Starfighter combat

Starfighter combat, also known as dogfighting, referred to engagements fought by starfighters in space or a planet's atmosphere. Along with space warfare and ground warfare, by 0 BBY it was one of the three major disciplines of war. Starfighter combat was as old as the craft themselves—dating back to the earliest days of the Galactic Republic—and became an integral part of aerospace warfare for tens of thousands of years, occurring throughout conflicts such as the Great Hyperspace War, New Sith Wars, Clone Wars, the Galactic Civil War, the Yuuzhan Vong War, the Second Galactic Civil War and beyond.

Throughout the millennia, millions of pilots flew against each other or against droids in starfighters such as the Z-95 Headhunter, Delta-7 Aethersprite, T-65 X-wing starfighter, or TIE/LN starfighter while others in heavier craft such as the BTL Y-wing starfighter, TIE/sa bombers, or B-wing starfighters launched assaults on larger ships or military installations. Military forces across the galaxy adopted different designs, weapons, specifications, tactics, and roles for these relatively small craft, and there were as many uses for starfighters in combat as there were starfighters themselves. These craft and the beings that flew them played important, often pivotal, roles in military campaigns, as did their atmospheric counterparts, throughout the entire history of conflict within the galaxy.

Text and facts from the “Starfighter combat/Legends” article on Wookieepedia, licensed under CC BY-SA 3.0. Modified for this site.