BTL Y-wing Starfighter

The BTL Y-wing starfighter, built by Koensayr Manufacturing, was a mainstay of the Rebel Alliance starfighter corps.

The craft carried two laser cannons, two ion cannons, and two proton torpedo launchers. An astromech droid, such as an R2 unit, plugged into a socket in the craft to act as a co-pilot.

Details
Y-wings were in use as of 18 BBY, but it was already nearly obsolete by the close of the Galactic Civil War, being slow and ungainly compared to other Alliance fighters. However, it was still fielded by many planetary defense forces, mercenaries, and pirates.

Its deficiencies were partly compensated for by the heavy proton torpedo load it could carry, and its ability to paralyze craft with ion cannon fire without destroying them, unique until the B-wing starfighter was introduced after the Battle of Yavin.

It was a rugged design, but it had some design flaws requiring constant maintenance, which lead many crews to remove the superficial hull plating. Many Y-wings had no hull plating (except on the cockpit), exposing the internals of the main hull.

The cockpit could be ejected by the pilot from the engines and the rest of the ship. This was used when the ship was on a surface. After the cockpit was disconnected, it could be driven on the surface.

Despite its shortcomings in speed and maneuverability, the Y-wing was an extremely durable craft, with heavier shielding than the T-65 X-wing starfighter. It could withstand many laser blasts, and it was quite difficult to destroy.

The Y-wing was often used as an assault craft to attack enemy capital ships directly in conjunction with B-wing starfighters.

X-wing starfighters and A-wing interceptors were used to distract the enemy fighters and the ship's gunners, to allow the Y-wings and B-wings to focus their fire on the capital ship. This tactic was similar to the "A-wing Slash", which involved solely X-wings and A-wings.

BTL-S3 Y-wing
The BTL-S3 was a two-man strike starfighter. The weapons systems officer typically operated the ion cannon turret when needed.

BTL-A4 Y-wing
The BTL-S3 was supplanted in most services by the BTL-A4, which was crewed by a single person. The ion cannon turret was typically locked forwards in this design, although some pilots chose to lock it facing aft for extra cover. In addition, this variant boasted much greater endurance (as much as three times greater) over its earlier predecessor, but was penalized with less powerful shields and loss of accuracy in the ion cannon.

BTL-A4 Y-wing "LongProbe"
An additional, though less common, BTL-A4 variant known as the "LongProbe" was equipped with a nav computer, backup hyperdrive, advanced scanners, and an extended fuel supply in place of the weapons systems officer. The "LongProbe" was used primarily for long range scouting missions. On such missions longprobes operated in recon teams known as "Longprobe Y-wing Recon Teams".

Manta Ray
The Manta Ray Fighter/Bomber is a modified BTL-S3 in use with the Black Star Confederacy. The only real change is the adaption of the astromech droid slot to fit a Confederate TX-3 astromech droid. This change prevents use of R-series astromech droids, as the TX-3 is radically different from R-series droids.

Canon information courtesy of Wookieepedia