XX-9 heavy turbolaser

"We count 30 Rebel ships, my Lord. But they're so small they're evading our turbolasers."

―Lieutenant Tanbris to Darth Vader during the Battle of Yavin^[src]

The XX-9 heavy turbolaser was a shipboard emplacement weapon produced by Taim & Bak.

Description

XX9 Turbolaser Tower diagram — A diagram of a Taim & Bak XX-9 tower on the first Death Star

The Taim & Bak XX-9 heavy turbolaser was protected by quadanium steel plating and was a deadly weapon against capital ships, at the cost of many credits. It featured dual turret-mounted barrels and was mounted on a square base.

The variants aboard the Death Star had four sections housed within the hull of the turret. The first section was the heavy turbolaser battery itself, located at the top. It was capable of rotating in a full circle to provide a continuous arc of fire. Its dual turrets also had swivel mounts to cover vertical fire. At the top was an external sensor pod as well as elevation gyros. The cooling system was also located near the top of the battery. The barrels were composed of the laser actuator at the back, followed by the galven coils, as well as the barrels themselves and the emitter tips. The blaster gas chamber was near the back of the turret, with the overload dispersal grid being located above the swivel mounting.

The second section contained rows of capacitor banks that stored energy for the laser actuator to convert into charged beams of intense light. The resulting energy storage capacity was necessary for enabling the turbolasers to maintain rapid fire, with a two-second delay between firing rounds. The primary power core was also located in this section.

The third section housed the support crew and maintenance stations, as well as the generator used to power the turrets. It also had a maintenance ladder leading up to the first section, which was accessible via a hatch.

The fourth and lowermost section housed the gunnery stations and the tracking and targeting computers for the turret, which were powerful enough to track multiple targets beyond even the Imperial gunners' helmets' built-in computers.

A safety feature of XX-9 targeting computers caused the turrets to automatically lock up if they went below the horizon. This ensured they didn't accidentally fire on the ground when targeting enemies. This consequently gave Rebel Alliance snubfighters an advantage by flying low.

History

The XX-9 heavy turbolaser was the successor of the XX-8 turbolaser and the predecessor of the XX-10 turbolaser tower. Although powerful in an anti-ship role, it was ineffective against agile starfighters. Of the 33 starfighters that engaged the first Death Star, 9 pilots survived. Darth Vader's Black Squadron destroyed 9, leaving 15 fighters destroyed by the Death Star's defensive fire.^[source?]

Following the Battle of Yavin, the turbolasers were found on planet-side engagements, with many destroyed by the Rebels' Rogue Squadron.

Behind the scenes

A ground-based, single-barreled XX-9 was depicted as the Imperial medium turret in Star Wars: Galactic Battlegrounds and its sequel, Star Wars: Galactic Battlegrounds: Clone Campaigns. However, unlike its shipboard counterpart, the ground-based XX-9 had its turbine and crew station located within the turret.