TIE Fighter
- This article is about TIE Fighter. For other uses see TIE Fighter (disambiguation).
There is no profile more recognizable than the TIE Fighter. It’s spherical cockpit, the hexagonal solar arrays and its P-s4 Twin Ion Engine’s high-pitched whistle are synonymous with the Empire itself. Produced by the hundreds of thousands and deployed in every system the Empire ever claimed, it was a product of the Tarkin Doctrine most intrinsic component, the rule by fear. Teh TIE/ln designation refers to line edition, but navcomputers also ID it as T/F.
As a fighter, it set the standards of speed and maneuverability on its peak usage during the Empire golden age. With its combat ratings peaking at 100 MGLT, 100 DPF and two laser cannons, the TIE Fighter wasn’t on par with the successors of the Republic fighters, namely the X-Wing, but it was never supposed to, as its deployment tactics were to overwhelm the enemy by the numbers, and it was never intended to fight one on one against shielded craft.
As the years passed and the TIE/ln being the root of all TIE series and branched designs, it benefited from many upgrades and capabilities, surpassing the old doctrines and enabling it to survive combat by itself, even without the shields, hyperdrive or even life-support systems. The addition of the SLAM system to the Ps-4 engine, self-repair capabilities and modular weapons allowed it to enter the new age of dogfighting. Still, those upgrades were not able to keep it from being surpassed by its ‘children’, and nowadays there is no active flight on the EH that uses the TIE Fighter, being limited to sentries and local defense only.
