List of Star Wars ship-mounted weapons

The following is a list of ship- and vehicle-mounted weapons in the fictional Star Wars universe.

Blasters

Blaster is a term that can be used interchangeably with the term "laser" for everyday conversation. Regardless, blasters and lasers are particle beam weapons, which fire a "bolt" of energy. The designs of blasters are a fair bit older than that of lasers, becoming less common in newer ships. With their design, blasters have high fire cycle rates, enabling them to multi fire, a mode of fire in which the rate of discharge is increased at the cost of accuracy. Blasters, because they are weaker than lasers of similar size, are limited to starfighters.

Among the oldest and most venerable of blaster technology is the triple blaster, which dates back to The Ancient days of the Old Republic. IT Works by using three separate blasters connected to the same targeting system, often found in coordinated sets of two or four, to fire simultaneously on a target. No company still mass produces them, and by the rise of the Empire, triple blasters have become exceedingly rare.

An updated version of blaster technology is the auto blaster, a modern redesign. Designed for the B-wing fighter, it has an even higher rate of fire than other blasters, but was not made available to other models until after the Battle of Endor.

Blasters are allowed on civilian vessels except for heavy blaster cannons during the rise of the Empire, when they are restricted to corporations through the purchase of Imperial licenses.

The most common manufacturer of blasters during the films is BlasTech, which among other lines has a contract with both the Imperial Military and the Rebellion. It also manufactures the Protector civilian fighter-grade blaster line.

Starship Beam Weaponry

Many starships carry beam weaponry. These are basically cannons, turrets, or batteries that fire energy beams: most commonly lasers, but also ions and masers. They all use gas (commonly Tibanna gas) as ammunition, which is electrically charged by a power source and converted into electrically charged plasma atoms/molecules. This plasma is focused and galvenned by magnetic coils, and it's fired. This is not a laser in the conventional sense of the term - but the name persists nevertheless. As the wave propagates through space, it becomes incoherent, and the energy density becomes increasingly lower as the distance between the firing barrel and the beam increases. This gives it an effective range.

Lasers

In the Star Wars Universe, laser cannons are like blasters, but much more powerful. They are usually used on fighters, freighters, and other small ships. Capital ships often have laser cannons for defence against starfighters, though they typically use turbolasers against other warships. Quad laser cannons have been mentioned on the Millennium Falcon and the Trade Federation battleships.

Quad lasers

Quad lasers are the most common defensive guns found on a capital starship. They are designed to lay down an overwhelming amount of fire in order to drive off attacking fighters. Though the damage is fairly light, the number of turrets and the sheer amount of firepower they bring to bear on a target often makes up for relatively small amount of damage they do.

Quad lasers have been seen in three forms: one on the Trade Federation battleship in The Phantom Menace, the other on the Millennium Falcon in A New Hope, and the third appearing as a gatling gun-type laser seen in Star Wars: Knights of the Old Republic II: The Sith Lords.

Discrepancy

To solve the apparent discrepancy between Star Wars lasers and real lasers (for example, the fact that real lasers do not fire at sublight speeds and would not be visible from the side in space), various explanations have been given. One of them is that Star Wars lasers are in fact real lasers fired at lightspeed, however a sub-light tracer bolt goes after it. The laser itself is invisible, though the bolt that follows can be seen by the [...] eye. However, this does not make sense because it would then be almost impossible for a Jedi to deflect the bolt with a lightsaber, and in several Star Wars games, it is apparent that the bolts do not travel at the speed of light. Another theory is that they are actually bolts of focused plasma (made by energizing fictional Tibanna Gas) that travel at sublight speeds and dissipate over a certain distance. In the Star Wars visual dictionary, a blaster is described as using high energy gas, possibly Tibanna Gas, converted into plasma by a power cell, and more explicit explanation of Tibanna Gas is present in the Episode II version of the book. It is unclear whether laser cannons use the same process as a blaster rifle, but this explanation would prove that they are, in fact, not real lasers.

Also notable is the fact that it's a work of fiction and doesn't actually need to adhere to the laws of physics.

Turbolasers

Turbolasers are the immensely scaled up versions of the blasters and laser cannons shown in the films; even the smaller ones are able to eradicate fairly large asteroids in a single shot. They can also be planet-based weapons, with power to match their immense proportions; planetary turbolasers have a power output four times that of a planetary ion cannon and can prove a deadly deterrent to planetary sieges.

Detailed examples can be seen on the Death Star in Episode IV. Turbolasers are the standard weapon on most corvettes and frigates, and are often mounted as either individual turbolaser cannons, or as turbolaser batteries, a collection of cannons aimed and fired together. Massive ships, such as Mon Calamari Cruisers and the many classes of Star Destroyers, carry gargantuan numbers of turbolaser cannons and batteries and according to some sources, are capable of reducing the surface of a planet into a molten slag. This type of orbital bombardment is often known as "Operation Base Delta Zero" among the Imperial Navy. It remains a point of confusion in the fan community as to how many vessels are needed for a Base Delta Zero, with some sources indicating one vessel, and others indicating it to be a fleet action which would require mop up operations afterwards. In the New Jedi Order series, orbital bombardment was referred to as "Operation Emperor's Fist", lending credence to an exclusively Imperial technique. The Emperor's personal flagship, the Eclipse, was able to perform Operation Base Delta Zero alone, with a planet-buster laser located in the prow of the Super Star Destroyer.

Turbolasers require vast amounts of energy and are therefore powered by individual power generators or removable power cases. Most of them have slow fire rates, since substained rapid fire not only takes huge amounts of energy, but can also potentially overheat and burn out the weapon. Turbolasers are primarily used against slow or stationary targets such as enemy capital ships since their targeting computers normally are not fast enough to track small and maneuverable craft like fighters. However, even a glancing blow from a turbolaser will destroy a starfighter. Turbolaser gunners may use packets of photon energy (tracers) for accuracy and range. These are sublight and are visible in space plus have a small punch of their own. Tibanna gas canisters in Episode III can be seen ejected after firing. However, the cannon may be a projectile weapon, as the Star Wars Episode III Visual Dictionary shows that projectile weapons are mounted on the ship. Also, on the inside cover of Star Wars Episode III Visual Dictionary, a diagram of these cannons show that they are mass drivers, and therefore inferring that the canisters are in fact spent ammunition shells. The book Star Wars Episode III Incredible Cross-Sections states that the Providence-class ship has a large number of proton torpedo cannons, which is another possibility as to the type of cannons that are seen in the movie.

Ion cannons

Ion cannons are designed to knock out electrical systems. Firing bolts of ionized energy, they can disable everything from propulsion to life support systems. They are often used on capital starships to facilitate the capture of enemy vessels. They can also be planet-based weapons, as seen in the Battle of Hoth when the Rebels used one to disable Imperial Star Destroyer Avenger, allowing a transport to escape through the Imperial blockade. Rebel Y-wing and B-wing fighters carry a pair of light Ion cannons, useful for disabling freighters and convoy ships that would ordinarily be severely damaged by lasers or warheads. The Y-wing's twin Ion cannon is mounted on a rotating turret, which makes it somewhat useful for harassing attacking spacecraft.

X-Wing game series

The game mechanics are different than in canon sources. Ion cannons have the same effect on shields as laser cannons. However, a few volleys of ion cannon fire at an unshielded craft will completely incapacitate its weapons and engines for the duration of the mission (not just temporarily according to canon), which can only be fixed by a repair vessel. Players often employ ion cannons to disable a lower-priority target such as a capital ship or freighter, so they can accomplished other mission objectives first and then return to finish off their hapless targets.

Planetary Ground-to-Space Beam Emplacements

Planetary Ion cannons

The v-150 Planet Defender is a massive weapon developed by Kuat Drive Yards. It can penetrate shields to temporarily or permanently disable electrical systems. Its power source is usually a dedicated reactor sunken into the ground and it can be erected in several hours. It is seen on the planet of Hoth in Star Wars Episode V: The Empire Strikes Back. The Ion cannon was fired at several Imperial Star Destroyers leaving them temporarily inoperative, thus letting many transports and their fighter escorts escape the Imperial blockade. As ion cannons go, the v-150 is rather small, with several KDY models available that are far more powerful.

Planetary Turbolasers

The w-165 is a gigantic surface-based turbolaser developed by Kuat Drive Yards, with a barrel 25 meters in diameter, built for defense against bombardment. It is capable of single-handedly destroying an Imperial Star Destroyer.

Hypervelocity gun

The hypervelocity gun is a planet-based ground-to-space weapon, used primarily by the Galactic Empire, that fires metal projectiles at high velocity at enemy orbiting starships.

There have been two uses of the hypervelocity gun in the Star Wars universe:

In the Black Fleet Crisis series, the New Republic Fifth Fleet attacked the Imperial planet of Bessimir in a training exercise. The enemy fleet was small, but the Imperial defenders had a lunar hypervelocity gun. When the moon came into range of the Fifth Fleet, it would be able to destroy several vessels with its enormous firepower. However, General A'baht, the commander of the Fifth Fleet, knew of this threat, and had equipped a Defender Star Destroyer with multiple shields and had modified it so that most engine power was diverted to shields. When the Repulse came into range, the hypervelocity gun fired incredible amounts of projectiles at high speeds at the heavily shielded Star Destroyer. However, it was a diversion. A squadron of K-wing heavy bombers swept in from below the Repulse and destroyed the weapons emplacement. The Bessimir hypervelocity gun was estimated to fire two projectiles per second, but was unable to sustain fire for more than ten seconds for a time.

Additionally, in the video game Star Wars: Empire at War, the hypervelocity gun is a weapon that can be built by the Imperial faction. It can bypass shields and cause great hull damage to Rebel Alliance ships during space battles. It fires in pulses of three projectiles, although it must recharge between firings. It can only be destroyed by a ground assault.

Gravity Weaponry

Tractor beams

Tractor beams are beams of gravitons travelling at the speed of light that are projected from an aperture and "lock on" to a target vessel. The gravitons' positive attraction creates a force between the two vessels, moving the lighter one towards the heavier one. These devices are used by ships to bring small ships into the docking bay of large vessels and move fighters without starting their engines, such as lifting TIE fighters into their takeoff racks which would be a difficult and dangerous operation for the pilot (as he sees badly both up and to sides), but can be done safely by hangar crews. They are used by large ships, such as Star Destroyers or even the Death Star, to snare smaller craft. The Death Star's tractor beams were immensely powerful, able to reel in a Star Destroyer and even catching the Millennium Falcon before the latter's sensors revealed that the Death Star was a space station instead of a moon. (the Millennium Falcon's sensors can detect another ship before it is even in visual distance.) Tractor beams are occasionally used as ship to ship weapons by increasing the number of gravitons in the beam to dangerous levels and emitting them in an intense beam that will pull apart another capital ship.

Typically, tractor beam generators are too large for fighters or bombers to carry them. However, Boba Fett was rumored to have had a miniature tractor beam generator on his ship, Slave I. In the flight simulator Star Wars: TIE Fighter, ace Imperial pilots have tractor beams to snare maneuverable Rebel craft, making them easy to destroy or disable.

Gravity well projectors

While not weapons in the classic sense, gravity well projectors are used to artificially project a strong gravity field in an area of space where no major stellar bodies usually exist, making it impossible to use hyperspatial engines. The main function of any Interdictor Cruiser is to use this effect to foil hit-and-run tactics and keep outmaneuvered enemies from escaping. Interdictor Cruisers work just as well in reverse: in a tactic known as the Thrawn Pincer, Grand Admiral Thrawn used them to drag his own ships out of hyperspace in pinpoint combat formation, catching the opposing New Republic forces off-balance. The counter to this tactic is to locate Interdictors across the battlefield, to calculate their gravity cones, figure out probable locations where enemy vessels will be dragged out from hyperspace, and to ready a salvo when the warships come in, as upon immediate arrival into the system, their shields are down. This can do a significant amount of damage. The gravity well generators on the Mon Mothma are refined, removing the need for the characteristic domes on earlier Interdictors. This allowes the Mon Mothma to excel as a hit-and-run interdictor.

Gravity well projectors are mounted on Eclipse- and Sovereign-class Super Star Destroyers, modified Galactic Alliance Star Destroyers (on the Mon Mothma and Elegos A'Kla), Interdictor cruisers, and modified Strike-class medium cruisers.

Starship Missile Weaponry

Concussion missiles

Concussion missiles are high-explosive missiles used by ships ranging from starfighters to Star Destroyers. The Millennium Falcon, A-wing, and Slave I were armed with concussion missiles. In James Kahn's novelization of Return of the Jedi, Lando Calrissian implies that concussion missiles have greater armor-piercing capability than proton torpedoes.

In the Expanded Universe novels, concussion missiles normally do less damage than proton torpedoes in deep space. However, they create a concussion shockwave effect in atmosphere.

X-Wing game series

In LucasArts' X-wing videogame, concussion missiles were designed purposefully for tracking enemy fighters and transports, as they did far too little damage against capital ships. There were several other types of larger and slower warheads, such as proton torpedoes, to use against bigger targets. However, this contradicts information in many canon sources which show that both proton torpedoes and concussion missiles are just general types of weapons with various yields. Because of that, this "fact" should be dismissed as a mere game mechanic. In Star Wars: TIE Fighter, TIE Fighters and Interceptors were able often able to carry warheads without decreased speed or maneuverability, which is also not considered canon.

In the Defender of the Empire expansion for TIE Fighter, certain targets such as platforms and Type C mines had an anti-warhead missile launcher, a defensive weapon which would fire concussion missiles to intercept incoming ordinance; the player often had to overwhelm it with several missiles of their own.

The TIE Fighter loadout images of the concussion missile differed from the official canon art.

In Star Wars: TIE Fighter, there was also the Advanced Concussion Missile which was extremely deadly due to its speed, damage, and tracking abilities, making it difficult to dodge. This completely replaced the regular missile halfway in the game.

Cluster Missiles

Cluster missiles are similar to concussion missiles in the Star Wars: Rogue Squadron game series. The major difference being that there are six missiles instead of one. Mounted on the V-Wing, Slave I, The Naboo Starfighter, and Darth Vader's TIE Advanced X1 can target multiple starfighters and do the same amount of damage as a concussion missile. They are considered the most useless weapon in the game until the upgrades are found; once upgraded, cluster missiles are considered the most effective weapons in the game because they all home in on a single target (they will separate if there is more than one target in range.) In Rogue Squadron II, there are 20 clusters (each carrying 6 missiles), making them far more effective.

Proton torpedoes

Proton torpedoes are projectiles carried by starfighters or capital ships. They have also been known to be fired from ground level or from space stations. They are most commonly used by star fighters against capital ships although they are usually a sure shot for destroying another fighter. Proton torpedoes are self-propelled proton/antiproton annihilation warheads. The yield of these weapons varies with the type of proton torpedo used; known yields range from single kiloton warheads by Luke Skywalker against the first Death Star to the 190-megaton warhead used by Jango Fett against Obi-wan Kenobi. The torpedo is usually guided by an astromech or by a guidance system in the torpedo itself. When an attack on a capital ship is intended, pilots tend to turn off the guidance system seeing as it is possible for it to be scrambled or the intended target can be mistaken for another target such as a star fighter. This is known as target confusion. It is also possible for the intended target to use countermeasures to throw the torpedo off course. When a pilot elects not to use a guidance system, this is called dumb firing and is all around more effective than using the system itself. The Proton Torpedo works on the principle of matter/antimatter annihilation i.e. proton/antiproton annihilation. Luke Skywalker fired a pair of proton torpedoes to destroy the first Death Star, while Wedge Antilles used these warheads to knock out the power regulator of the second Death Star.

Alliance fighters (such as the X-wing) that carry proton torpedoes onboard can use them to systematically destroy enemy fighters at long-range or short-range, and also to knock out the shields and critical systems of larger capital ships. Some enemy fighters have "target lock" ESW threat receivers that allow their pilots to know they have a torp on them, and can "juke" or "waltz" to throw off the targeting package. This makes long-range fighter-torpedoing rather inefficient. However, at close range, enemy fighters just do not have the time to evade the torpedo, which makes it a handy weapon in intense dogfighting.

One of the most important uses of proton torpedoes by starfighters is to attack capital ships. Normally, a squadron will fly to maximum sensor lock range for their torpedoes, or just dumb-fire their torpedoes all at a single location on the shields. Twenty proton torpedoes at one location can down that particular section of the shields on a Victory-class Star Destroyer, and less than eighty at one location can down a specific location on a Super Star Destroyer (for comparison, one fighter typically carries about five to ten torpedoes at best, but are usually loaded with less).

X-Wing game series

In LucasArts' X-wing videogame, proton torpedoes were significantly more powerful and best used against transports and capital ships, while concussion missiles were faster and better at tracking enemy fighters. This contradicts information in many canon sources which show that both proton torpedoes and concussion missiles are just general types of weapons with various yields. Because of that, this "fact" should be dismissed as a mere game mechanic.

Star Wars: TIE Fighter features three other types of warheads, the Heavy Rocket and Heavy Space Bomb, mainly for game mechanics, and these do not appear in any non-game cannon sources. The Heavy Rocket is several times more powerful than the proton torpedo but it is slower and has very little homing ability, meaning that aiming is crucial. Though the rocket is best used against capital ships and platforms, expert players had used it against shuttles and transports by flying straight behind the target and releasing it at point blank range. The Bomb is at least twice as powerful as the Rocket, but its self-propulsion is very weak and relies upon the inertia of the fighter deploying it, so it takes a long time to travel to the target. Craft could carry 16 missiles, 12 torpedoes, 8 rockets, or 4 bombs (other loads followed a similar proportion at 40-20-10-5, 12-8-6-3, and 8-6-4-2). 1 In Tour of Duty Eight, Mission Six, the player could use the Magnetic Pulse Warhead, or simply Mag Pulse, to temporarily incapacitate the weapons (but not the engines or hyperdrive) of a craft, this was the only in-game weapon that ignored shields.2

There were also Advanced Proton Torpedoes which essentially replaced the original torpedoes in the latter half of Star Wars: TIE Fighter; these were considerably faster and did more damage.

Oddly, torpedoes in the TIE Fighter were not depicted (just before launch when the player gets to choose the warhead load) as the stubby cones in the official universe; instead, they resembled thicker, blue colored missiles.

X-wing novels

In the X-wing novels, proton torpedoes were used against both starfighters and capital ships.

Energy torpedoes

Energy torpedoes are a cheaper and less powerful version of proton torpedoes. They are featured in Wizards of the Coast's roleplaying sourcebook "Starships of the Galaxy" and they are mounted on the Naboo Starfighters in the movie "The Phantom Menace". They look like energy bolts when fired. In the game "Star Wars Starfighter" the Naboo N-1 Starfighter carries a limited amount of Energy Torpedoes that can lock on to enemies.

Baradium Missiles

The Baradium missile is an experimental weapon for one X-wing, used with great success at the Battle of Borleias. Essentially a starfighter sized self-propelled thermal detonator, it was used to destroy a Yuuzhan Vong capital ship, by superheating ball bearings the size of human heads. When heated, the bearings had the exact size, shape, gravitic signature, and explosive charge of proton torpedoes. Essentially, the missile is a starfighter sized shotgun.

Boarding Harpoons

Boarding Harpoons are used both legally and illegally across the galaxy by pirates, security forces, and anyone wishing to storm a ship. Essentially giant hypodermics filled with coma gas, boarding harpoons melt through the hull of a target with their megaheated tips and then lodge themselves in the hole, deploying a flexiglass membrane to seal the vacuum breach, and inject the gas. Depending on ship size and re-circulation systems, occupants of the targeted vessel can be rendered unconscious between one and fifteen minutes. There are variants on the chemical structure of coma gas that make victims unconscious until an antidote is administered.

Superlaser

Found only aboard the Death Stars and the Eclipse and Sovereign Star Destroyers, the superlaser is a weapon of incomprehensible destruction. The Death Star was created to house this superweapon because the weapon required a titanic reactor core and focusing channels. The superlaser was designed primarily for the destruction of an entire planet and the weapon did so with frightening efficiency. Fortunately for the galaxy, this type of weapon has only been used a few times. The weapon was operated by top Imperial gunners and the gunner stations were under the heaviest security, because the superlaser could become an extremely potent threat to the Empire if it fell under the wrong hands. A smaller, less powerful superlaser was found on board the Eclipse-class Star Destroyer and had roughly two-thirds the power of the Death Star's superlaser. Its ability to destroy a planet came from its ability to drill into the planet's core causing it to super-heat and destroy the planet.

See also: Physics of the Death Star

Galaxy Gun

Another one of the Imperial superweapons, the Galaxy Gun was another weapon of colossal destruction. The Galaxy Gun was actually a massive starship that surrounded the enormous weapon. It fired gigantic missiles that were astonishingly fast in both sub-light and lightspeed realms. The missile was designed to destroy entire planets but its particle disintegrator warhead could be programmed to take out certain strategic locations such as cities or military bases or plants.

The warhead was a particle disintegrator and upon detonating, it would explosively convert all matter into energy. The Galaxy Gun's advantage to the Death Star was that it was able target a specific planet in just same location or planet it orbit allowing the weapon to stay in that location without actually going close to targeted planet to fire the its weapon, this gave the superweapon the ability to fire at any rebellious planet anywhere in the galaxy without having to travel through hyperspace. A massive Imperial fleet always surrounds the gigantic weapon, making any attempt to raid, destroy or sabotage it [...] for anyone. The weapon is also kept permanently parked above the Imperial Remnant capital planet Byss.

Sun Crusher

The utterly devastating Sun Crusher could fool most uninformed people. Appearing to be an ordinary starship, the Sun Crusher was actually another one of the Empire's superweapons. Slightly larger than a fighter, the Sun Crusher was almost indestructible. It sported four lasers and quantum-crystalline armor that was compacted into layers seven times, making the craft able to take heavy turbolaser fire, and even to survive (with heavy damage) a glancing blast from the Death Star. The building of the craft took a very long time as the armour had to be built one molecule at a time due to its density. The main armament of the Sun Crusher was its eleven plasma-charged warheads. Once launched, the warhead would protect itself in a shell of plasma, making the warhead look like a heavy laser bolt. The warhead would then travel near light speed into the center of a star where the warhead would arm and release extremely dense and enormous amounts of energy, causing a supernova. The resulting explosion would take out entire solar systems. The Sun Crusher was used by Han Solo, Kyp Durron, Chewbacca, and Qwi Xux to escape from the Maw Installation where it was designed, built, and stored.

Once the New Republic gained control of the device, they immediately recognized the destructive potential of the weapon and ordered it to be cast into the gas giant Yavin, where it would be presumably unreachable. Regrettably, a long dead Sith Lord, Exar Kun, residing on Yavin 4 was able to use his still strong influence over the Force to raise the ship from Yavin's core. Kyp, under the influence of the Dark Lord, and possessed by rage against the Empire, used the incredible weapon to attack the Empire's vestiges.

Kyp Durron used seven of the eleven warheads at the Cauldron Nebula. He used another at an Imperial Core World, another at an Imperial military installation at Carida, and the others on the Death Star prototype. Unfortunately for Kyp, his brother was killed on Carida when Kyp destroyed the system's star.

The Sun Crusher was destroyed when Kyp Durron flew it into a black hole in the Maw during the attack on the Maw Installation.

Tow cable

Tow cables are thick wire-like cables released by Snowspeeders. These were originally intended for towing cargo sleds, etc. but during the Battle of Hoth, these were used to tie up the legs of large vehicles, such as AT-AT walkers.

Mass-Driver Cannons

Mass-Driver Cannons are the projectile cannons of Star Wars. They were cannons that could fire a volley of heated projectiles at high speed, and could penetrate shields. Mass-Driver Cannons were first employed in use by the Separatist Forces on ships such as the Invisible Hand, and were later used by the Zann Consortium in numerous ships and ground vehicles.

External links

• Turbolaser Commentaries - a study and quantitative assessment of Star Wars turbolasers
• The Parts of Star Wars - a detailed website on the weapons of the Star Wars saga