AST-5 Armored Sentinel Transport

The AST-5 Armored Sentinel Transport was an aerial scouting vehicle model.^[1] It featured wings, and its enclosed cockpit could support a pilot. The AST-5 Armored Sentinel Transport also had a pair of^[2] fully rotating^[1] blaster cannons,^[2] and the vehicle could place itself in an upright sentinel position. The interior of the vehicle was equipped with screens that displayed starships in outer space.^[1]

The criminal empire of Jabba the Hutt,^[2] a crime lord operating out of a palace on the planet Tatooine,^[3] used the AST-5 Armored Sentinel Transport to defend the structure.^[2] One of the Hutt's best pilots, Wooof, occasionally flew an AST-5 Armored Sentinel Transport^[1] prior to his^[4] and Jabba's deaths at the Battle of the Great Pit of Carkoon^[5] in 4 ABY.^[6]

Behind the scenes[]

In 1983, Kenner created the AST-5 Armored Sentinel Transport for the Star Wars: Return of the Jedi toy line. The assembly instructions for the toy depicted the bounty hunter Boba Fett operating the vehicle, while it is shown to be used by the smuggler Han Solo on the packaging.^[2] In the October 14, 2013 StarWars.com article "Offscreen, but Not Forgotten: Mini-Rigs, Body-Rigs, and Other Kenner Vehicles" by Tim Veekhoven, the depiction of starships in space on screens inside the AST-5 Armored Sentinel Transport was speculated to imply that the vehicle was able to enter a planet's exosphere or even travel in space for a short time period.^[1]