Star Wars: These Starfighters Are The Way – The Fang Fighter Breakdown
The MandalMotors Fang Fighter was the favored ship of the Mandalorian royal guard, better known as the Protectors.
Fast, maneuverable, and, as is the way, surprisingly armored, MandalMotors’ Fang Fighter was a lethal starship designed for combat. And it excelled. So much so that Mandalorians used the Fang Fighter in both atmospheric and space combat.
Designed with MandalMotors’ knack for elegant aggression (or aggressive elegance), the Fang Fighter played an important role in some of the most tumultuous times in Mandalore’s history. But what exactly could it do? And what made it so superior?
The answer can be found in its design.
Fang Fighter – Design and Capabilities
First and foremost, the Fang Fighter was designed for combat. With a thin, angular frame, and a cranked delta platform that gave it its unmistakable profile, the Fang Fighter was built atop an elongated hexagonal fuselage. A low-profile canopy covered the vessel’s cockpit. And a powerful, high-output ion engine array dominated the aft section.
Perhaps the signature feature of the Fang Fighter, though, were its swivel-mounted wings. These articulated S-foil wings were capable of rotating and raising or lowering to adopt a variety of attack angles. With two additional ion engines mounted on the S-foils, and a sophisticated vectored thrust system, the Fang Fighter was supremely maneuverable.
The S-foils also housed the majority of a Fang’s weapon systems, which were typically a pair of forward wing-mounted laser cannons, as well as a ventral proton torpedo port that could be retracted, keeping it hidden from most scanners until a Fang’s pilot had launched a salvo of deadly torpedos.
With unmatched agility provided by its thrusters and pivot-wings, the Fang Fighter could frequently be found in head-on charges. The Concordia Face Off maneuver was one such technique, though others were developed over the years.
Role In The Galaxy
The Fang Fighter came to be during the latter years of the Galactic Republic. MandalMotors, with assistance from SoroSuub, designed the fighter for the forces of the Mandalorian Proectors of the Concord Dawn. So much so that the Fang’s unofficial nickname became the Protectorate Fighter.
Indeed, the Concord Dawn Protectorate’s elite pilots made heavy use of the Fang Fighter. Trained personally by Fenn Rau, leader of Skull Squadron during the Clone Wars, every pilot knew how to turn their craft into a singularly deadly weapon.
Weapons were meant to be used (so it’s said), which is perhaps why the members of Skull Squadron broke the Mandalorian’s neutral stance during the Clone Wars to fight alongside the Republic. Fang Fighters clashed with Phoenix Cell, proving that the ships could outmaneuver even A-wing Intercerptors.
Armed with such knowledge, the Fang Fighter became highly sought after. Especially during the Mandalorian civil war, which saw Clan Wren, House Kryze, and House Vizsla against Clan Saxon and the Galactic Empire.
After the Battle of Yavin, the Fang Fighter became a much more standard starfighter asset of the Rebel Alliance. A wing of Fang Fighters played a prominent role in the Battle for Tatooine, as well as during the escape of the Great Purge of Mandalore. Ensuring that the Mandalorians existed, scattered though they might be, well past the time of the Empire.
May the Force be with you.
