Why the LAAT gunship was actually TERRIFYING
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- Опубліковано 25 гру 2024
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Today we'll take a deep dive on the Republic's LAAT gunship, examining why it was actually one of the deadliest vessels during the Clone Wars. All that and more for today's Star Wars legends and canon lore video!
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The LAAT was SEXY, easily my favorite drop ship from Star Wars. I used to own several of those die cast ships as a kid and a few of them were the LAAT.
ok
I had one of those too. One of the guns broke off, sadly.
prefer the Mando one, but LAAT is still amazing!
@@vakuzarthe razorcreast ship?
LAAT: uhh (asian uhh)
I just love the sound it makes.. feels heavy.
The people who designed the ship did an amazing job.
Of what I remember, they did take inspiration of Mi-24 Hind
Sounds like an helicopter
@@SamG_007Cus its one
@@Danspy501st sounds about right with the canopy
Especially in the newer productions where they made it sound bassier and more like a soft growl, especially from a distance
It's an Osprey made correctly and better.
It has line of sight weapons, missiles, rockets and two heavy variable munition launchers.
It can be an armor or infantry transport.
It can run logistics.
It's really efficient.
The "cargo" can be released in a pinch for "emergency rapid deployment.
It's easy to mass manufacture and maintenance doesn't make you want to die.
It can work in atmosphere and in orbit.
It's got an emergency med bay.
It's got amazing sensors making it difficult to trick with short to mid (in aerial distance) range weapons.
It's surprisingly maneuverable and fast considering it's a flying school bus.
It's doors are stupidly blast resistant to small arms and open quickly.
For an organic army, this thing is freaking amazing.
Edit: It's just a better, flying Bradley.
Hopefully the Osprey can be fitted with engines like the V280: only the prop-rotor changes angle while the engine is fixed to the wing. Will make it possible to shoot out the sides.
Also, the LAAT is built to play Fortunate Son over loudspeakers.
Bro it's just a space HUEY. [FORTUNATE SON]
Makes me think of a Sci fi gunship version of a B17 it's basically a flying fortress with the amount of fire power it has because God forbid you be a dinky little Droid trying to take potshots at it next thing ya know the gods of war have blaster bolts the size of that Droid and anti everything missiles hitting them in a crescendo of devastation
@@BigWheel. "I'm no senator's son"
With all the disappointing things happening with Star Wars these days, it's nice to see some ship lore and positive things.
If there's one thing to praise the Prequels for, it's ship design. Like you see the precursors to the OT military ship designs, and there's just a fantastic design language. It's my number one issue with the Sequels, the lack of ship designs and storytelling via design.
If you’re starved for good SW content, check out the High Republic books… phase two is a little shaky but Phase 1 contains some of my favorite books in general.
@@granatmof I also like how the Prequels raised lightsaber combat to a whole new level, although not perfect it’s light years ahead of what the sequels gave.
@@jamesongillen1608 I'm pretty sure high republic is one of the many things he's referencing
What disappointing things are going on with Star Wars right now?
the thing that made th LAAT terrifying si the fact that the design and functionality of it is so ubiquitous, there is basically no situation it CAN'T be used in with it's only weak point being starfighter combat, which, given it's arsenal, wasn't much of a weakness
Well you sound like that clone who said in a clone wars episode “these bugs can’t aim” and gets their LAAT shot down right away after saying the line. Granted there is always a need to build tension but this ship, other than attack of the clones, wasn’t shown as a OP weapon. It did it’s job which was to deliver clones into the surface and was adaptable but was pretty weak when engaged ship to ship and when they were facing heavy artillery fire
@@leonardoespino9780 Yeah, that is the effect of raising death flags.
Other dumb statements: "This is my last battle, then I'm retired." "When we get back, I'm marrying my sweetheart." "I've got something important to say to you guys, but it can wait until after we mop up this detachment of droids."
@@MonkeyJedi99 well even if this is the effect of raising death flags, it still doesn’t invalidates my point. There are countless scenes where we see LAAT assaults and we see them get shot down like nothing. Like on the assault on ryloth with kenobi’s forces or umbara with anakins forces. Hell, the second battle of genesis episode is a clear example of what can happen when the enemies know everything (even if they were tipped off) of where and when the assault is going to happen
I mean if you want to be realistic. If it wasn't for balancing out starfighters, the LAAT would be a beast in dog fighting, sure it won't be able to outmaneuver a vulture droid, but it's multiple turrets would let it cut them down by the dozen, while also having the firepower to fight the smaller warships
@@leonardoespino9780 Was I supposed to label my previous response with (THIS IS ME JOKING!)?
There’s a reason I spent $250 to buy a toy version of this ship, and that reason is that it’s freaking awesome. Just imagine being a droid the receiving end of one of the various destructive capabilities of the laat
I've spent the past three days digging the parts of my disassembled Lego one out of these bins. It will be worth it once I'm done.
could’ve just used a binder clip
I was lucky enough to have gotten the original AOTC gunship for $21 from walmart back in 2003. Never found the Toys R Us ARC Trooper repaint, though.
@@raser4329oh definitely
I've had a lego LAAT for like 11 years now, it's sick
It'd be cool to see Captain Rex and his growing Rebel cell of unchipped Clones take several LAATs to store it in their small fleet of stolen Venators during their guerilla battle against the Galactic Empire.
I litterly was thinking the same thing, that would be so awesome
How are they gonna have enough people to operate a venator? It takes literally a small town of people to man one
@@funnelingspace9268 clone rebellion pls pls pls… imagine they find a kamino city that wasn’t shot down… and start cloning there… or they find a battle droid factory and reprogram them
Imagine the Batch facing down an AT-AT and getting their asses handed to them, until Rex, Wolffe, Gregor, and Howzer come in with a LAAT and destroy it with one of those green lasers. That would be badasss
Minimum crew for a venator would be 100
If there ever is a perfect example of the perfect gunship, the LAAT is that gunship. Strong, fast, versatile, everything else this video says, it's perfect. Definitely my favorite transport/gunship in all of Star Wars, and I love videos that just show how awesome they are. It's just so freaking cool that I turn into a giddy kid whenever I see them in all their glory.
As far as Star Wars only goes, yeah it's a perfect specimen.
Comparisons to OTHER sci-fi universes show that the LAAT does leave a lot to be desired.
For instance, the Pelican in Halo is, in my opinion, the PERFECT dropship. It's fairly fast for it's weight, can carry cars and tanks, hold up to 13 to 15 people (and can hold more if they attach a carrier pod to the vehicle hauling mount), it has a rear gun in the troop bay, missiles, and a huge chin-mounted machine gun.
Here's where it SURPASSES the LAAT, though. It can actually go to and from space and operate in exoatmospheric conditions.
The two vehicles are very similar but I think that even without the Pelican being quite as heavily armed it still wins out because it can go into space and that helps tremendously with troop deployment.
@@Eye_Of_Odin978 LAAT can do in space flight too, we see that during the Citadel arc of The Clone Wars.
The Thunderhawk from Warhammer 40k.
Four Twin-linked Heavy bolters sponsons, two wing-mointed lascannons and either a Thunderhawk cannon (bigger than most of the Imperium's tank cannons) or a Turbolaser Destructor (which is a BIG FUCKING lascannon, more commonly used on Titans), and a variety of missiles and/or bombs can be installed.
They look like flying tanks, and that's what they basically are. Their thick armour and construction means it can withstand a tremendous amount of punishment and still do its mission. And if we talk of the Great Crusade era's Thunderhawks, they also can have a Flare Shield, which is a miniature Void Shield that can block incoming damage (the technology is lost in the 41st millennium though).
It's void-worthy, and while it is not as agile as a dedicated fighter, it can defend itself against aircrafts extremely well.
It's void-to-void, air-to-air, air-to-ground, air-anti-infantry, air-to-fortifications and a very versatile and sturdy dropship.
And all that is to deliver its cargo of 30 Space Marines, 7 feet tall genetically engineered super soldiers in basically body tanks.
Or it can also be used to transport Land Raiders (big ass Space Marine tanks), Dreadnoughts (a walking coffin containing the almost-but-not-yet-dead remains of an Astartes hero, it's a walking tank), or Astartes Bikes (which, surprise, are armored bikes).
And even the Thunderhawk PALES in comparison to its bigger brother the Stormbird, which was used in the Great Crusade as the main dropships, carrying up to 100 Space Marines, and having a true Void Shield and a multitude of even more powerful armaments compared to the smaller Thunderhawk. The Stormbird though are relics of a past age in the 41st millennium, while they were the common means of transport for Astartes during the Great Crusade.
Only at the end of the Great Crusade and the beginning of the Horus Heresy does the Thunderhawk supplant the Stormbird in uses, not because the Thunderhawk is better though, but because it's easier to produce in mass quantity for lesser resources.
I’m pretty sure the LAAT is also based off of a real military vehicle - the Soviet Mi-24 Hind helicopter gunship. It has that distinctive double bubble canopy and stub wings, and it combines troop transport capabilities with a huge amount of weaponry. It’s one of my favorite helicopters so it’s cool that it inspired something in Star Wars
i do believe you are right
I mean it took Inspiration from a Lot of vehicles imo. Those manned gunpods in the wings and to the side we're an actual Thing in some Bombers in WW2
Everyone into helicopters can admit the Hind is a genius design. But it's kind of in the same place as the AK-47, it's outdated but may never become obsolete. (see the B-52 for another 'oh God why!?' example of long lasting design.)
It enters the conflict as a Huey, and ends it as a Hind.
There should have been a full gunship variant that sacrificed troops carrying for more ordinance load, so it can spam missiles upon missiles in a ground attack role. It could have even been fitted with a bomb bay and proton bombs - although that variant could do with an increase in shielding, if only to reduce the risk of fratricide if shot down in close formation.
Of course such a variant would have made the first battle of Geonosis a slam dunk for the GAR as every CIS core ship is hammered with missile after missile in the opening salvos, and the massed droid army is carpet bombed. That would also free up enough clone drop ship standard variants to absolutely swarm the arena as the first move of the rescue mission, meaning that it wouldn't be a Jedi massacre and Dooku could have been taken out as well.
That is why the designer of that particular variant made one fatal mistake. They approached then senator Palpatine in private to discuss their concept. ...
Lol well how many more missiles do you want the standard LAAT/i already carries 60 missiles.
@Pheonixx you can never have too many missiles
@@phoenixx913 Prehaps some extra launchers as well, so it has a higher rate of fire. Getting hit with 4 or even 6 missiles simultaneously would be more "impactful". And without the need for sliding doors for troops to disembark, the extra launchers could be mounted on the sides.
No Core ship would've gotten off the ground, and the CIS heavy vehicles on the field would've been toast as well.
Then there's the option of strafing runs with missile spam on approaching then bombs while overhead.
And the option of having ion missiles for close air support of friendly ground forces, as it would take down droids but not organics.
Maybe include some emp rockets/gungan bomba tech to fire at the projected landing zone. Clearing the zone of droids without having to land in a firestorm would be helpful.
I saw a video by geetsly on the y wing during the clone wars. If I remembered correctly they mentioned a variant of the LAAT that was supposed to serve as a bomber, and the concept that the kaminoins saw the LAAT as a ship that could serve as basically an all in 1 starship, acting as a bomber, fighter, gunship, etc. as it turned out, the LAAT bomber sucked, and it was replaced by the y wing.
It's pretty much the Star Wars MI-24 Hind, and I love it! Favorite ship in all of star wars period.
The bit I love is the turbolaser. That thing absolutely slices its way through even the heaviest droids.
I mean, for it to excel as a dropship and a gunship is pretty impressive. As much heat as it gets for being super easy to take down (a fair point to be sure) even when it goes down it seems like the passengers have a decent shot at surviving as long as they aren’t at too high an altitude. Top tier ship
to be fair they are trying to drop troops in ever Heavy active triple A Gun fire we saw what they could to do to an alcmator (or how you write it) so what chance does a gunship have at surviving a shot from that. they do last longer against fighters compare to mass drivers then again if any ship gets shot in the engines I doubt there is much in ship design could do to cover up that weakness.
6:02 Can you clarify what you mean. We see plenty of LAATs deploy from space in The Clone Wars show as you said but there are also instances where we see LAATs returning to vessels in space which also have the sliding troop transport doors.
I think that he meant ball turrets and said the wrong feature.
I think a difference is that some of those that go back into space have a double-opening slide door on either side, making it sealed more for space travel (maybe??) a normal lat had just the one door on either side It could also be internal designs that aren't obvious
He did say "LIKE the sliding door." Could be other features. Also said USUALLY not always... but yeah I too have always found their handling of this a tad frustrating how limited the LAATs are *supposed* to be, but because they're so iconic and cool they get used for so much more in Star Wars media.
@@Lord-Emperor-Vader decided to look it up on the wookiee, and i think youre right. The main differences was that the cabin was sealed and that there were _flood lights_ instead of ball turrets
I remember this gunship for two specific things: Playing the original Battlefront 2 to infiltrate enemy ships with a platoon, and the infamous quote, "Good thing those bugs can't aim."
The CIS gunship is even more scary
Especially in the Republic at War mod
The HMP's name is literally Heavy Missile Platform, it's like if an A-1 Skyraider had a child with a VTOL.
@@kabob0077 sounds powerful
@@kabob0077 and throw in the A-10 Thunderbolt II for extra measure.
@@michaelandreipalon359 Yes.
For an air craft, surviving just one hit is actually extremely impressive.
Easily my favorite vessel of its type in science fiction, and I know I'm far from alone in that opinion. Aggressive-looking, sexy from almost any angle, armed to the teeth, and being just an all-around capable platform. It's gonna be hard to develop something to surpass it in popular culture.
The LAAT is one of favorite ships in Star Wars, ever, but more like the one with the design we first see in Attack of the Clones. It just seems so perfect. I’m surprised its like seemingly didn’t continue after the Clone Wars
one of my favorite clone wars era ship designs alongside the arc-170
I love the LA-AT. Whenever I listen to a sci-fi book regardless of the description of a drop ship, I always picture the LA-AT
I respect your take about the LAATs not being able to sustain lots of damage. I too despite the lore realized on screen these things were dropping like flies
When you realize just one of these will easily kill a run-of-the-mill Jedi with those two beam cannons alone
Assuming of course, that the Jedi doesn't use the force to either throw a large object in the path of the beams or missiles or whatever else. Or using the force to shove the gunship around just long enough to throw off it's aim and allow for escape, or forcefully crash it. Or force crush it.
@@jessegd6306 90% of Jedi wouldn't be capable of any of those feats
@@jessegd6306 Ergo not something a run-of-the-mill Jedi would be capable of doing easily.
@@jessegd6306
Even if a Jedi blocks a shot, you have three more cannons plus missiles and the front blasters to kill them.
It takes a lot to kill a jedi, youre ignoring their biggest weapon , precognition!!
It doesn't matter how big your gun is If i know exactly when and where youre going to shoot and i have the physical ability to use that information, jedi are notoriously fast, Athletic and tireless too
Its true most jedi cant take those on directly but most will escape
And you bet youll be dead very soon after or your equipment
I always hated that in Episode 2 the LAAT chasing Doku didn't use either the back firing laser canon or the wing mounted ones to defend against the Geonosian fighters.
"We're out of rockets, sir!"
Your ship is also bristling with directed energy weapons; why can't you use those?!
they ran out of energy since they've been in combat for a while@@Delta-V-Heavy
@@dragerdet Well, clearly they're not completely out of energy, since they're still flying. I dunno, it just always bothered me how the movie so very clearly demonstrated how heavily armed the LAAT was, and then felt like it just handwaved why none of those weapons could be used against Dooku for the sake of the plot. I know, it's definately not that big of an issue, it's just something that has always bothered me a bit.
@@Delta-V-HeavyBy energy he means the ammo of their laser cannons
What’s weird is that I have never seen the rear laser cannon being used.
Me either!
Me neither, or the wing mounted laser cannons outside Episode 2
Especially when they were chased by two fighters...
I just chalk that up to visual effects budget and pretend it's still used
@@derrickstorm6976 Yeah, those two ball-turrets mounted on the wings almost never get used in actual episodes or movies for some reason.
Heck, they even aren't really usable in the GAMES outside of a couple exceptions, namely Battlefront 1 Classic.
Imagine what the battles looked like in the lore. 2000 of these bad boys from a single Aclamator? They can drop off 60.000 troops instantly if anything is left to fight after their devastating fire power. ( to be fair the CIS had like a million droids in every battle, so not that hard to imagine)
I believe the armor and shielding are for mostly small arms fire, rather than heavy weapons.
That is way more info than I needed to know about a fictional transport… and I love it.
You make a good point, empire is as more scorch earth tactics, whereas republic had direct battle targets (and wanted to preserve worlds as best as poss maybe?).
Fun video, love this bit of sci-fi design.
The reason the LAAT is so powerful is because it was specifically manned by clones, the deadliest infantry in the galaxy. A normal army would need to train and find extremely skilled pilots, pair them with even more skilled gunners and to top it off even prepare shock troopers to match the vehicle. Every single clone on it's own was an elite. The LAAT by itself is overkill and unpractical.
Really when you think about it most of the clones gear was overkill.
The DC-15A for instance their standard issue rifle at the beginning of the war not even a heavy weapon when mounted on a tripod had an effective range of 10km. And when turned up to it's highest power settings one bolt was able to blow a foot and half wide crater in whatever it hit and just the regular powered bolts were able to blow off limbs and blow battle droids in half. And on top of that it had an accession cable launcher for scaling walls and cliffs and a sniper scope. And on top of that the rifles linked up with the targeting systems in clone helmets and projected a gunsight similar to a video game onto the heads up display, gave them targeting data and essentially gave them assisted aiming/aimbot.
For a standard issue mass produced rifle that is ridiculously overkill.
Kinda necessary when the army you're facing outnumbers you probably 100 to 1 and has a fleet 4 times the size of yours. The CIS is pretty wild.
@@phoenixx913 The rifles may not have been designed for droids, but for Jedi. Order 66: Every clone within 10km has the ability to shoot you and chase you up walls and cliffs. Targeting systems allow them to shoot accurately and quickly at fast moving targets.
@@nomz27 Honestly blows my mind how not a single Jedi looked at the specs for GAR standard issue gear and went "huh, this feels like it's got a very specific use in mind..." lmao
@@phoenixx913 The GRA feels like somebody decided to make an army entirely of Special Forces. No wonder they could only field a few million. I still stay the GRA ahould've included a general Infantry component of recruited regulars. At the very least, they could've freed up the clones from garrison and auxiliary duties. But then, Granpda Palps wouldn't have army he could control absolutely.
You know dad's a star wars fan when he's driving the minivan doors open to extract the kids from school.
New life goal unlocked 👍
Edit: gotta be blaring fortunate son for max points
Around the students a perimeter create.
Seen that
I think the LAAT should've taken some inspiration from the Combine Dropship in Half Life. Take the LAAT/c and make it the standard design. For the Infantry carrying variant, create a separate air tight container that the LAAT/c can latch onto. The container could be dropped from altitude and repulsors would soften the landing. The container would then act as a bunker as troops deploy, all while the LAAT never has to touch the ground. If the LAAT suffers catastrophic damage while in flight, it can do the same thing by jettisoning the container, saving the troops it's carrying.
That wouldn't have been possible. Attack of the Clones was released in 2002, Half-Life 2 was released in 2004.
too bad we didn't get to much of the beam cannons or the tail gun being used in the movies and shows. would have been nice to see them in action.
The only time you see the rear gun being used i think is in the arena.
we saw both the first time the L.A.-A.T. was seen
I loved the LAAT as a kid ever since the original Clone Wars miniseries when the ARC troopers used it to fend off General Grievous
The LAAT Gunship has been my favourite ever since I saw AOTC at the cinema. It is so perfect. It is practically designed to allow for quick drop-offs and pickups whilst still providing protection and fire. Its ability to be modified to carry ATTE's is genius too.
The LAAT reminds me a lot of the Russian "Hind" helicopters and I think big part of its design inspiration (including duel cockpits and wing layout). Similar to them, it operates both as a assault ship and and troop transport..
The manned and placement of its weaponry kinda reminds me of the PBY-5A Catalina.
5:28 Mandalorian jetpack - "Hold my green milk"
LAAT/i is just Star Wars' version of 40k's Valkyrie Gunship. It's awesome at what it does and I've always loved it
(shhhh I know they're both basically "Space Mi-24-D" shhhh)
Sometime ago i've seen another video about LAAT, i don't remember what channel it was. However there was made an interesting statement - LAAT is just space Mi-24. And it's fkn true. Somewhere i even read that it was indeed inspired by the Mi-24 assault helicopter. I never thought about it before, but when you look at it, it indeed looks like Mi-24, especially the cockpit area and the whole versatility. Mi-24 was assault helicopter, sturdy enough to take a hit or two, fast, agile for its size and weight, carried various weapons and also was able to deliver troops to hot zones, simultaneously smoking the enemy in range. Absolute perfection
Best fictional vehicle of all time
@@brightlord-ov7cmVenator, X-Wing
But the AT-TE 🥺🥺
Chase on Geonosis in AotC
Anikin: "It's Dooku. Shoot him down!"
Clone Pilot: "We're out of rockets sir"
Anikin: "So? This thing's bristling with other weapons and he's on a speeder bike! Take your pick!"
*End credits*
🙄thank you!
Has anyone noticed how that juggernaut assault tank is about to run over that republic walker on kashyyk when the camera pans away
One thing I recognized pretty early on in my youth. LAAT/i Gunships were the only craft the Galactic Empire didn’t bother carrying over for much more than a brief period of time (pre-Disney). True, Expanded Universe publications would present some of them being used beyond the Jedi Purge, but as you said, Eckharts, the majority of landings were done by Sentinels because of the many advantages and other factors. They weren’t often landing on hot battlefields like they were against the CIS.
But that’s a testament to something else, more secondary in my opinion. Casting the advantages of the Sentinel aside, it kinda proves that the Empire was willing to give up the robustness of the LAAT and its variants, meaning that if ever there was a situation where there were no huge numbers of specialized transports available to land in the hot zones, the troops might’ve been at greater risk.
Anyway, awesome video!
my only problem with this ship is that it seemed tooooo damn easy to get shot down. in the show, they tend to be depicted as crashing from a pebble. It just needs like a _bit_ more shielding or armor to increase survivability
Still love that LAATs were used to make a circular fortified point on Geonosis. Basically turned into a makeshift barricade, with the sliding doors acting as entrance and exit points.
Kinda reminds me of the hussite wagons forts tactics, in real world history.
LAAT is the MI-24 of star wars
It fills the same role with a similar arsenal and it even looks like it
Funny considering that there's also a clone wars arc that's heavily inspired by the soviet war of Afghanistan
Hockey, then Basketball now Star Wars?? Holy shit this is awesome.
It seems to be that throughout the war, the LAAT kept losing its manned guns but it was still a great gunship/ drop ship til the end of the war.
7:22 That’s the most important thing above all.
The only thing I'd change about the LAAT would be to add shielding to it. Other than that, I think it was perfect for the GAR.
it has light shielding
I would prefer to split the roles between 2 different landers. One fitted for combat and escort work meant for clearing an area, and fitted for such, and the 2nd with bare minimum in self defense, but highly mobile just for hot dropping clones quickly. Merging the 2 results in a combat craft that is somewhat subpar in combat for the expense, and somewhat subpar when it comes to troop capacity, again, for the cost. I am basing this on the Russian experience with the MI-24, a helicopter gunship that also tries to act as a transport, and doing neither really well
I'm sooo happy you finally made a video specifically for the LAAT!!! Absolute banger episode thank you!!!
It really is just a Sherman tank that flies. It isn't perfect at any one thing but it can be competent at almost everything.
I love all the new ships George came up with for the prequels. They're all so cool. Especially in Clone Wars where we get to see them in action a lot more.
Lasers go brrrt
I absolutely LOVED flying that thing in the clone wars gamecube game. So much I went and found it at a retro game shop again as an adult.
I dunno why but I keep finding myself comparing the LAAT to the Hind...
That was deliberate, they took the Hind as inspiration.
The Hind is iconic and just seems to work from an aesthetic perspective.
It has perfect proportions and an intimidating presence (no matter that these days it's MANPADS bait).
@@casbot71 Outside of looks it even fills the same role as a dual gunship and transport. And the Hind being MANPADS bait is nothing new, it's been facing Stingers since the '80s
I really like the return of this style of content, so keep it up eck!
It's not LAAT it's L-A-A-T
I said the same thing!
He already knows that. It’s just when you’re making a long video, It’s so much easier to say as one thing. It saves time, gives better clarity and makes it not as grueling of a word to say.
You all dont know how much we love lartys in the SOBDE. They show up exactly when you need them.
First
That spec ops LAAT in Tartakovsky Clone Wars was probably the most brutal variant in all franchise...
LAAT dropship is about as badass as this type of ship could get in my opinion, and the fact that it has so many offensive weapons systems onboard with crucial technology to aid the clones in making infantry drops in warzones is a testament to how capable this ship truly is.
I love seeing the LAAT take on the imperium of man in AFWTMT's fanfiction. He did so much of star wars lore justice. Youd be proud
The LAAT is the combination of a Mi-24 (Hind helicopter) and a B-17 Super fortress. Love it!
I can see the design similarities and philosophy behind the LAAT in the Russian Hind family as well.
Flying heavily armed, and to some extent, armored flying low altitude vehicles that could drop troops in and survive. You might say the armor isn't substantial, but comparing a Hind to most other military copters, it's the difference between surviving small arms fire and not - I think that applies to the LAAT too.
It's always been my favorite non-capitol ship in Star Wars. Grew up with it in Clone Wars, and that UCS Lego set looks superb on my shelf.
My favorite Sci-Fi gunship hands down, should be called the swiss army knife of the republic! A couple minor details I love is that it was designed to work with the Clone armor, having a magnetic floor in the troop bay so they can sit right on the edge without falling off, or stand behind the first row, more than likely helped with acceleration/deacceleration comfort. Also the under wing bombs and door bombs allowed it to fulfil a sort of fast CAS role as well as a gunship.
Full-scale battles in Clone Wars series were always my favorite scenes and always will be
Some people like the Millennium Falcon or the X-Wing the most, but my favorite Star Wars vehicle is 100% the LAAT/I.
Favorite vehicle from Star Wars, hands down. Flying one in the Clone Wars video game from back in the day was awesome
This ship is still one of my favorite ships in Star Wars and it gets the job done thanks for teaching me some more information on this “Robust” ship😁
My favorite fictional piece of mechanical engineering. I had a really huge replica as a kid. Was my favorite toy for years. The sounds and design are so cool.
One of my favorite craft from Star Wars
The LAAT has always been my favourite Star Wars vehicle. It looks good, sounds good, and absolutely kicks ass.
I love my Larty in our Star Wars campaign, she's a great ship! I called it the Leap of Faith; one of our players wrote in their backstory that their Jedi coined the name after using the term to describe how risky and reckless we were in getting boots on the ground 😊
I've always loved the LAAT's design. Been one of my favorite vehicles in Star Wars since I was a little kid.
The LAAT was my favorite ship as a kid, I remember just doodling then all over my notebooks in middle school.
I just finished build my UCS one a little while ago, and today I was curious if it was the ultimate vehicle. Then you created this video!
Excellent video. It juxtaposes the role of the lat gunship as well at the imperial and Droid. Which is interesting considering the poltical climate and nature a Droid dropship might use.
the LAAT was one of my favorite aircraft designs, along with vulture droids, i always loved them.
I got an email from Vite Ramen saying that your flavor was back. And I jumped at the chance instantly. Sadly it wasn't included in any combo packs so I got the 9 pack. It would be cool if they let us mix and match the flavors we wanted for a combo pack.
During my early days of college I actually played a table top sci-fi RPG and my character flew a ship inspired by the LAAT because of they very reasons listed here. Great for quick insertions into hot zones with enough fire power to provide cover fire.
Also, the perfect ship to carry my 1:18 clone figures. It's a joy to look at, crammed with 2 pilots, 2 gunners, and 18 troops + one astromech.
Hey eckhartsladder!!! I had an interesting idea for a video
Why didn’t the kaminoans use other clone templates to supplement the fett clones? For instance, the standard fett clone could be used for ground forces while other templates could be used to be better pilots, engineers, ship crews, etc.
Love your channel btw!!!
LAATs in the prequels: gunships with a lot of firepower.
LAATs in the clone wars show: voulnruble transport ships.
One thing to note is that assuming the black explosions are some kind of flak weapon, the LAATs seem to suffer no problems flying through clouds of aircraft destroying shrapnel. It only seems to be the direct hits that actually down them.
Personally one of the best features of the LAAT/I gunship is the sliding bay doors at the side. It enables a smooth deployment of the troops in the ship, but also protection. Say your deploying troops against a line of battle droids. Landing perpendicular to the line and opening the hatch not facing the line allows the troops the ability to disembark without getting hit, with the slits open on the other side you can get a few pot shots out while your squad is disembarking.
Hey Eck, big longtime fan. I drive a lot for work and let your videos play instead of music or podcasts because i love your stuff. Keep at it man, you provide a great service to us all
Also for this particular video at least, I'm changing my scenery and watching from the toilet
Might be my favorite Star Wars vehicle. It’s just so cool. Heavily armored, yet super nimble. It even has mini Death Star turrets. Great storytelling, given the Geonosians were heavily involved in the Death Star’s construction.
i love the laat . it does everything it is designed to do great with barely any downsides
I wonder why the Gungan bomba technology was never more widely implemented. Those orbs are able to take out any droids they run into, even main battle tanks.
Speculation: Probably unstable to handle and difficult to both make and store. Like using a mason jar full of nitroglycerin, it'll blow up and definitely kill something, but you really wouldn't wanna use it if you had other semi-safe options like dynamite.
It’s my favorite SW vehicle by far. Love the heavy helicopter gunship aesthetic
As a guy who has survived several LAAT crashes in a moded arma based game... yeah the LAAT is boss, especially with a skilled pilot!
One thing about the LAAT/i specifically that always bugged me is that the wing mounted cannons and the tail gun have pretty much never been used in any canon material. The balls on the ends of the wings are also beam cannon turrets like the ones that hang off the sides, and the tail gun is a tail gun, so why both are never used is beyond me.
Like, even the ARC-170's twin tail guns have been used in canon sources (Battlefront 2 2017 for example), but any time a LAAT/i is shown, only the two chin-mounted cannons and sometimes the rockets/missiles are used, and the beam cannons (if they're present) are used sparingly against infantry (which I actually don't mind, they've provided a good reason why those ball turrets are sometimes obfuscated for extra paper armor).
Also it is very weird how easily the LAAT of any subtype can be shot down. The carrier variant makes sense, there's less of it physically present compared to the infantry version, but the infantry models (especially the ones with double doors) seem like they should be WAYYY more durable. It's like the TCW writers saw that in AOTC a few gunships were one-shot KO-ed by missiles in the Geonosis scenes and were like "ah, they can't handle any sort of enemy fire!" Heavy cannons and Hailfires sure, but I feel like DSDs and other droids shouldn't be able to down them so easily (especially dwarf spider droids).
I love the prequel ship designs,they are the Most beautiful and iconic in my opinion
The force is transitory, vite ramen is forever - 501st eckhart legion member.
On the question of armour, I would say that it's correct that it's heavily armoured as we neve see one brought down by blaster fire alone (I don't recall it ever happening, but coudl be wrong). They shrug off handheld blaster fire and even near misses from starfighters, while it's the large cannons, missiles and direct hits from starfighters that bring them down. And you can only armour an air/spacecraft to a certain point before it starts to adversely effect it's flight performance beyond an acceptable level.
To make a real world comparison. The IL-2 Sturmovik is considered a heavily armoured aircraft, yet the armour protecting the vital parts of the aircraft were only a few millimeters thick, not enough to protect from direct hits from AAA, but thick enough to shield it from shrapnel and small arms fire, that would cause catastrophic damage on a regular aircraft.
Love the outro, so nostalgic!
It was really cool. I remember using it in star wars video game and it's beam lasers were super powerful. It's armed to the teeth for a transport, which makes sense, considering you want to punch through and get the soldiers in.
The fact that in the heat of a kaiju attack on coruscant they mounted a dug rail gun to the LAAT just confirms to me clones are space grunts
I finally got around to playing Jedi Fallen Order and felt a wave of nostalgia when seeing the LAAT on Kashyyyk. Love the ship.
I would be 100% happy if I could have one IRL. It’s just beautiful to look at, capable at any and everything you would need in and partially out of atmosphere, it’s reliable and fast enough to outmaneuver most similar size craft and entirely modifiable for whatever you really need!
Seeing a little swarm of these gunships converging all their firepower, troops, and vehicles to fight you would be terrifying.
But seeing a single one incoming to your position would be even worse. Because you know there's at least one Jedi on board.