AHS-1 Heavy Assault Airspeeder

The Slayn & Korpil AHS-1 heavy assault airspeeder was developed shortly after the Battle of Hoth for the Rebel Alliance when they realized that they had little in the way to combat the Empire's AT-AT walkers.

During field trials, the craft gained the nickname "Walker Buster" due to its intended use. The prototype for this craft was created from a damaged B-wing starfighter, and subsequent models followed the same general design. The AHS-1 had two of the B-wing's airfoils joined onto the B-wing's command pod. Repulsorlift engines with additional ion afterburners were mounted on the underneath of the command, at the rear. An additional stabilizer airfoil was mounted above and aft of the command pod and was connected to the vehicle by two vertical stabilizers which were mounted on the main airfoils.

The Walker Buster's armament consisted of two Taim & Bak KL5 laser cannons which were mounted individually on each wingtip (which were the same housings which also held the landing gear), an Arakyd proton torpedo launcher mounted in the rear of the command pod and fired through a tube which ran to the end of the command pod's "chin", and finally a Thunderbolt 595 quad blaster cannon which was mounted on the nose and provided low-level firepower for the speeders less durable targets. However, the Walker Buster's primary weapon were its four GX-15 "Starbolt" concussion missiles, a new form of advanced weapon produced specifically for the AHS-1.

Although its armament made it a formidable enough fighting machine, the Walker Buster had a serious drawback; its size and weight. In fact, it was so heavy that it relied as much on its airfoils as it did its repulsorlifts for lift and stability, and even required a brief takeoff run to generate enough lift to gain altitude. Additionally, it had rather poor maneuverability. Though its ion afterburners gave it enough speed to far outperform the AT-AT and AT-ST walkers it was designed to take down, this lack of maneuverability made it particularly vulnerable to TIE fighter attack or concentrated laser fire.

Despite these flaws, the Walker Buster was expected to play a large part in the war against the Empire and was thought to be deployed soon after its test flights.