CT Why take this ship into battle?

We see the Rebel Alliance use the GR-75 medium transport in both the battle of Scarif and the battle of Endor. In ESB, this lightly armed personnel transport needs an X-Wing escort and cover fire from the ion canon to get past the Star Destroyers when leaving Hoth. Other than adding numbers to make your fleet appear larger, what is the point of taking these into a space battle?

 

I think I heard somewhere that they were filled with explosives and used as kamikazes. Though thinking about it some more, I'm not sure that makes sense...because that would mean the Rebels were anticipating a major fleet battle over Endor, which they clearly did not.

 

According to the Wook, A variant of the GR-75 transport was the GR-75 Combat Retrofit.[2] Although they were built as transports,[1] the Rebel Alliance incorporated many into their growing fleet as medical ships, fireships, communications ships, rescue ships, resupply ships and troop transports.
I'd suggest that's the one we see onscreen.

 

Maybe they were short on ships?

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I saw that, as well, but the primary function is to carry all your additional personnel. Ground troops, support staff, those who have no need or role on a capital ship. So while, yes some may have been the retrofitted versions, everyone that is destroyed, takes out large swaths of your alliance members. It would seem counter intuitive to take them into battle and put them at risk.

 

Wook article also said they could be filled with cargo pods. Maybe some of these were hauling stuff as well as troops/staff. Also when we saw the one in ESB they were actually leaving Hoth, not going into battle at that point.

 

I thought the GR-75 is just a big shell, with everything carried in detachable pods, and that there's not really much in the way of interior crew space?

 

Rebels could have done some retrofitting to turn the cargo space into medical, etc facilities.

 

I’ve wondered this question for a long time myself. For whatever it is worth, in the original Battlefront 2 they were sometimes used as frigates, meaning they were equipped with a few, relatively effective, anti-fighter turrets. The Republic’s frigates in that game were Acclamators so do with that information what you will.

 

It had a handle on things.

 

I seem to remember something about them being effective at electronic countermeasures... radar jamming and such.

In reality, your point about "making the fleet appear larger" is likely the real reason. ILM already had the model made, so put 'em in the background.

 

I feel like no amount of modifications can realistically turn a GR-75 into a combat ship. This thing is made to be a cheap, no-frills bulk transport. Add some weapons? It's still got a weak hull and is slow as molasses. Communications or jamming equipment? Again, it's an easy target and you're better off using a CR90 for this role. Rescue, resupply, and troop transport roles...well that's only relevant after a battle is over, not during one.

That leaves the fireship/kamikaze role...which I guess is maybe somewhat plausible? But if I were a Star Destroyer captain and I knew the rebels were using these things as giant bombs, I'm not going to let that thing get anywhere near me. And with its weak shields and slow speed, it probably won't.

 

Medical facilities? Not only would they likely have to wait until after the battle, but they would logically be the first ships to go down. Indeed, during World War I and World War II, medical ships (and personnel) were often targeted specifically because the less medical staff the enemy has, the more difficult it is for them to wage war effectively.

 

Does anyone know the influences of this ship design? It's organic to the extent that it's "obviously" based on some marine animal. It calls back to Flash Gordon with neoclassical lines and also anticipates the amorphous amphibious topology of the Mon Calamari ships. The carapace with soft underside best answers to the lobster / crayfish group. Someone could maybe look in the Making of ESB book. This ship is the subject of the guy who says, "Good, our first catch of the day," who presides over a vessel whose shape was based on paper airplanes, Teddy Roosevelt era battleships and aircraft carriers. (And the Nebulon B shape's origins are nautical - an outboard motor.)

This ship and its function raises no flags to suspension of disbelief as it is used in ESB. Troop transport, cargo transport.

The shape is thrown into action, by out-universe forces of ILM needing to supply sufficient visual diversity to offset the monolithic appearance of multiple copies of the Avenger studio model. There's no seamless unembarrassed way to include it in combat scenes. It can be reconfigured as a oiler, tender, combat logistics analogue, but even these try to stay out of harm's way. A remote consolation is that these are not completely undefended - https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Fast_combat_support_ship

It's also worth noting that Ackbar's order of battle may not have had a large number of these fragile cargo type things up near the line of battle vessels. (I'd have to rewatch to be particular.) After the aborted maneuver and about face, Ackbar's order of battle was (possibly) basically homogenized and mixed up. So, as a consolation, it can echo the circumstance of https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Battle_off_Samar. (Configure Lando Calrissian as Taffy 3.)

 

I vaguely remember reading somewhere that the Gallofree transport design was inspired by Zeppelins.

 

Tuna possibly:

https://starwars.fandom.com/wiki/GR-75_medium_transport

Behind the scenes
"These were called "tuna ships" in production, and the actual model has a bit of a pink cast to it."
―Pablo Hidalgo, on the GR-75 transport[src]

The GR-75 transport first appeared in Star Wars: Episode V The Empire Strikes Back.[21] Ultimate Star Wars, published on April 28, 2015, identifies it as the GR-75 transport,[1] but the official Databank entry lists it as a "GR-75 medium transport."[8] In Star Wars Legends, the ship was identified by the 2004 reference book Inside the Worlds of Star Wars Trilogy, written by James Luceno and illustrated by Richard Chasemore and Hans Jenssen.[25]

During production of The Empire Strikes Back, the GR-75 transports were nicknamed "tuna ships," and the model had a slight pink cast.[26] Despite being transports, they were included in the battle scenes of Star Wars: Episode VI Return of the Jedi because more ships were needed, but no in-universe explanation of their presence has been given.[27]

 

I think the design is also inspired by giant isopods

Spoiler: Isopod pictures

 

In-universe? To draw fire, and the Alliance was vastly outgunned by the Empire and had to use what they had.
Out of universe? One less new ship design to create for the Battle of Endor.

 

Visually, at least, that isopod possibility is really hard to dispute. If that was part of the design process, one can extend the 'armor plate' idea of the isopod to the transport. The existence proof of an 'armor plate' idea is that this, like an armadillo, has evolved successfully in defiance of teeth. It's not an 'egg shell' to statically maximize internal volume and rely only upon the engineering of an arch, no, it's a volume maximizing shell that, yes, relies upon the engineering of the arch, but is also a pretty tough armor plate with a non-eggshell thickness. So it can take a hit or two.

As a micronarrative contribution to the existential crisis, the mission of the fleet was to blockade the Death Star and intercept The Emperor who must surely attempt to evacuate in his moment of not-triumph. While line of battle vessels could neutralize escaping craft, electronic warfare / long range sensing / scout vessels could assist in that primary mission. So most of these isopod transports with a bit of shell can be configured to be specifically intended to help electronically and spatially pin down / pin point the Emperor. That is, until plans changed because it's a trap. Then their mission changed from cordon to... 'you won't get another chance at this'.

 

Ooo, that's a good one. Here I was thinking there really wasn't any reason for the Rebels to bring in their big ships when starfighters were the only things that could hurt the Death Star.

 

There is at least one concept art / abandoned story board, drawn from the death star's surface, that shows Rebel cruisers bombarding the death star. The mood or tone/note of this image is covered when Piett sees rebel cruisers homing in on him. A fan serving just dessert.

 

Given that they ultimately decided to stay and buy time even after it was revealed to be a trap, presumably they would have hung around if they had exited hyperspace to find that the shield was still up(a very reasonable possibility as they are trying to time their arrival as close to the shield generator’s destruction as possible but it’s a pretty blind guess because they have no way of communicating with the strike team once they’ve been inserted). In this case disrupting the Empire’s communications would be a high priority to prevent the Death Star from issuing an SOS to the fleet or alerting the ground forces to expect an attack on the shield generator.

As to why the capital ships are brought along, presumably it’s to overwhelm whatever local defenses happen to be in the area at the time so that the fighters can get through. When the Tydirium arrives in the system it’s not like they’re surprised by the presence of an SSD.

 

May be they had an alternative plan, if Han's assault team failed they would attempt to send a regiment or two of infantry onto the DS. Remember that they didn't know the DS super laser was operational, if they could somehow get around the shield or create an opening in it, probably where the command SD was positioned.

All they needed was a hole in the shield to get smaller transports, shuttles and pods through the shield, the command SD would be too occupied with the Rebel Fleet and if they avoided what surface defences there were, they'd be able to storm the DS.

 

People keep saying the hull is weak, but the trading cards from back in the day told us they were covered with armor. You can see the armor.

I've been wondering about this one since 1983 though. We had to assume the ships had been modified or something.

 

Yeah, the idea seems to have been to just show all the Rebel ships we'd already seen throughout the trilogy (blockade runners, transport ships, medical frigates) along with the new Mon Calamari ships.

Not sure much thought was put into the logic. I guess we just have to assume they were retrofitted to fill some legitimate combat role. It makes a certain amount of sense, given how strapped for ships the Alliance is supposed to be.