Sienar Fleet Systems' TIE (Twin Ion Engine) fighter is the clearest symbol of the IMperial Navy's control of space.Tie Fighters are present aboard even the smallest imperial cruisers and are stationed at starports and garrison bases across the galaxy, an ever reminder of the Empires might.
Tie Fighters are short range ships whose most distinguishing feature is the pair of dominant solar array wings mounted on either side of a small, spherical command pod. The TIE fighter presents a small target from the front and back, and its incredible manuverablility makes it difficult to hit in combat.
One TIE fighter may be vulnerable to attack and may be easily destroyed, but for every TIE that is defeated, thousands more will rise up. In battle, an imperial cruiser can arrive near an enemy ship and launch all of its TIEs before Rebel gunners have a chance to respond. TIE fighters are used for planetary and cruiser defense as well as in assualts against Rebel, pirate, and alien vessels. A secondary TIE missin profile involves escorting heavily armed TIE bombers used in attacking planetary installations.
TIE fighters only have sublight drives. This saaves wight and increases speed and manuverability, but it makes TIES dependant on a home base, such as a nearby planet or animperial cruiser. TIEs carry only two days worth of suppliesm under optimal conditions, in actual combat, TIEs often must refuel after the first few hours.
The TIEs maneuverability and speed come at great pratical cost to the pilot inside. TIE fighters ahve no shiled, no secondary weapons or drive systems, minuscule fuel supplies, and no onboard life supposrt system: pilots must wear fully sealed flight suits with self contained atmosphere converters. By eliminating all theses systems, the TIE saves mass and makes room for large power generators, engines, and weapons inside the compact hull.
With thousands of new TIE ships being manufactures each year and new pilots reguraly graduating from Imperial Militay acadamies, casualties are deemed inconsequential as long as military objectives are achieved. Some military strategies claim that the TIE is too reponsive to piloting adjustments: novice pilots may attempt an advanced manuever only to send the ship careening.
The pilots is strapped into a simple high gee shock couch and is protected by crash webbing and a repulsorlift antigravity field. The piolot's feet slip into control yokes: pressind or pulling on the yokes controls spped and manuevering. The hand control yoke affects precise maneuvering, targeting, navagation, and fire control. Auxilary speed manneuver controls are also located in the hand control yoke, but attempting both flight and fire control through the hand control unit is very difficult.
The TIE has a pair of foward mounted, fire-linked laser cannons. The laser generators are located in the undercarriage of the main pod and feed off the poiwer generators and batteries. The TIE fighter draws much of its energy from solar radiation absorbed by the array wings.
The "common" TIE fighter is the TIE/In, a successor to the earlier T.I.E. and TIE models, built by the company now called Sienar Fleet Systems.
