TIE Bomber

Using the standard TIE fighter as a starting point, Imperial engineers designed a dedicated craft to deliver explosive payloads through bombardment. Showing its TIE roots, the TIE bomber's fuselage is bracketed by a pair of solar gather panels. For its increased power requirements, the bomber boasts elongated panels with greater surface areas than the standard starfighter.

The TIE bomber has twin cylindrical hulls between its panels. The starboard cylinder houses the pilot, while the port pod contains the fighter's explosive cargo, which are delivered to their targets via a ventral bomb chute.

Sienar Fleet Systems' development of the TIE bomber took the robust TIE/gt starfighter variant as a starting point and ended up with a formidable light space bomber capable of delivering devastating attacks of pinpoint accuracy against ground and space-based targets.

Previous to the bomber's development, orbital bombardment was handled by the weapons of the capital starships such as Imperial Star Destroyers. While no one would argue against the lethality of such methods, capital ship bombardments would often result in unwanted colateral damage adjacent to the targets. For more refined attacks, such as when the Empire desired to take a target intact, the surgical precision of the TIE bomber exceled.

The TIE bomber marks one of the few Imperial starfighters to come equipped with an ejection seat. Given that this vessel often operates within planetary atmospheres, a pilot stands a good chance of surviving should he need to eject.

The port pod contans two bomb bays that can carry a variety of payloads -- proton bombs, guided missiles, orbital mines, free-falling thermal detonators, for example. Advanced sensors developed by Nordoxicon's Micro Instruments divisions grant the TIE bomber unerring accuracy.

The bomber's greatest drawback is its speed and sluggish handling. It is not a vessel meant for twisting, jinking aerobatic dogfights. While its increased armor affords some protection from enemy fire, Alliance starfighter pilots consider so-called "dupes" easy pickings.

The TIE bomber's design was actually conceived for A New Hope, though the vessel was not seen in that film. Early sketches labeled it a TIE boarding craft, suggesting its use at the start of the film. From those sketches, both Marvel Comics and the daily Star Wars newspaper comic strip incorporated the twin-pod design in their tales before the bomber's formal introduction in The Empire Strikes Back.

Mischiveous modelmakers at ILM nicknamed the TIE bomber the "double chili dog" fighter, as its twin cylindrical configuration reminded staffers of a favorite food treat.

Kenner's original die-cast TIE bomber, one of the few toy incarnations of the Imperial fighter, is eagerly sought by collectors for its rarity.