Star Wars: 10 Expanded Universe Starships You Didn't Know Were Canon Again

10. Lancer-class Frigate

Star Wars has always had a bit of a starfighter problem: be it in the films or video games, capital ship weapons consistently struggle to target these small, agile spacecraft, trading millions of credits and thousands of lives for the cost of a few well-placed torpedoes.

The EU attempted to address this problem with the Lancer-class frigate. Fitted with nimble laser cannons rather than turbolasers, the type was intended to function as a fleet escort, neutralizing Rebel fighters while the larger Star Destroyers focused on ship-to-ship combat. Unfortunately the Lancer-class was slow, meaning starfighters could easily outrun it, and lacking any capital-grade weaponry even light rebel cruisers were a serious threat.

It took a military genius like Grand Admiral Thrawn to finally find a proper use for them, successfully deploying the class on targeted raids against new Republic worlds that relied on starfighters, rather than capital ships, for defence.

Canonically, Poe Dameron encounters the type when tangling with a First Order fleet in Before the Awakening, an anthology book which focuses on the lives of Finn, Rey and Poe before the events of The Force Awakens.