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The PB-950 Patrol Boat, which is at least 300 years old (as of the Battle of Yavin) saw widespread use during the era of the Old Republic. Production of this craft continued until shortly after the Clone Wars, when favour turned towards larger, more powerful customs corvettes. At the onset of the Clone Wars however, this design basked in one last surge of popularity. This series proved to be a welcome addition to most system and sector fleets, and was primarily employed for system defence and customs interdiction duties. In current times however, the Empire decided to phase out the still capable PB-950 for the Customs Corvette. Nonetheless, many patrol services, including the Sector Rangers of the Bormea and Darpa Sectors still stick to this design. As testament to this, tens of thousands of PB-950s still rounding out Imperial Customs and system defence forces throughout the Empire. Finding replacement parts for this two deck ship is difficult as they are scarce and expensive to come by. The decks are split into the upper control deck and the lower main deck. Mounted on either side of the cockpit (control deck) are the ion cannons. A minimum of two or three escape pods equip this design; with one located on the dorsal amidships (looks like a round dome). Two cargo bays, the forward-port and forward-starboard are maintained on the PB-950. Between the cargo bays are the maintenance bay and main entry ramp. As a final note, the aft portion of the PB-950 is shaped like a “V”. It is known that smugglers and pirates have managed to get their thieving hands upon these craft. The Lumrunner, owned and operated by Shamus Falconi and Grasheel gained a reputation as an untouchable (by law enforcement) smuggling ship. In the case of the Tesserahedron, which is owned by Chrag'mak'al piracy is the name of its game. Shipjackings are partially responsible for the PB-950 in falling into pirate hands. |
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Sources: AJ9***Pg 137, 140, 141, 143 / PP***Pg 81, 82, 95 / TFOP***Pg 70, 81, 82 | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||