K-wing

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The K-wing, also known as the Koensayr BTL-S8 K-Wing Assault Starfighter is a bomber class starfighter as shown in the Star Wars book trilogy The Black Fleet Crisis. It was one of the most recent starfighters produced by Koensayr, which was the same company responsible for producing the Y-wing for the New Republic's ongoing conflict with the Imperial Remnant. Like the X-wing and A-wing starfighters, and most other New Republic starfighters, the K-wing was designed to perform a special role in combat, but to be able to fulfill many different roles if needed. The K-wing starfighter's missions included close-range precision bombing of planetary targets and slow moving capital ships and space stations deep within a planetary gravity well or atmosphere. Its primary assault modes are dive-bombing, skip-bombing, and lob-bombing.

The K-wing consists of two large maneuvering wings connected to a large, fixed stabilizer. Primary thrust turbines located at the junction between the stabilizer and wings provide the K-wing with sublight speed similar to the Y-wing's top speed despite its greater size. An ion engine mounted near the rear of the main stabilizer allows extremely fast acceleration for short bursts. It also has repulsors for planetary bombing runs. The K-wing lacks a hyperdrive and must rely on large fleet carriers, of which are described in the New Class program page. To fulfill its role in the New Republic Defense Force, the K-wing supports a deadly arsenal for a vehicle of its size. There are 18 hard points which spread across the vehicle's 3 wings that allow New Republic engineers to arm the vehicle with a large variety of weapons including concussion missiles, sublight torpedoes and floating mines. The disadvantage to this system is that once a K-wing fires its last weapon, it has to return back to its docking bay to rearm. When it is attacked by enemy fighters, the K-wing can open fire with a short-range quad turbolaser turret and a medium-range twin laser cannon turret mounted on its command module. However, it is a poor dogfighter, and needs escorts through heavy fire to battle enemy interceptors and to intercept incoming blasts that could easily pick off the sluggish K-wings. Combat protocols call for each bomber to have at least 1 or 2 prefereably E-wing escorts. It is also equipped with a deflector shield. Because of its large amount of weapons, the K-wing requires a gunner. The pilot and gunner sit in small cockpits on either side of the command module. The command module can also detach from the rest of the ship to serve as an escape pod.

Standard weapons loadout includes a concussion bomb (called an "egg") and eight CM-5 concussion missiles. The concussion bomb is the primary explosive ordanance, and causes heavy damage on impact. If the bomb is armed before bombing runs commence, the K-wing can literally explode into pieces if hit by even light fire. The egg can snap structural supports of a Class-2 Imperial shipyard, destroying it (as demonstrated in the Battle of ICL-905) or cause heavy damage to a Yevethan thrustship.

[edit] K-wing Squadron Examples

• 16th Bombardment Squadron aboard cruiser Indomitable, Black Fleet Crisis