Mon Calamari W-Wing
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Of all known Rebel fighters the W-wing fighter poses perhaps the greatest danger to the Empire. The project was uncovered some months ago by spies infiltrating shipyard facilities on the homeworld of the Mon Calamari. During the mission complete details, technical readouts and a development schedule were obtained. Although not heavily armed, or particularly fast the New Republic W-wing fighter is extremely dangerous because it is the NR's first attempt at a stealth fighter. The ship relies on a new type of cloaking technology previously unseen and untried. Older cloaking technologies relied upon generating massive fields of energy which could disguise a ship or even render it invisible to all forms of tracking. The massive amounts of energy needed to cloak a ship prevents the technology from being applied to smaller ships. Up until now it was thought that only the Empire's V-38 assault fighters possessed the ability to cloak, but only for short periods of time. The New Republic has tried a different approach to the technology. Instead of generating a field of energy around the ship the new cloaking technology is built directly into the outer layers of the ship's skin. The outer skin is coated with a fine layer of synthetic material which works to simulate the ship's surroundings. The material is so sensitive that it can change appearances quickly enough to fool any tracking sensors. The rounded curves of the fighter further augment this ability as sharp edges would be much more difficult to conceal. The outer skin also completely absorbs any form of active sensing radiation such that no data returns to an enemy vessel to pinpoint the fighter's location. Currently the W-Wing serves only in select Squadrons on the New Republic but soon it will be implemented into the entire New Republic Fleet. |