Author's notes

This is my attempt to design a heavy bomber / fighter based on TIE and X-Wing T65 star-fighters. Obviously it's an Ugly. It's here to fulfill a particular role made vacant after the Clone Wars - the role of a heavy bomber / fighter. It goes in the line of PTB-625 and NTB-630 bombers, since MG-100 StarFortress SF-17 was found out to be a pure form of disappointment it has noting to do with it. For my inspiration in modern day military I looked in the performance and designs of MIG-25 Foxbat, one of the fastest interceptors of all time. I took a great time studying Star Wars fighters stats, particularly those of different TIE fighters and X-Wing T65 and adjusted the design and the lore to fit in the line of those and other space ships. Some players may find it overpowered, that is on some occasion due to it's strong shields, powerful engines and multiple torpedo launchers. The high stats will come with penalty points for down time, cost and in total there are only 3 units produced. This bomber is in no way going to win the war, it's just a curiosity turn made by mechanics to explore the scarce availability of advanced imperial technology.

Scaled to 1:50 and 1:48.
Not sliced yet, but feel free to slice it up to your preference.
Landing gear can be printed separately and attached to the bottom.

Some of the calculations are based on the following material:

https://starwars.fandom.com/wiki/T-65_X-wing_starfighter/Legends
https://starwars.fandom.com/wiki/TIE/D_Defender
https://starwars.fandom.com/wiki/TIE/IN_interceptor/Legends
http://www.galacticempiredatabank.com/TIEInterceptor.html
http://www.st-v-sw.net/STSWvolumetrics.html#mozTocId967234
https://starwars.fandom.com/wiki/Bearsloth

Designing a spaceship even on paper is not an easy task :)

The Lore

Somewhere after 3 ABY, Rebel forces acquired a TIE Defender to study it's performance. Pilots and mechanics together were impressed by the new fighter, it's speed, it's shields, it maneuverability were all much superior to standard TIE fighter and even superior to the TIE Interceptor (which was unshielded and without hyperdrive). Indeed, imperial technology was more advanced. If that fighter was produced and deployed in numbers it will make the dogfight obsolete and will render all of X-Wing types under-performing. A new strategy was needed rather than a new fighter.
A young and talented mechanic came to the idea to combine Imperial and Rebel technology in what he called "the winning bid" and "the change". That bold young person, Andral Brask, was the chief mechanic of Lucrehulk Prime, the flight school of General Hera Syndulla. His assistant at the time was Maya Wixer who would later on go and specialize in technology espionage. Andral will personally make all welds while Maya will inspect them with scanner to be sure that the new design is robust and reliable. Many other mechanics and specialists will contribute to the project as well. At first the general was skeptic but once she looked at the calculations she was more than convinced. The hardest part of the project was to source all the parts which were needed and to wire them together. They had to put their vast spy network into use and as a first step to find all TIE Defender wrecks which could be used as parts donors. At the end of the project they went into bribery and steeling, not only for parts but also for technical datasheets and Imperial protocols. They went so far to even steel another TIE Defender to source the parts for the third unit. It was decided that the new fighter/bomber will be manned by a single pilot and companion astromech in order to save space, weight and to reduce the pilot losses. Later on they decided to put a second astromec to better distribute the work load during flight. Astromec sockets were equipped with fast computer terminals, scomp, to allow the astromec to be permanently connected to ship's systems. R3 units were used to control ship's systems which required higher computational power due to their overclocked processor cores, R2 units were used to control shields and weapons due to their more stable personalities. Each astromec had access to the hyperdrive and various other critical systems, with priority over hyperdrive given to the R3 unit which was better astrogator.

Design

At first they started with the cockpit of a wrecked TIE Defender with preserved ball and severed wings and a couple of damaged T-65 X-Wings. The X-Wings were suffering minor damage though and were almost air worthy. The ball was cut to parts, enlarged and reinforced with additional panels of durasteel and titanium to increase the armor rating, it was also pressurized and fitted with additional storage space. The X-Wings were cut in 4 parts, being nose cone with sensors, torpedo launchers, cockpit and aft section where the astromech socket is together with hyperdrive and reactor. Sensors were to be augmented by TIE sensors and fitted to the ball. Torpedo launchers were cut in half and paired with launchers from another hull, each side of the new bomber would have 4 launch tubes and be able to carry 12 torpedoes, for a total of 8 launchers and 24 torpedoes. X-Wing cockpit was not necessary anymore and was removed. The aft section was kept almost intact with the only change being the additional heat sinks mounted on the sides and in the front where it was cut from the cockpit. The heatsinks were repurposed by the broken wing panels of TIE wreck. Two such aft sections will be used forming some sort of side bays to the ball, with torpedo launchers placed below them to reduce the overall length of the bomber and to increase the stability. Each part will be connected to the ball with reinforced struts similar to the ones on TIE Defender. The power plant and jets from TIE Defender were preserved and additional micro-jets were placed on the struts, to increase the thrust and to fully utilize the power plant of the twin X-Wing body. A single pair of wings and engines from X-Wing were placed on each side of the hull in open configuration. It was not possible to close the wings. X-Wing hyperdrives were synchronized to operate as one, the hyperdrive of the TIE Defender was kept with intention to be used as back-up. Ion cannons from the TIE were placed inside the ball and fire-linked to the rest of the weapons. At last - the aft landing gear of T-65 was used as landing gear in a new configuration of four legs. The vertical strut was cut on a level just above the cockpit and an advanced sensor array with coverage of 360 degree was installed on top. New avionics and sensors gave the fighter increased coverage and range. Later on, when difficulties with power plants and engines synchronization emerged, they decided to use a second astromech to deal with those systems. Optimal configuration would be R2 unit responsible for shields and weapons, and R3 unit responsible for power plants, engines, hyperdrive and sensors. Both astromecs will compute astrogation data and each one will store at least 3 hyperspace coordinates to allow immediate retreat in case of emergency. Before flight they were to be permanently connected to ship's systems via their computer sockets and will be disconnected after landing by docking techs.

Tactics

The new fighter wing will be composed of tree units flying in tight formation, wedge / line/ inverted leading V, they will not break formation and will not fly single missions. The new fighter was called "Bearsloth" due to the tactics it employed. Similar to the animal from Arbooine they will attack with fierce ( those species possessed a slow-acting venom and would bite prey and then hide while the venom weakened the target to a point where it could not defend itself). The "Bearsloth" wing will fly fast and hit hard. Their target will be to incapacitate the ship in a single run and leave it behind. Pilots were instructed not to engage in dogfight at any circumstances, despite been fast, maneuverable and well armed they could be easily defeated if swarmed by waves of TIE fighters. Droids will be used to synchronize the opening salvo delivering a full load of 24 ion torpedoes to the victims' shields. The shields will either collapse or flicker for a few seconds allowing the formation to enter below the shield envelope and strike the craft. The leading two fighters will attack shield projectors, hyperdrive, reactor core, power distribution network, and any other vital part of the ship which is in their strait path. Third bomber will slow a bit and target the bridge, if any of the other two misses it's target the third one will redirect it's attack and will cover it. After the run they will jump to hyperspace leaving no time for retaliation. Successful run will be enough to completely paralyze an Imperial star destroyer and leave it behind helpless to be finished off by the rest of the fleet, which usually jumps from hyperspace shortly after the bombers. Smaller targets will be shot with either the laser cannons or the ion cannons when they intended to capture the ship intact. Laser cannons will be used mainly to clear the space in front of the bomber when flying against a wave of TIE fighters.

Operational history

The newly formed wing would take part in several battles, where they will be assigned to strike high valued targets. Their performance will match to the design goals and their tactics will be highly successful, in the same time the high refueling and re-arming time will somewhat limit their performance, the number of runs and targets they were able to strike in a single battle were limited. Additionally they will suffer from parts shortage throughout their entire operational time. Imperial technology although superior in performance proved to be very fragile and was a constant source of failures and troubles. The fighter/bomber will be very expensive to operate and shortly after the war it will be retired in favor of more standard designs with balanced cost/performance ratio. One of the remaining pieces was displayed in the Alliance War Museum on Coruscant, the fate of the remaining two is not clear, but one thing is sure -> they were not scrapped.

TBD more stories

Systems and Stats

Engines - 4x Incom 4L4 fusial thrust engines + SFS P-sz9.7 twin ion engines + 3x micro jet thrusters - in total 620 KTU
Speed - atmospheric 1350 km/h or space 156 MGLT
Acceleration - 4400 G or 21.4 MGLT/s
Maneuverability rating - 100 DPF
Shields - 200 SBD
Hull - 25 RU

Hyperdrive - 2x Incom GBk-585 hyperdrive units linked as Class 1.0 with backup SFS ND9 hyperdrive motivator as class 3

Targeting - Fabritech ANq 3.6 tracking computer + T-s9a targeting computer augmented by the astromec

Sensors - Fabritech PA-9r long range phased tachyon detection array, PG-7u short range primary threat analysis grid), Melihat "Multi Imager" dedicated energy receptor, Tana Ire electro-photo receptor, TIE Defender Advanced Sensors package, 360 degree coverage augmented by the astromec and projected on 2x IN-344-B "Sightline" holographic imaging system

Additional Combat Multi-view Displays were placed in the cockpit to provide 360 degree view around the craft and to project the necessary navigational and tactical data.

Astromecs were highly automated and didn't require to be commanded, but they had also the possibility to be controlled via voice commands.

Weapons (main) - 8x fire-linked Arakyd Flex Tube torpedo launchers with 24 torpedoes on board, ion, concussion, mag-pulse, cluster missiles

Laser cannons - 4x fire-linked, also fire-linked to the ion cannons, Taim & Bak KX9 mounted on wingtips

Ion cannons - 2x fire-linked to the laser cannons Borstel NK-3 medium ion cannons or ArMek SW-4 / SW-5 ion cannons or 2x SFS M-g-2 general-purpose warhead launchers, loaded with 4 torpedoes each, for 8 torpedoes in total, chin mounted

Weight : 17.4 to 18.5 tons depending on configuration

Crew : 1 pilot + 2 astromecs ( optimal R3 + R2 units )

Cargo - 100kg / 4 weeks consumables

Remixed from

http://www.scifi3d.com/list.asp?intGenreID=10&intCatID=8
http://www.scifi3d.com/list.asp?intGenreID=10&intCatID=10
https://www.thingiverse.com/thing:2942112
https://www.thingiverse.com/thing:2852822
https://www.thingiverse.com/thing:2300768
https://www.thingiverse.com/thing:3320712
https://www.thingiverse.com/thing:4606218

I hope you enjoy your game :)

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