A hyperspace tracker was a type of active tracker with the ability to detect starships traveling through hyperspace, a feat not thought possible until the First Order first utilized it against the Resistance in 34 ABY during the Battle of Oetchi.
The First Order's prototype hyperspace tracker was comprised of several arrays of databanks and computers placed around a static hyperspace field generator. The device enveloped the computers inside a localized hyperspace field that applied the subdimension's different flow of time to them, significantly accelerating their calculation speeds. This allowed the First Order to scan all of the enemy's possible hyperspace escape routes within minutes and follow them to their precise location, negating any advantage they might have had over them.
The science behind hyperspace tracking was studied by the Tarkin Initiative during the reign of the Galactic Empire, and files about these studies were discovered by Jyn Erso during the Battle of Scarif in 1 BBY.
The Empire's research on the project came to a dead end just prior to the Battle of Yavin. However, sometime after the rise of the New Republic, the Acolytes of the Beyond discovered a decrypted Imperial data cache. One of the group's members, Komat, found a way to harness a related project derived from hyperspace tracking called hyperwave signal interception. The technology utilized a network of Imperial beacons seeded across the galaxy to map the energy signatures of ships during their entry and exit of hyperspace. Whereas the Imperials had been unable to discover the right filter algorithm, Komat had finally figured out the method that they lacked. By 21 ABY, there were still enough active Imperial beacons to carry out such a search. This allowed Luke Skywalker and Landonis Balthazar Calrissian to seek out and request Komat's help in searching for the TIE Defender used by Kiza.
The science behind hyperspace tracking was not perfected for several more decades when a team assembled by General Armitage Hux discovered how to implement the technology.
Hyperspace tracking data being analyzed.
Resistance hero Finn and young Flight Engineer Rose Tico attempted to board the Mega-class Star Dreadnought Supremacy and cut off its hyperspace tracker to enable the Resistance fleet to escape. They were helped by a crack codebreaker named DJ who betrayed them and turned them in to the First Order.
Following the disastrous tracking of the Resistance fleet by the First Order, Rose Tico spent many months working under General Leia Organa, developing new technology and techniques to prevent hyperspace tracking.
By 35 ABY, hyperspace tracking technology had been supplied to TIE/sf space superiority fighters and TIE/wi Interceptors. The Millennium Falcon—crewed by Poe Dameron, Chewbacca, Klaud, and Finn—was pursued by several TIE fighters and interceptors during a mission to the Sinta Glacier Colony. As Poe and Finn raced to retrieve intel from the Resistance informant Boolio, the Falcon came under attack from the TIEs, forcing Dameron to resort to the extremely dangerous act of lightspeed skipping as a means of escaping the First Order.
- Star Wars: The Last Jedi: The Visual Dictionary
- The Last Jedi: Rose Tico: Resistance Fighter
- Star Wars: The Complete Visual Dictionary, New Edition
- Star Wars: Women of the Galaxy
- Star Wars: X-Wing Second Edition — First Order Conversion Kit
- Ultimate Star Wars, New Edition
- Star Wars: The Skywalker Saga – The Official Collector's Edition
- Star Wars: Timelines
- "A Certain Point of View" — Star Wars Insider 222