Starfighter combat/Legends

"Lock S-foils in attack position..."

- Garven Dreis just prior to the Battle of Yavin.

A dogfight was a type of engagement fought between starfighters. Especially designed for the purpose, most starfighters that engaged in dogfighting included the TIE/ln starfighter, TIE/I starfighter and the Alliance T-65 X-wing and RZ-1 A-wing interceptor. Those who fought in dogfights were known as fighter pilots; these highly-trained and -skilled individuals would often be called upon to serve their navies as buttresses against enemy starfighter forces as well as supplements to a fleet of capital ships. In addition, there were many other roles that starfighters engaged in throughout galactic history.

Characteristics
Dogfights typically, though not always, revolved around major battlefleet actions fought between opposing space navies and their capital ships; these could involve dozens of squadrons on each side amid innumerable types, classes and sizes of larger vessels. They were typically characterized by close-in, extremely tight maneuvering and point-blank firing solutions using energy weapons such as laser, and ion cannons. Inexperienced pilots or those with poor situational awareness rarely survived their first dogfights; it often required superior reflexes and awareness of one's surroundings (referred to as "situational awareness"), as well as a certain aggressiveness, to achieve results in this kind of warfare.

Though dogfights, often called "vape-brawls" by veteran pilots usually involved fighters, sometimes gunships, bombers, and assault shuttles would be involved though they usually played victim to the more nimble fighters sent after them. Victory conditions for dogfights included, not surprisingly, eliminating or driving off of opposing fighters to either clear the way for heavier craft (such as the Alliance's B-wing) to assault capital ships or to in turn defend capital ships from the enemy's own assault forces.

Dogfights in battlefleet actions
When starfighters took part in engagements where significant numbers of larger warships fought against each other (for instance: during the Battle of Endor, they typically served to screen their side's capital ships from the enemy fleet's own starfighter forces and, if the opportunity presented itself, to engage capital ships at their vulnerable points. Depending on the space navies involved and the warships they used, fighters would enter the battle planes either by jumping in from hyperspace under their own power {in the case of most Rebel starfighter units) or they would be deployed from motherships (in the case of Imperial-class Star Destroyers and TIE Fighters) Though not unheard of, dogfights fought in the midst of capital ships already engaged in battle were generally avoided as random hits from heavy turbolasers from the larger warships could easily vaporize most snubfighters, either friend or foe and whether the shot was intentional or not.

The Force and dogfights

 * Main article: Jedi ace

Many members of the Jedi Order, trained in use of the Force, were also supremely-qualified in flying starfighters in dogfights. A Jedi Knight could use the Force to his or her advantage in combat to not only better utilize their own craft's advantages, but to predict the maneuvers and tactics of their opponents, since they could sense the intentions of other organic beings. Some Jedi could even use their Force-connection to befuddle the minds of their opponents as an active part of their offense as well as relying on it for reactive purposes; some in the Order, however, felt this to be straddling too close to the dark side.

General history and tactics
There were as many different types of tactics employed in dogfights as there were starfighters and pilots who engaged in them and likely even more so. However, there were some basic principles that were universal no matter what forces were engaged in battle. One overriding principle was that starfighters always operated in paired units; each member of an element would alternate positions as leader and wingman. The leader of an element would engage enemy starfighters while the wingman served as backup; this was the foundation of any fighter unit, elements would be paired into flights, which were in turn melded into squadrons. Leader and wingman pairs within an element would often switch position as circumstances dictated.

Types of dogfights
There were two types of dogfights: the furball and the slashing attack. Furballs were analogous to knife-fights between multiple opponents in a zero-gee environment. This type of combat favored starfighters with higher levels of maneuverability, however pilots who flew craft with lesser degrees of agility could still triumph if they possessed superior situational awareness, that is to say, awareness of the position of friendly and enemy ships throughout the engagement zone, as well as tactical ability. Slashing attacks usually involved fast interceptors making high-speed runs on opposing formations of enemy craft, either fighters, bombers or even capital-class vessels. These attacks, also known as "hit and fade" runs (a term that could also refer to an overall type of combat operation), demanded craft with high rates of acceleration and top speed as well as agility, though this usually came at the expense of firepower and protection.

Dogfighting in the Old Republic
From the earliest days of the Old Republic, there was need of pilots to fly in combat throughout the Galaxy. As part of their armed forces, the Republic employed many models of starfighters throughout that government's twenty-five thousand years of existence, particularly during the Great Hyperspace War, the Great Sith War, the Mandalorian Wars, Jedi Civil War, Sith Civil War, the New Sith Wars and the Clone Wars. There were many types of starfighters used, from the Aurek fighter to the Republic assault fighter and the Sith fighter. During the Clone Wars many new types of starfighters would see service, including droid-piloted craft such as the vulture droid used primarily by the Trade Federation and the Droid tri-fighter in service with the Confederacy of Independent Systems. These ships, which were essentially armed droids with attack programming, were particularly difficult for Jedi pilots to fight (st least at first) because they were immune to Force-based anticipation.

The Clone Wars also saw the beginning of many changes in the way dogfights were fought. Throughout the history of the galaxy prior to the outbreak of the Wars and the decline of the Old Republic, dogfights were fought almost exclusively by sentient pilots flying starfighters without hyperdrive units that depended on larger warships to carry them into combat. This began to change as some elements within the galaxy, such as the many corporate interests like the Trade Federation, Techno Union, Commerce Guild, InterGalactic Banking Clan and Corporate Sector Authority saw the economy of employing droid starfighters in addition to their growing legions of battle droid armies. The clones that gave the Wars their name and the fighters they flew acted as the Republic's counterbalance, yet in reality the whole conflict was but a plot by the Sith to play the galaxy against itself in order to conquer it from within while at the same time eliminating their age-old nemesis, the Jedi Order. In the last stages of the war, however, starfighters with deflector shields and integrated hyperdrive units began to appear on both sides, and this would have a marked effect on the evolution of starfighter combat, a trend that was at the same time shunned and embraced depending on which side one chose to favor in the Galactic Civil War that followed.

The Galactic Civil War
During the Galactic Civil War both the Galactic Empire and the Alliance to Restore the Republic developed their own dogfighting tactics. The standard Imperial doctrine for dealing with more effective Rebel starfighters was to swarm them with disproportionate numbers of TIE fighters and Interceptors, hoping to either drive off their opponents or to destroy them. The Alliance, however, soon learned to value its pilots much more then the Empire did, and thus not only trained them extensively in dogfighting techniques, but instilled the desire to survive and fight another day into its Starfighter Corps; when the tactical situation became untenable, Rebel pilots were encouraged to retreat. The use of homing projectile-based weapons, either in the form of proton torpedos and concussion missiles were essential to Alliance starfighter tactics. Though it was dangerous to use these types of ordinance in heated close-quarters engagements, they proved very effective in thinning opposing forces as both sides closed into attack range.

The Yuuzhan Vong war
When the extragalactic Yuuzhan Vong began their invasion of the Galaxy in 25 ABY, their biologically-engineered and grown warships at first proved devastating against the forces of the New Republic. Their version of a starfighter, which soon earned the nickname coralskipper from their opponents, were deadly craft that could shred the inorganic snubfighters then in wide use almost with impunity. Equipped with plasma cannons that literally fired molten rock and dovin basals that could suck away shields and absorb laser blasts and even proton torpedoes fired at them, formations of Yorik-et craft could cut to ribbons a squadron of X-wings that had not yet faced them. Grutchins, another bioengineered weapon favored by the Vong, were vacuum-immune insectoids that could literally eat their way through any snubfighter unlucky enough to catch one in much the same way buzz droids would rip their way through Republic craft during the Clone Wars.

Though the New Republic, and later the Galactic Federation of Free Alliances, would eventually develop tactics and technology for use against coralskippers (among them were dynamic shield modulations that could resist the sucking power of a dovin basal, using stutter-fire to weaken a gravitic anomaly enough to leave the craft vulnerable to a torpedo attack, as well as yammosk-jamming to interfere with the co-ordination of coralskipper squadrons), the Yuuzhan Vong eventually learned to adapt to these techniques, necessitating the development of still more tactics and technologies. Though it arrived in service too late to see any action in the war, the Galactic Alliance navy eventually put into production a fighter specifically-designed to counter coralskippers, the Aleph-class starfighter, also known as the Pondskipper or, more popularly, the Twee. This proved to be yet another development in the evolution of starfighter combat, as by this time the idea of massed units of unshielded "disposable" craft used to overwhelm an enemy with sheer numbers had become obsolete. Betrayal

Special maneuvers
A number of special maneuvers used in starfighter dogfights were invented over the course of the millennia.

The A-wing slash

 * Main article: A-wing slash

One notable tactic that first saw use during the New Republic's battles with Grand Admiral Mitth'raw'nuruodo was popularly known as the A-wing slash. Invented by former Corellian Senator turned General Garm Bel Iblis, the maneuver involved a formation of X-wings, usually, closing in on the screening starfighters of an enemy fleet only to break off at the last possible moment. In the wake of the initial attacking formation, a flight of A-wing interceptors would be flying, hidden in the ion efflux of the X-wings; when the former force broke off the enemy fighters would naturally follow, leaving the A-wings free to engage larger warships or any additional forces lurking behind the screen.

Solo Slingshot

 * Main article: Solo Slingshot

Developed by Han Solo, the aptly-named Solo Slingshot was a maneuver used to clear a pilot's craft of pursuing enemy starfighters by deliberately hurling his or her ship at the edge of a gravitic anomaly, such as a dovin basal or the gravity well of a planet or moon. At the last moment the pilot would swing into the gravity well, allowing it to take hold of his or her craft, effectively slinging the ship around in an unanticipated direction. The maneuver required great skill and knowledge of one's vessel to accomplish, however, and great care was needed to ensure that the intended course of the slingshot would not send the pilot into the path of other fighters or, worse yet, a larger warship.

Corellian Slip

 * Main article: Corellian Slip

Supposedly invented by Corellian smugglers some time prior to the Galactic Civil War, the Corellian Slip involved a scissors-like maneuver in which a starfighter with an enemy craft on his tail would fly towards another friendly craft, usually the pilot's wingmate. The other friendly would then fly straight at the starfighter in trouble; at the last moment the craft would pull out of the line of fire and the rescuing ship would fire on the pursuing enemy. Wedge Antilles used this maneuver during the Battle of Yavin to save Luke Skywalker from an oncoming TIE Fighter.

Special tactics and conditions
Starfighters and the pilots that flew them were often called upon to accomplish missions that did not necessarily involve dogfights with enemy forces. Many such craft were also purpose-built to serve as bombers to attack capital ships or to eliminate ground targets that required a greater degree of precision then an orbital bombardment could deliver. Though held in somewhat lower regard by their fellows who flew dedicated space-superiority fighters, these bombers and their pilots were often outfitted so as to be able to defend themselves against enemy fighters. Examples of this type of craft included the BTL-S8 K-wing assault starfighter, which was used to great effect against Yevethan thrustships during the Black Fleet Crisis. Along with B-wings and their Imperial counterparts, the TIE/sa bomber and Scimitar assault bomber, they could do considerable damage to unprotected capital ships (see also: Trench Run Defense).

Atmospheric combat
Though much rarer then their space-based counterparts, different varieties of armed airspeeders could also engage in dogfights. Examples of such armed airspeeders included the Alliance's T-47 airspeeder used during the Battle of Hoth and V-wing airspeeder that saw service at the First Battle of Mon Calamari as well as the Storm IV and Talon Is in use by Bespin's Cloud City Wing Guard. It was not unheard of for starfighters to participate in atmospheric combat as well, either against other snubfighters or armed airspeeders and even against land vehicles.

During the Galactic Civil War the Rebels soon learned that Imperial TIE fighters and Interceptors, while quite maneuverable in space, lost much of this advantage when dogfights occurred within a planetary atmosphere. Tactics that suited the TIE series of fighter craft when in space, if executed in atmosphere, would and in several notable cases did lead directly to that craft and its pilot's death. This was the result of the positioning of the fighters' large Quadranium solar panels, as they acted in contradiction of the natural forces of drag and gravity that exerted themselves on atmospheric craft. Rebel and New Republic pilots soon learned to take full advantage of this oversight and exploited it whenever they could.

Old Republic

 * Anakin Skywalker
 * Saesee Tiin
 * Adi Gallia
 * Many clone pilots

Rebel Alliance/New Republic

 * Luke Skywalker
 * Wedge Antilles
 * Tycho Celchu
 * Han Solo

Galactic Empire

 * Darth Vader
 * Baron Soontir Fel
 * Turr Phennir
 * Maarek Stele

Other notable pilots

 * Nym
 * Jango and Boba Fett
 * Dash Rendar

Behind the scenes
The term dogfight was introduced during World War I, the first conflict to see the airplane put to military use, to describe fights between aircraft fitted with forward-firing machine guns. The word can be used both as a noun and a verb; as a verb it can also mean "to arrange (illegal) dog fights" and "to engage one in a dogfight".

Appearances
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 * Star Wars Episode I: The Phantom Menace
 * Star Wars Episode II: Attack of the Clones
 * Star Wars Episode III: Revenge of the Sith
 * Star Wars Episode IV: A New Hope
 * Star Wars Episode V: The Empire Strikes Back
 * Star Wars Episode VI: Return of the Jedi
 * Star Wars: Clone Wars
 * Heir to the Empire
 * Dark Force Rising
 * The Last Command
 * X-wing: Rogue Squadron
 * X-wing: Wedge's Gamble
 * X-wing: The Krytos Trap
 * X-wing: The Bacta War
 * X-wing: Wraith Squadron.
 * X-wing: Iron Fist
 * X-wing: Solo Command
 * X-wing: Isard's Revenge
 * X-wing: Starfighters of Adumar
 * I, Jedi
 * Planet of Twilight
 * Specter of the Past
 * Vision of the Future
 * The New Jedi Order
 * Betrayal
 * Bloodlines
 * Tempest
 * Exile
 * Sacrifice
 * The Star Wars Republic comics
 * Star Wars: Knights of the Old Republic (appears in cutscenes}
 * Star Wars: Knights of the Old Republic II: The Sith Lords (appears in cutscenes}
 * Star Wars Galaxies: Jump to Lightspeed
 * Star Wars: Starfighter
 * Star Wars: Jedi Starfighter
 * Star Wars: The Clone Wars
 * Star Wars: X-wing
 * Star Wars: TIE Fighter
 * Star Wars: X-wing vs. TIE Fighter
 * Star Wars: X-wing Alliance
 * Star Wars: Rogue Squadron
 * Star Wars: Rogue Squadron II: Rogue Leader
 * Star Wars: Rogue Squadron III: Rebel Strike
 * Star Wars: Empire at War
 * Star Wars: Empire at War: Forces of Corruption
 * Star Wars: Battlefront
 * Star Wars: Battlefront II