A starfighter, or simply a fighter, was a small, maneuverable starship designed for combat.
Various starfighter models
The majority of starfighters were piloted directly by living beings, although some were controlled either remotely or by artificial intelligence. These light craft were designed to carry out attacks on sensitive installations and targets that required immense precision.
In fleet battle, starfighters worked in concert with capital ships, harassing warships and striking once their weakened shields failed or were re-aligned due to enemy capital-ship fire. Alone, fighters had little to no chance of penetrating the shields of capital ships, but most starfighters worked in squadrons and carried weapons like proton torpedoes and concussion missiles. These squadrons could take out a large capital ship with precision fire directed at weak points that might otherwise be hard to target (such as a shield generator or the ship's bridge).
Star Wars (1977) 1 refers to the Tantive IV as a starfighter. This is inconsistent with how the term has come to be used in subsequent literature.
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