A needle ship was a Squib vessel and the main component of the Squib Reclamation Fleet. The fleet used the vessels to salvage materials from garbage dumps left in space by capital ships.
The Squib Merchandising Consortium manufactured the needle ships using all recycled materials. They were ingenious in their ability to reuse salvaged items; for example, exciters from burned-out signal lasers might be used for lighting and starfighter cockpits might be used for chairs.
Needle ships rarely had weaponry or shields. Instead, they depended on skilled tractor beam operators who could erect a wall of trash around the vessel to deflect incoming fire (if not enough trash was around, the contents of the cargo hold could be jettisoned for this purpose). These operators could fight back by using tractor beams to fling pieces of refuse at an enemy.
A crew of 20 Squibs manned each needle ship. The vessels held consumables to provide for up to three months before restocking, and the cargo hold contained up to 500 tons of salvage. The ships were hyperdrive-equipped, which allowed them to follow larger ships around the galaxy as they made garbage dumps. The locations of these ships were provided by embedded Squib spies working aboard the ships as laborers.
Shortly after the Battle of Yavin, the needle ship Thrifty was the Momship of the Squib Reclamation Fleet.
- Galaxy Guide 4: Alien Races