The century tank, manufactured by Santhe/Sienar Technologies, found fame during the time after Grand Admiral Thrawn’s death and the Empire’s campaign to recapture Coruscant.
The tank is a ground combat vehicle that is cheaply produced. Its command pod is the same as that of the TIE fighter, which was why Imperial pilots gave the century tank the nickname TIE tank, or TIE crawler. This vehicle only needs one crewman to operate it. It is very simple to use, and has a light drive system and adequate weapons. The crewman, as with the TIE fighter, is responsible for driving and firing the weapons.
The use of the TIE fighter pod allowed the cost of the crawler to be reduced by a substantial amount. The pod may not be ideal for older Imperial soldiers, but for the younger pilots it is ideal. Twin Santhe SSct power generators, attached to either side of the pod and tread wheels, power the tank, giving the crawler a top speed of ninety kilometres per hour. It may be slow, but its parts are cheap, so it is fairly easy to fix. In fact the drive system is so simple, that pilots can fix it while in the field/ This means that sometimes tanks are made up of different parts of other vehicles, as pilots may not be able to find the right components at the time.
Its tread wheels allow the TIE tank to cross almost any terrain. At the rear of the pod lies the single power generator for the weapons. These weapons include two medium blaster cannon that fire forward, and a retractable light turbolaser that is located in the bottom of the pod. This has the ability to fire in all directions. The crawler is covered with light armour plating, but the drive system and tread wheels are very susceptible to enemy fire.
Like the TIE fighter, the tank is entered via a top hatch. Inside the pod, the pilot is seated in an automatically adjusting grav-couch. This is a slightly more advanced versions of the couch found in TIE fighters. Speed an direction are controlled by foot pedals, while weapons and the targeting system are operated by hand controls. The N-s6 fire-control module is used for weapon targeting. This has many similarities to that of systems in the TIE fighter, allowing commanders to place failed TIE fighter cadets straight into the crawlers.