The Rebels sure do love their alphabet ships, don’t they?
Although we got to see a few Imperial ships in person at Star Wars Celebration a few weeks ago, the weekly YouTube series The Star Wars Show‘s latest episode has just dropped a new still from Rogue One of the Rebel’s base on Yavin IV, featuring our first good look at the newest Alliance ship in the film: The U-Wing.
According to Lucasfilm story group creative executive Matt Martin, the U-Wing — or as it is known in-universe, the Incom UT-60D — isn’t really a typical fighter like its A-, X- and Y-Wing counterparts: It’s a troop transport and gunship (and we know that lovable lil’ space monkey Bistan is a gunner on one of the U-Wings in the film). However, like the X-Wing, its s-foils can be locked into an alternative position for aerial support scenarios.
The ship was actually revealed over a year ago at Celebration 2015 in Anaheim, where concept art of the U-Wing dropping Rebel soldiers into combat was shown at the first ever look at the film:
But now we’ve actually had our best look yet at the ship as it will appear in Rogue One… before it’s inevitably turned into LEGO sets, action figure vehicle playsets and Micro Machines for the Star Wars merchandising juggernaut. You can check out the full episode of this week’s Star Wars Show below.