Ships of the week, the TIE series

[Captain Seafort]

Well, with The Bacta War, it took about 80 torpedoes or so to take down Lusankya's shields. And as for the others, the concentrated salvos only took down the particular area hit IE dorsal, fore, aft. Most times, the enemy ships began rolling to present fully powered shields.

Lucy was an SSD. What class is anyone's guess, but she was definitely a good sight larger than a destroyer. I was thinking of the squadron knocking down half the Corruptor's shields with a couple of dozen warheads, with the expectation that a second salvo to the unshielded hull would destroy or cripple it. With sufficient numbers (by which I mean at least a full wing) fighters definitely have the firepower to kill warships - the main problem is coordinating the attacks to ensure the impacts are almost simultaneous. It's both difficult and unusual, but it's doable under those narrow conditions.

[RK_Striker_JK_5]

Lucy was an SSD. What class is anyone's guess, but she was definitely a good sight larger than a destroyer. I was thinking of the squadron knocking down half the Corruptor's shields with a couple of dozen warheads, with the expectation that a second salvo to the unshielded hull would destroy or cripple it. With sufficient numbers (by which I mean at least a full wing) fighters definitely have the firepower to kill warships - the main problem is coordinating the attacks to ensure the impacts are almost simultaneous. It's both difficult and unusual, but it's doable under those narrow conditions.

Lucy was an SSD? No wonder she treated Charlie Brown so badly!

Okay, good point. It's the coordination that's the problem, definitely. And of course that star destroyer is firing at you, TIEs are swarming...

[Captain Seafort]

Okay, good point. It's the coordination that's the problem, definitely. And of course that star destroyer is firing at you, TIEs are swarming...

That's probably a major reason why they carry fighters - even a flight-strength run could disrupt the coordinated attack required to do serious damage, leaving the destroyer free to engage more important targets.

[kostmayer]

How much use were the shields in Star Wars: A New Hope? Most of the ships seems to go down after being hit once - if not blowing up immediately then flying out of control and crashing. Wouldn't the power be better used providing the ships with more speed and maneuvarability, in order for them to avoid getting hit in the first place?

[Captain Seafort]

How much use were the shields in Star Wars: A New Hope? Most of the ships seems to go down after being hit once - if not blowing up immediately then flying out of control and crashing. Wouldn't the power be better used providing the ships with more speed and manoeuvrability, in order for them to avoid getting hit in the first place?

Against a full volley from another fighter the shields were very little protection (unlike the X-wing books where even a good solid hit is unlikely to even knock the shields out). Against glancing hits, however, such as that the Falcon scored, and the hits on Luke and a few others, they were effective. In most cases this protection didn't change the outcome, as either Vader fired again or the damage caused the fighter to crash into the Death Star, but in less intense combat, in open space, it would allow a damaged fighter to withdraw rather than being destroyed. Even at Yavin, Luke was able to continue his run despite several glancing hits.

[RK_Striker_JK_5]

Okay, good point. It's the coordination that's the problem, definitely. And of course that star destroyer is firing at you, TIEs are swarming...

That's probably a major reason why they carry fighters - even a flight-strength run could disrupt the coordinated attack required to do serious damage, leaving the destroyer free to engage more important targets.

Yeah. What happened in the X-wing novels was probably not the norm with other fighter squadrons. Plot protection can be a wonderful thing.

[Mark]

Does anybody still have that pic of the TIEs shields taking a hit?

[Sionnach Glic]

I think I do. Give me a while and I'll dig it out.

[Captain Seafort]

This is the one from ANH - SG's got the one from ESB.

[Sionnach Glic]

Indeed I do.

[Deepcrush]

Looking up the TIE Fighter on the Databank. Nothing is stated about them having or not having shields. So... a safe bet is that they do have shields, but they're minimal and only used to compensate for the TIE's total lack of hull protection.

[Sionnach Glic]

A fair point. TIEs are rather lightly built when compared to other fighters such as X-Wings. It's quite possible that the shields were installed to give them some protection, even if it wasn't capable of stopping enemy weapons.
Of course, X-Wings aren't all that capable of stopping enemy weapons either. In most instances in the films it's a case of one hit taking down the target.

[Deepcrush]

In the films, shields are mostly effective against glancing hits. Direct impact seems to mean death for most fighters.

I know, I had like "most" and "mostly" and "seems to" but thats really what we have to go on at this point.

[Sonic Glitch]

I realize I'm about to dive into a debate that is mostly decided, and I don't have much knowledge of SW outside of the films, but in my opinion having watched all of the Original Trilogy films mostly in a row yesterday, the shot from ESB looks nothing like shields being hit from ANH. It looks to me like a glancing hit overloaded the electrical systems causing the fighter to spin out of control. No where in Star Wars have we seen an electrical discharge when the shields are hit; usually it's just an explosion some distance away from the ship. I'm not going to get involved in the debate over whether or not TIE Fighters have shields, but perhaps the picture from ESB isn't the best evidence to use to support it? Just a suggestion.

[Captain Seafort]

No where in Star Wars have we seen an electrical discharge when the shields are hit;

Actually, we do - have a look at this.