BTL-S8 K-wing assault starfighter

BTL-S8 K-wing assault starfighter "We're the heavy hitters. When you need a command bridge leveled or a convoy of tanks wiped out, the K-wings get the call."

- New Republic pilot Miranda Doni shortly before her death at Doornik-319

The BTL-S8 K-wing assault starfighter, commonly known as the K-wing, was a heavy starfighter/bomber.

Characteristics
The K-wing assault starfighter was produced by Koensayr Manufacturing, the same company responsible for producing the venerable Y-wing. Like many other New Republic starfighters, the K-wing was designed to excel in a specific primary role in combat while retaining the flexibility to serve secondary functions if needed.

The K-wing starfighter's primary missions included precision bombing of planetary targets, slow-moving capital ships, and spaceborne installations. It also performed secondary missions as an escort or reconnaissance ship.



The hull design of the K-wing consisted of two primary wings attached to a fixed stabilizer. The two main ion engines located at the junction between the wings and stabilizer allowed the K-wing to achieve a sublight speed similar to the Y-Wing, despite its larger size.

An additional engine mounted along the centerline on the aft dorsal section of the stabilizer allowed the fighter to accelerate rapidly in short bursts, much like the SLAM system found on the Imperial Missile Boat. Unfortunately, the K-wing had no hyperdrive capability, and was always deployed from a capital ship.

To fulfill its role in the New Republic Defense Fleet, the K-wing carried an unusually large arsenal for a vessel of its size. The hull had a total of 18 hard points, five on each upper wing and four on each lower wing, to allow technicians to arm the ship with a large variety of weapons including flechétte and concussion missiles, proton and other sublight torpedoes, thermal and other inertial bombs, small space mines, and T-33 plasma torpedoes.

When attacked by enemy fighters, the K-wing could return fire with a short-range quad turbolaser turret located at the fore and a medium-range twin laser cannon turret mounted on the top of its command module. Also, the K-wing could be outfitted with slugthrower cannons on the hardpoints for additional short-range firepower. Like most New Republic fighters, it was also equipped with a deflector shield.

Because of its large weapons loadout, the K-wing required a gunner. The pilot and gunner sat in cockpits on either side of the command section. In case of emergency, this module was able to detach from the rest of the ship to serve as an escape pod.

History
K-wings were first deployed in combat by the New Republic during the Yevethan crisis. Throughout their service years, they were generally deployed in outsize squadrons, with three flights of six bombers a piece.

Source discrepancies
While The New Essential Guide to Vehicles and Vessels describes the K-wing as mounting laser turrets for self-defense, in The Black Fleet Crisis, it is indicated that the fighter has no built-in armament whatsoever, and instead relies entirely on its wing hardpoints to carry weaponry. It is possible that the laser turrets were a later upgrade to improve the K-wing's survivability. The Black Fleet Crisis also lists the K-wing's third engine as being below the other two and at a slight angle to help the K-wing pull out of a dive, making its placement in The New Essential Guide to Vehicles and Vessels unlikely, as well as the placement of the forward defense gun, since the G-forces of the dive would shear the turret off.

Other discrepancies include the arrangement of the wings and cockpit, with most visual sources using a pair of side by side cockpits, while the Black Fleet Trilogy refers to the pilot and bombadier sitting one behind the other. Michael P. Kube-McDowell, who wrote the Black Fleet Crisis, may originally have conceived the K-wing cockpit to be similar to that of a snowspeeder.

Additionally, some fans find the idea of a starfighter mounting four turbolasers to be unlikely. However, turbolasers are built in many sizes, and those on the K-wing are actually smaller than some starfighter laser cannons. As such, it is likely that "turbolaser" simply describes how the weapons function, rather than implying that they are comparable in power to capital ship turbolasers.

Parallels
The K-wing seems to resemble the real world A-10 Thunderbolt which also has two rear engines and is used as a ground-attack bomber whereas the K-wing is categorized as an assault starfighter though it is also capable of performing a ground-attack role.

Appearances

 * Before the Storm
 * Shield of Lies
 * Tyrant's Test
 * Fury