Sentinel-class landing craft/Legends

Sentinel-class landing craft "Imperial landing craft. We're about to have plenty of company."

- Commander Arhul Narra

The Sentinel-class landing craft, also known as Sentinel-class shuttle, was a transport used by the Empire to carry troops, small vehicles and supplies.

Characteristics
"I have a Sentinel-class ship that's standing idle. I think you'll find she's just what you need."

- Wedge Antilles to Massimo

With its folding wing configuration and matching cockpit module, the Sentinel was based on the Lambda-class shuttle, as well as the Theta-class shuttle. The landing craft's exterior, however, was encased in armor plating 25% heavier than the armor of a Lambda. The landing craft was equipped with four deflector shield projectors. Despite its size, the Sentinel was fast and agile due to its Cygnus HD7 engine array.

The Sentinel relied on a pilot and a sensor officer along with the three gunners to pilot it. The vehicle's sensor suite which was located in the cockpit allowed navigation in nearly all conditions and featured infrared imaging, motion detectors and life-form indicators. The vessel's computer also had an automatic mapping function and a rudimentary autopilot that could pilot the vessel towards an Imperial garrison or starship or homing beacon during emergencies and featured powerful communication arrays which enabled contact with all Imperial starships and garrisons within a given system.



In its usual configuration, it could carry approximately six stormtrooper squads or 54 stormtroopers, 12 E-web heavy repeating blasters, and 6 74-Z speeder bikes. When its seats were removed and it was converted to carrying supplies, it could carry 36 74-Z speeder bikes or 12 compact assault vehicles like AT-STs and AT-PTs. Its total cargo capacity was 180 metric tons.

The landing craft's weapons complement consisted of 8 laser cannons, 2 concussion missile launchers, 1 retractable ion cannon and 2 rotating repeating blasters. Three gunners were responsible for manning these weapons, which were all linked to the shuttle's precise targeting computers. Since the Sentinel was heavily armed, it also served as a combat support vehicle.

History
After the Clone Wars the change was made from the starships that were able to land on planets to offload troops to spacebound Star Destroyers that brought troops into orbit but no farther, and the Galactic Empire needed a dedicated, armored, maneuverable landing craft to safely transport troops directly into battle. Sentinel-class landing craft was introduced before the Battle of Yavin and eventually became the main troop transport in the Imperial Navy. The Sentinel's primary use was to transport troops between Star Destroyers/Cruisers/Star Dreadnoughts and planets, but they could also serve as air support, short-range scouts, light cargo vessels and even starfighter support. The vehicle also made an excellent atmospheric transport and many Imperial garrisons had one of these vehicles. Several Sentinels were used on the desert world Tatooine, where they deployed sandtroopers and their dewback mounts to search for the missing Death Star plans.

Sentinels were also used in conjunction with larger Y-85 Titan dropships or AT-AT barges for joint infantry/armor assaults. However, because of their popularity, they were used by other groups including the Rebel Alliance, the New Republic, Galactic Federation of Free Alliances, mercenary groups, and the Imperial Remnant.

During the Galactic Civil War, the Rebels used a fleet of captured Sentinel landing craft as support ships. The Alliance logo was painted on their central wing, to help tell them apart from the Imperial ships. The New Republic also developed its own unique replacement for the Sentinel-class. The New Republic's Bantha-class assault shuttle featured much heavier armor than its Imperial counterpart.

Behind the scenes


Several sources list the Sentinel-class as being 20 meters long, the same length as the Lambda-class shuttle. Based on the vessel's similarity to the Lambda-class and other craft in the same family (especially the Kappa-class shuttle), a more realistic length would fall somewhere between 29 and 45 meters. The space combat simulator Star Wars: X-wing Alliance, however, depicts the Sentinel at a length of 38 meters. A side-by-side comparison in the Star Wars: Empire at War terrain editor scales the Sentinel-class at approximately 31.6 meters. The scales from both Empire at War games, however, are known to be notoriously incorrect, especially the distortion between starfighters and capital ships. It is currently unknown which is the canon length.

The Sentinel is one of few C-canon elements to make it into the movies; it first appeared in the Shadows of the Empire game, and appeared in the special edition of A New Hope.