The Venerable E-11: Blaster pistol, carbine, or rifle?

Discuss!

 

It's generally called a rifle in canon, and it's clearly not a compact sidearm, but with its belt holster, pistol grip and folding stock, it also has some design features of a very heavy pistol.

If we're being precise, the E-11 is probably closest in design to a machine-pistol/sub-machine-gun, so "repeating pistol" or "semi-repeating blaster" might be useful Star Wars terms for it. The trouble with "carbine" is that it has relatively limited usage in canon, and Star Wars Galaxies, at least, uses "carbine" for a specific, shortened version of the E-11!!

- The Imperial Ewok

 

Oooh, good thread.

I believe it's been called both a rifle and a carbine in canon, but as McEwok says, it's more often called a rifle. BlasTech and the Imperial military can call the E-11 whatever they want, I guess, but I personally consider it to be a carbine, due to its compact design and fold-out stock. Also, it's often used in conditions where a real-world carbine would be used (i.e. close-quarters, indoor combat.)

In the Clone Wars era, the DC-15A called a blaster rifle, whereas the DC-15S is a blaster carbine. The E-11 looks to be based off of the DC-15S (and it's even smaller), so it should probably be considered a carbine too.

Besides, the Imperials have plenty of real blaster rifles, like the DLT-19, DLT-20, and RT-97.

 

I'd say the best way to answer this question is to find out what the classification of the British weapon the E-11 was built upon is.

 

Sterling Mk 4 submachinegun + short heavy artillery scope

 

That doesn't strictly work though, as E-11s aren't used in a submachine gun role; submachine guns are specialized weapons for short-range combat, and the E-11 is used in virtually every situation found on the battlefield and has variants such as a shorter model and a sniper rifle.

 

Eh, traditional long-range rifles aren't really a good standard infantry weapon. Most fighting occurs at relatively short ranges, which is why the US military has shifted to the M4 carbine. The E-11, with its nice folding stock, seems to be in the same mold. It seems to have enough range in most of the engagements we see, and they've got longer-range weapons for anything farther.

I guess I'd call it a carbine, but fulfills a rifle's functions well enough.

 

Let's just call it an assault rifle because that's what it is-a hybrid of submachine gun (high firepower with a 500-shot magazine) carbine (compact overall size) and ordinary rifle (good stopping power; we see plenty of one-shot kills from Chewbacca in TESB with one.)

 

I think its a blaster-rifle.