Among the most awesome vehicles in the Empire's ground combat forces, All Terrain Armored Transports (AT-ATs) were unmatched by anything in the Alliance's arsenal. At twenty meters long and over fifteen meters tall, these four-legged monsters towered over the galaxy's battlefields and resembled ancient beasts of war.
Walkers were designed to fill the need for a nonrepulsor-lift heavy assault vehicle for armored platoons. While the Empire had countless repulsorlift vehicles, drive systems could be foiled by gravity fluctuations, unusual plantetary magnetic fields, and other special conditions; the Empire neede a vehicle which could be used on any terrain on millions of different worlds. Designers turned to ancient technology, which had recieved limited use in older vehicles,such as the Old Republic's All Terrain Personal Transport (AT-PT), but had never been applied on such a large scale for combat vehicles.
The finished AT-AT walkers surpassed Imperial expectations. Almost unstoppable as weapons platforms, they proved potent psychological weapons.
AT-ATs were virtually impervious to all but heavy artillery weapons. Walkers formed the core of many Imperial heavy ground assaults, often the first vehicles to leave their transport shuttle barges or drop ships and enter a combat zone. AT-AT walkers were used to crush and demoralize enemy forces. They also acted as transports for Imperial ground troops and light vehicles.
A walker's movable "head" section contains the command cockpit, with room for the commander, pilot, and gunner. It also houses all of thw walker's weapons. Holographic targeting systems assist the gunners with a 360-degree view of their position.
The AT-ATs main weapons are two heavy laser cannons mounted on the "chin". Two medium blasters are mounted on each side of the head. They can be independently rotated for different targets. The head can rotate as much as ninety degrees right or left and thirty degrees up or down for a larg feild of fire.
AT-AT walkers have an immense armored body section that carries five speeder bikes and up to forty troops (normally stormtroopers or Imperial Army assault troopers). To unload troops, AT-AT walkers kneel to three meters above ground level and sliding ramps on the main body section extend to the ground for exiting. Instead of troops and bikes, an AT-AT may be loaded with two AT-ST (All Terrain Scout Transport) walkers.
Beneath the main body section are the AT-AT's two immense drive motors. Four massive legs propel the walker at a top speed of up to sixty kilometers per hour, although this is possible only on flat, stable terrain. While their immense size gives the illusion that they are slow, plodding vehicles, Rebel troops reported that "walkers are upon you before you know it".
Imperial AT-ATs draw components from a number of different corporations but are assembled under strict Imperial military supervision at Kuat Drive Yard factories. Known AT-AT factories are on Kuat, Carida, and Belderone; several more are suspected to exist.
