, that it was only on that one ship Anakin once upon time piloted, that we know about.
I think I would've added a heavy starfighter or something similar. My candidates there would be either the TIE defender, the besuulisk or the TwinTail starfighter. All three would be great additions to any navy.
another ship that doesn't get mentioned too often and is my personal favorite of the Clone Wars era starfighters is the NTB-630 Naval Bomber. which looks very similar to the Y-Wing and were rather impressive ships in terms of how effective they were in combat.
Long range patrol, recon: the Mandalorian fighter/freighter Bo-Katan uses in Mandalorian. Cargo space, space for multiple people as well as rations, etc. Murders TIE interceptors.
The Fang-class is so goddamn cool. One of the truly best nucanon additions.
Glad to see the TIE Baron here. It is a favorite of mine.
Oddly, everyone notices the similarities between the TIE Baron and the Interceptor. Mainly because of the shape of the solar panels. Closer examination reveals it has more in common with the TIE Advanced V1 flown by the Inquisitors.The hull is pure TIE Advanced, and the inner part of the S-foils have the same semi circular shape as the V1. It only borrows the dagger like extension from the TIE Interceptor. The Baron is more of a modernized TIE Advanced than an evolution of the TIE Interceptor.
Odd that the Defender doesn't rate high on this list.
Yoda's Interceptor is almost certainly among the fastest and most maneuverable interceptors, followed closely by the ETA-2 from which it is derived.
No need to stick so closely to just the more popular ships if the goal is to pick the best.
Most people watching this will likely be fans, and will be familiar with even the more obscure vessels.
I enjoyed the Defender when it first appeared in the X-wing games back in prehistory, but it wasn't a favorite.
The more I have come to know it, it has become a favorite and I find it to be one of the best, perhaps THE best fighter in the Star Wars universe. Not only a superior interceptor and space superiority fighter, but also an effective bomber and gunship and/or attack craft.
I loved the B- wing. Especially the prototype
Tie-Defender. Expensive as all hell but hands down the best performing fighter bar none in cannon even after the introduction of the Ewing
I love this sort of video. Cheers!
I would say that arguably the skipray blastboat is more effective than a y-wing
Fighter of the line/space superiority fighter: X-Wing, well rounded fighter with excellent speed, good maneuverability, great crew protection, hyperdrive, and overall good independence.
Light bomber/Attack star fighter: Y Wing, good speed, good payload, dependability, point defense weapons.
Interceptor/point defense fighter: droid tri-fighter, small, fast, maneuverable, with good firepower. Perfect for keeping attacking fighters away from larger starships, and lack of a pilot means that it’s able to deploy quickly at any time (don’t need to worry about pilots being in the middle of human necessities like showering, eating, sleeping, or bathroom when call to action comes)
Long range recon/deep penetration slash attacks/special missions: ARC-170 fantastic sensor package, heavy firepower, fast hyperdrive, multiple crew, and amenities for long range/duration missions the fighter is perfect for scouting the flanks of fleets, long range recon/intelligence missions to locate key targets, and it’s heavy firepower and hyperdrive allow it to conduct slash attacks on enemy shipping and logistics hubs and routes.
Anybody got suggestions for Command and Control/ electronic warfare fighter?
4:14
Alpha Nimbus V-Wing Interceptor:
That's where you are wrong, kiddo
Saw the thumbnail. Immediately started watching. Fang fighter best fighter
Where'd you get the clip of tarkins stealth ship 7:25 ? I don't recognize the clip from any show I've seen but I recognize the ship.
It's from Clone Wars S2E16.
This is my shopping list for my starfighter core
The y-wing reminds me of the A-10 warthog. Nothing special but, it just works.
You missed out on the empires best tactical fighter the Skipray Blast boat. If you want the best recon/heavy fighter this is what you go with. A group of these can and will take out most things due to the weapons aboard it. For time away you start with 1 month of consumables and a 20 ton cargo bay. It has 4 different roles due to its modular ability and different configurations. It has hyperdrive and shields on all configurations as well, It only needs one to fly and work but it can hold up to 4 different people.
If you haven't, you should read Boyd: The fighter pilot who changed the art of war. by Robert Coram. The fighter mafia he created came up with many innovative fighters including the F-16 and A-10. Boyd was brilliant and would be loved by Thrawn.
Very surprised vulture droids didn't make it. They were the most cost efficient weapon in the galaxy and yet they don't get mentioned.
Personally, I preferred the Missile Boat as a Fighter-Bomber.
...actually... with enough systems redirected to engines.. I also preferred it as an interceptor.
Love the motorcycle reference
I would pick the y-wing because although it is a bomber, it was also used as an auxiliary fighter during clone war and empire eras. The blt y wing is the best, but the tech is outdated today
The ARC-170 was inspired by the WWII P-61B Black Widow nightfighter. Also, in the EU, red Tie Interceptors were flown by the Imperial Guard.
My favorite is the Delta 7. I know it is considered dated and obsolete, but i just love the design.
"Oh the Fangs will just zip behind the A-Wings, but the A-Wings can just shoot then down with their 360 degree moving guns- oh. Guess not."
The Y-wing A4 is a completely different model to the Y-wing B alongside the other two versions the Y-wing S3 and the Y-wing S3B, the A4 has the forward mounted ion cannon and is single seated, the B has a bubble turret ion cannon, the S3 is a two-seater with a turreted ion cannon controlled by a gunner, and the S3B is the same as the S3 accept the ion cannon turret is replaced with a rapid fire laser cannon turret
@Alan love your channel, was wandering through is their an explanation about why fighters are named after letters in the Western alphabet, I mean the lexicon for either alphabet seems a lot different, and the characters for say 'A' does not match in both alphabets but the ship looks like an A, and X does not exist in the star wars alphabet as far as Im aware.
I'd love to know what you would choose to dominate the galaxy, you can choose any era of soldier, blasters vehicle and ships but one rule, either Jedi or sith not both.
The ship that Maul had in rebels, the tie defender in rebels and Poe Damerons black xwing ship are my favorite
I was about to talk about how I had the best fighter in Star Wars when I played the Pen & Paper game decades ago but it was a salvaged X-wing with parts from a B-Wing, Y-Wing, Tie Fighter with massive hull and engine modifications on top of having a 0.5 hyperdrive as both its primary and backup with a sensor pack that made it look like it was a junk-built ship dragging around a bulbous back-end with dishes peeking around. When spotted by imperials, the usual response was laughter. Technically speaking, my fighter stopped being an X-Wing fighter right after I salvaged it into a junk-built ship, no matter how great the Frankenstein's Monster that it was worked. It looking pretty much like a ship made of garbage did have its perks. Well, until some by-the-book guy scanned it.
The best intercepter was premiered in the dark empire comic series and sourcebook which was the X-wing V2 this fighter had maneuverability and also the speed of a Tie Interceptor//A-wing. You are wrong on the Tie for in atmosphere combat. The only starfighter which has real world aero dynamics to function as an in atmosphere fighter without repulsorlifts is the Nabu fighter. This has been proven with real world wind tunnel tests on accurate models created from the official schematics of all sw craft.
You wouldn't happen to have the files for this still, would you? I love the idea and would like to print one for my ttrpg group's game. Thanks for the video and the idea!
You talked about a fighter/bomber, but didn't mention a dedicated heavy bomber role. The K-Wing was hands down the best dedicated heavy strike craft to fill that spot.
What about the K-wing as a heavy bomber role?
Great video....... but no love for the Eta-2 Actis Interceptor?
honestly, I would of chosen the V-Wing Airspeeder over the TIE Striker for in-atmosphere ships due to their outstanding maneuverability, their choice of weaponry (which I would still count the 6 seeker missiles), and for their fast speed. I feel like Gen Tech really needs to dive deep into the EU since there's a lot of ships that could be covered for their use, their pros, their cons, and for their overall designs.
I don't know if you've done a video on this already,but can you do a video on best gunships/troop transport ships based on class as well?
Personally I’d say the X-wing would make a great multirole and could be used in a Swiss-army knife role, besides that I believe there is a far better scout, the Tie Tracker.
I’m surprised the empire didn’t use the tri-droid in numbers with a tie fighter could’ve been a really nasty combination
Tbh, the Fang-class starfighter kinda felt a bit lacking in weapons... if you were to put another laser cannon between the two laser cannons on the wings, you'd have shorter dogfights.
My only argument is in regards to long range scouts. Yes the ARC 170 could alternate who is awake with its co-pilot. But being cramped in that small an area for a long time would suck. There is no restroom, there is no room to move, and would be a level of hell. For long range recon, I would actually say something like a modified Millennium Falcon
Attach a few droid tri fighters to the hull and you’d be set.
The Y-Wing: why fix what isn't broken?
No Missile Boat? Half again more shields than the next most heavily shielded fighter _or_ bomber, afterburners that could push it faster than almost anything else, a 6.0 hyperdrive, and enough credits-worth of missiles to take out a small fleet. Which they did.
Also, they had some neat secondary weapons, like a tractor beam to essentially guarantee a missile lock, or in very rare cases, nano missiles.
Basically, they were the Empire throwing money at fighter/bomber design and seeing what came out.
The Y-Wing is the embodiment of "If it ain't broke, don't fix it"
Great list!
The original Y wing's application kind of makes me think of the FB-111 Aardvark.