Dark Trooper project
The dark trooper program, also known as the Dark Trooper project, represented an initiative by the Imperial Department of Military Research to engineer a specialized soldier force, designated "Dark Troopers," for service within the Galactic Empire. Initially, the program aimed to equip humans with advanced armor technology. The initial iteration of the Dark Trooper involved augmenting clone troopers through the incorporation of cybernetics.
During the Galactic Civil War, the Imperial Military evaluated the experimental Phase II Dark Trooper. By the time the dark trooper design reached its third generation, the program managers determined that the pilot constituted the ultimate vulnerability. Consequently, the decision was made to transition the dark trooper into a form of battle droid. Around 9 ABY, a platoon of these third-generation dark troopers was deployed by Moff Gideon's Imperial remnant. Scientists from IDMR were stationed aboard Gideon's light cruiser to provide maintenance for these dark troopers, which were stored in cold storage due to their high energy demands.
Models
The following models were products of the Dark Trooper program:
- Dark Trooper [5]
- Phase II Dark Trooper [6]
- Phase-III Dark Trooper [4]
- Dark Trooper phase 4 [8]
Behind the scenes
The Star Wars canon universe first acknowledged the dark trooper program in Dawn of Rebellion, a 2018 sourcebook for the Star Wars Roleplaying Game published by Fantasy Flight Games. Its debut appearance occurred in "Chapter 12: The Siege," the twelfth episode of The Mandalorian. The concept was initially conceived for the 1995 Star Wars Legends video game, Star Wars: Dark Forces.
Dawn of Rebellion describes the dark trooper program as an unsuccessful Imperial effort to develop battle droids. This failure led the Joint Chiefs to lose interest in combat droids, with the exception of the KX-series security droid. However, most canonical sources portray the dark trooper program as beginning with combat suits and only later evolving to incorporate combat droids.