Droid tri-fighter/Legends

Droid tri-fighter "They're all over me! Get them off my&mdash;"

- A clone trooper pilot during the Second Battle of Coruscant, being chased by a droid tri-fighter

The droid tri-fighter, also known as the tri-droid fighter or simply tri-fighter, was a deadly Confederacy droid starfighter designed as a fast and agile space-superiority starfighter, built to excel in dogfighting. It would be used most towards the end of the Clone Wars.

Design


The droid tri-fighter was designed by the Colicoid Creation Nest &mdash; makers of the deadly droideka &mdash; and manufactured by Colla Designs and Phlac-Arphocc Automata Industries. The droid's ridged, three-armed design was based on the skull features of a fearsome predator native to the planet Colla IV. The bracing arms surrounded the droid's advanced artificial brain, housed in a rotating, gyroscopic core. The droid tri-fighter had three independent thrusters, providing it with great agility, and a powerful reactor and control/comms transceiver that gave the craft unusual range for a fighter drone.

It was armed with one medium laser cannon protruding from the central ball, and a light laser cannon for each of the three arms. Two to six missiles of variable payloads were housed within each arm. The nose-like cannon made the droid tri-fighter similar in appearance to the DSD1 dwarf spider droid also used by the Confederacy.

The droid tri-fighter was capable of deploying buzz droids via discord missiles, and quickly became rival to the ARC-170 starfighter and the V-wing starfighter. Although it could not outrun the Eta-2 interceptors favored by the Jedi, it was bulkier and more heavily armed, making it a challenge for even the best living starpilots to overcome.

History


The droid tri-fighter was introduced into the Confederate Navy relatively late in the conflict. One of its first recorded uses was on Praesitlyn, where they were matched against the T-19 starfighters of the Praesitlyn Defense Force. Tri-fighters were also deployed at Boz Pity, Saleucami, and Belderone.

Many tri-fighters fought during the Second Battle of Coruscant, where they decimated ARC-170 squadrons. Following the execution of the Separatist Council by Darth Sidious's new apprentice, Darth Vader, these units were de-activated. At least one tri-fighter comprised part of the Imperial junkyard during the Galactic Civil War.

Behind the scenes

 * In the Star Wars: Clone Wars animated series, a sleeker, more numerous variant of droid tri-fighters appear, armed only with a central cannon (seen on the left). These fighters swarmed the skies of Coruscant during the battle leading up to the third film. There is still discussion amongst fans as to whether this is a different variant of the droid tri-fighter or simply a design error in the cartoon, which has come into conflict with canon in some areas. It may also simply be a stylistic interpretation of the movie design.


 * In Star Wars: Battlefront II, the laser cannon is replaced with a chaingun.

Appearances



 * CIS Shadowfeed Dispatch 15:2:29 Edition
 * Jedi Trial
 * Star Wars: Obsession
 * Star Wars Republic: The Siege of Saleucami
 * Star Wars: Clone Wars
 * "Chapter 22"
 * "Chapter 23"
 * "Chapter 25"
 * Labyrinth of Evil
 * Star Wars Episode III: Revenge of the Sith
 * Star Wars: Battlefront II
 * Dark Lord: The Rise of Darth Vader
 * Star Wars Dark Times 6: Parallels, Part 1
 * Star Wars Rebellion: My Brother, My Enemy