YT-1300 Light Freighter

The YT-1300 Transport is one of the most common trading small craft found in the Galaxy. However, in recent years many freight and commercial trading firms have begun to employ the bulk freighters and container ships, which carry far more cargo efficiently. It is very rare to find a new YT-1300 for sale in the Galaxy today. Nearly every YT-1300 has been altered from its original stock form. Experienced pilots usually modify these ships to suit their own cargo hauling needs. Despite this fact many small traders, mostly in the Outer Rim swear by these craft and will not give their ships up willingly. The appeal of the YT-1300 Transport is not its basic equipment, but its ability to take an extraordinary amount of modifications and alterations. In short, the YT-1300 is reliable, durable and easy to modify, hence its popularity.

Unfortunately, criminal elements also use this craft for smuggling purposes, for items such as arms, spice and other illegal goods. Some of these smugglers have used these craft to run in the illegal Kessel Run. These smugglers have modified these ships extensively, beyond the point of the original specifications with stolen military grade shield generators, sensors, weapons, engines (thus increasing the speed of the craft both in sublight and hyperspace) and other countless changes, including smuggling compartments. These criminals also give the ship a beat up appearance to help avoid harassment and to avoid entanglements with Imperial or New Republic Customs. Smugglers and blockade runners typically modify the weapons and hyperdrive, while legitimate cargo haulers add extra cargo pods and shielding. The Rebel Alliance Supply Fleet used a large number of these craft to haul supplies to their forces and bases.

The YT-1300 is a endlessly modifiable design and is equipped with 2 escape pods which are a standard feature, they are located on the port and starboard side of the freighter. One of the primary drawbacks of this craft is the off centre cockpit placement. This positioning leaves a great deal of the ship out of the pilot's view, while this is common for larger vessels, it makes it much harder to manoeuvre in tight spaces for many new pilots. The more worrisome of these captains often install five-axis, laser ranging pods near the front mandibles, in order to provide them with real-time data about the parts of the ship they cannot see. The mandibles contains much of the freighter's avionics control systems and sensor modules. The forward section of the ellipse is contains crew space, while the aft section is for cargo. Usually these ships are fitted with the Strap-On Cargo Pods to increase cargo capacity.