Derived from the Sienar Fleet Systems’ Lambda-class shuttle, the newer Sentinel-class landing shuttle has many of the same features. There is the stationary top wing, while the other two wings are located lower down, and fold out independently. The Lambda-class are mainly for transporting dignitaries, while the Sentinel is built more towards combat.
As it is the Empire’s primary landing craft, it has to be equipped for combat zones. The weapons on board consist of four retractable laser cannons, an ion cannon, rotating blasters, and two concussion-missile launchers. The launchers draw from two magazines of eight missiles each. The four laser cannons are mounted on wither side of the main troop compartment. The ion cannon is positioned on a retractable turret just in front of the stationary top wing, and is used to disable enemy vessels that prove a threat to the safety of the troops, while the repeating blasters are used for providing cover when the craft is landing. Three gunners handle the weapons; the head gunner controls the four laser cannons, a secondary gunner takes care of the missile launchers, while the third gunner is in charge of the ion cannon and repeating blasters.
The gunners make up most of the five-man crew. The two remaining crew members are the pilot and the co-pilot/sensor officer. Each landing craft can carry up to six squads, or fifty troops, in the troop compartment. Behind this is the room for the dozen repeating blasters and six speeder bikes. The craft can be converted to a combat-ready cargo ship, which allows it to carry three dozen speeder bikes, or a dozen smaller assault vehicles. A reconnaissance speeder is present on every Sentinel, which has a slaved communications frequency. This is randomly determined prior to each mission, making it very difficult for the enemy to intercept the transmissions. In case there is a need for standard fleet or ground-unit communications, the Sentinel is equipped with a full comm array.
The armour plating on the landing craft is nearly 25 percent heavier than that of the Lambda. Mounted fore and aft in pairs are four deflector shield generators. These are in addition to the reinforced hull. The craft has a hyperspeed rating of Class One, thanks to a Cygnus HD7 hyperdrive unit. Although it has heavier armour, this hyperdrive rating matches that of the Lambda. Cygnus also have their HD7 engines installed on board the craft. These match the engines found aboard the XG-1 assault gunboats, and allow the landing craft to reach atmospheric speeds of up to 1000 kilometres per hour. In sublight, the engines give the craft a speed equivalent to that of the Y-Wing.
At the time of the Battle of Yavin, the Sentinel was seeing very little use as it was a brand new craft. Few fleets had them, as the craft were deployed to key forces only. The most notable of these was Vader’s personal fleet which maintained order in Virgillian space. This fleet was later deployed at Endor.
The Sentinel’s production was continued after Palpatine’s death, and they were sold to many private firms. The New Republic set up fronts in order to purchase ships such as these, and within two years of the Battle of Endor, the Sentinel was in widespread use.