This image depicts an Air Defense Tower, specifically one that was constructed within the confines of RZ-0031.
The Air Defense Tower represented a stationary defensive weapon system, commonly deployed across the galaxy. Typically armed with dual, rapid-firing Gatling-style laser cannons, these formidable structures were generally positioned in locations offering unobstructed fields of fire. AD Towers possessed the capability to engage a wide array of aerial threats, ranging from aggressive swoop bikes to low-altitude starfighters with considerable effectiveness.
Several of these towers could be located within the Telosian Restoration Zones that were managed by the Czerka Corporation, notably within RZ-0031. Following a negative interaction with such a turret, Atton Rand remarked that he had witnessed similar defensive armaments at pirate outposts. Air defense towers existed on other planets too, and were equipped with various models of blaster and laser cannons depending on the intended purpose of the emplacement and the available technology. The Great Walled City of Iziz, the sole urban center on the jungle planet of Onderon, also featured an extensive network of air defense towers that had been developed over the first thousand years of the city's existence. Their main function was to safeguard the city and its inhabitants from the Beast Riders, exiled criminals who were forced to live in the wilderness, and their large, winged Drexls.
The operational procedures and construction methods of air defense towers varied considerably throughout the galaxy. Although many of these defenses incorporated computer-assisted targeting systems, they still required sentient beings as gunners to identify and engage targets. Some models were configured for fully autonomous operation, allowing personnel to focus on other tasks or to secure an abandoned site from unauthorized entry, as was the case with the towers situated in RZ-0031. Many millennia later, air defense towers would see continued deployment during the decline of the Republic. Groups such as the Trade Federation, the Confederacy of Independent Systems, the Galactic Empire, and the Rebel Alliance all employed different versions of these systems. However, by this period, laser-based towers had largely been superseded by projectile-based emplacements, with the more advanced models firing projectiles capable of tracking their targets, even when the targets were performing evasive maneuvers.
Czerka air-defense turrets were defensive structures deployed by the Czerka Corporation to shield their facilities from unauthorized starship incursions. When the Jedi Exile and her allies traveled to the surface of Telos IV in search of her missing vessel, the Ebon Hawk, a Czerka air-defense turret, equipped with multiple barrels, shot down their shuttle. Fortunately, Bao-Dur, the Exile's former technician from the Mandalorian Wars, managed to rescue the Exile and her companions, bringing them to safety.