Homing missile

A homing missile was a special type of missile. The term was used to generally describe many types of weapons, including brilliant missiles and many types of concussion missiles, as it simply designated a guided missile.

Many types of gunships and transports utilized this type of missile as a strong form of defense against enemy starfighters and turrets. Boba Fett's Slave I was equipped with homing missiles, and CIS droid starfighters and Hailfire droids were equipped with a large amount of explosive homing missiles. Those fired by the latter could easily penetrate the durasteel plating of Republic Low Altitude Assault Transports. Some types of homing missile could be launched and then controlled manually from the cockpit of a starfighter, or from a small computer panel if deployed from a portable rocket launcher.

When fired, the missiles tended to "fishtail" as they tracked the target, but unless the target vessel happened to be faster or more maneuverable, or had some sort of defense against missiles, such as flares, aft, or turreted weapons, a miss was rare.

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