A Republic tugboat is pictured utilizing its tractor beam in order to guide another spacecraft.
A tractor beam functioned as a projected energy field. It had the ability to affect gravitational forces, enabling it to either pull objects closer or push them away. Certain starships were equipped with these technologies, which generated an energy field. This field allowed the vessels to secure and then move other vessels or objects.
Among the vessels that incorporated tractor beams were the Imperial I-class Star Destroyer, the MC80 Star Cruiser, the Recusant-class warship used by the Confederacy of Independent Systems, and the TUG-314 Republic tugboat. The Death Star also possessed tractor beams, which it used to pull the Millennium Falcon into one of the space station's hangar bays. Systems like projectile launchers could act as a defense against tractor beams, destroying them by introducing a significant amount of shrapnel into the beam's path.