Leave it to the Empire to come up with an imaginative name like "Imperial Troop Transport" 

I love the Cows head logo, and that you chose to invert it to conceal it.

When your ships are designed by toy makers - the stormtroopers are on the outside so you could put your action figures in the pockets

Look, "Imperial Party Bus" was already taken. The Emperor had reserved that for his personal transport.

The Murder Brick has modular ablative bio armor! A great selling point.

Lucasfilm designer: "I've hit a wall... I need inspiration for my next design..." Pushes himself away from said wall and spies a brick. "Eureka!"

Look at the US Armys Stryker, you have multiple versions of the same basic troop transport. As much as Im happy to rip on poor writing, the ITT having different or modular configs makes sense.

the rebels cartoon shows it being used to transport for prisoners on the outside as well

Unimaginative names is kind of the human standard. An APC, which name is used in multiple games, is an "Armored Personnel Carrier". The Deuce and a Half you pictured is the nickname for the "Two and a Half Ton" Truck. Humans use literal descriptions as names all the time. We also use similar tactics on gun trucks and helicopters of the troops being transported hang out the side with guns to shoot at the enemy.

This seems like the family friendly version of the Chimera from 40k - guardsmen are the definition of disposable troops.

This seems like it would have been designed for battle droids instead of soldiers. The design makes perfect sense then. Even for storm troopers it provides some pretty strong motivation to hit the enemy if you're out there.

Oh, 5 versions of the ITT tilts your lid? When I was provisioning and standardizing National Stock Numbers for the MRAP we had no less than 18 versions from 12 different manufacturers. And that's all from one planet. Also, I don't think troopers in armor would be bothered by exposure to the elements. Their armor may not stop a blaster bolt, but it does block the wind and grit.

In Rebels this thing was able to take fire from like 2 AT-DP heavy cannons and survived Its basicly invincible

There was a complete lack of fucks given with all the people that died in that galaxy, far, far away.

ummm...Infantry Fighting Vehicles are an actual thing for transporting troops to the battle AND providing additional firepower at the battle. They've only existed for 50 years now...

Troops in field would salvage and make improvised armour from scrapyards and bolt it on to give themselves full body cover. Despite the platitudes and assurances of Darth _Rumsfeld._

There is one use that those six-outside troopers would be excellent for: "pacifying" urban slums.

The ITT can also use living shields as "extra armor" like in Rebels. Put some hostages on the outside and the squeamish opposition won't fire on those ITT-s.

Had the toy as a kid. It was my absolute favorite vehicle. I envisioned it as kind of an intergalactic General Lee. I was 6, don't judge.

For a Murder Brick, it flew pretty good..

See the Empire realized stuff like the M231 Firing Port Weapon kinda sucked so they just made the porthole bigger so the trooper could stick stick his whole torso out and shoot people with his regular rifle. Plus Stormtroopers are already walking around at MOPP 4 all day so you don't need to seal your vehicle for CBRN warfare instead you can just have a big open hatch on the side.

So basically this thing is the Chimera from the Imperial Guard in Warhammer 40k.

The composite cannons that were on the sides of the early LAATs would be good to have for these riding rough Stormies.

It needs a gun on the bottom. If it's designed to be aerial dropped, it should be able to clear a landing.

Almost like the AT-AT is an undergunned, over sized piece of junk... The Troop transport is kidna the bmp of the starwars universe, cheap, strong armament, can carry troops, more if you put them on the outside. Needs a missile launcher tho. Also putting troops on anything that moves was pretty much WW2 soviet doctrine, Soldiers would ride on the back of T34 tanks, using the turret as cover and deploy once the tank reaches enemy lines, compared to that this thing is very accomodating to the troop compliment. This thing beats walking and still offers better protection than just walking in the open so it's a clear upgrade over that plus it has bigger guns. Don't get me wrong this is still a horrible design compared to pretty much any apc/ifv on earth but for star wars this is pretty solid.

A thought occured that gives this thing 1 un-ironically good thing. The dorsal laser is for defense. When the thing parks and releases its poorly shooting cargo it forms effectively a stationary gun platform to protect from aerial attack. Given the prevalence of small fliers I'd think that's good. Other than that on point

The kind of Grenade launchers you get in videogames would be a cool thing to give to the Troops on each side. It may seem a tad silly and they are "a little" vulnerable where they are. But depending on the use case - it may not be completely nuts. Also imagine they put Battle Droids in those nooks - then the whole thing could operate with a smaller crew & reduce the food and resources it has to carry and so extend it's range. They could also use the pods for carrying prisoners to discourage people from shooting at them too. Also I could totally see this in the Gi Joe Universe used by Cobra - only with wheels on it. Actually it would look really cute with wheels on it like a baby Turbo tank.

There where no “good” main factions in Star Wars. You can’t change my mind.

In WWII and Korean war, US Army infantry would ride on back of the tanks until the shooting started, then get off.

You really have to hand it to grand admiral thrawn in legends, he took a military force that Palpatine designed around cheap production and expandability and managed to create a force efficient enough to drag the war out for over a decade after Palpatine's death

Tie fighters are basically an imperial zerg rush

I had the original version of this, way back around the cusp of the 80s.

Speaking of the 'Vong, you should do a breakdown of their bio-ships!

You remind me of every ship in Star Control and Starcontrol 2. They measure the hit points of all ships in 'crew' and using psionic to capture enemy crew repairs damage done to your ship... so it's very much like you're strapping bodies to your ship to hold it together

I always viewed the Troop Transport like a Huey from Vietnam where some had stubby wings with rockets while the body could hold about 12 troops with no real side protection as it is coming into a landing zone.

The design was created for a SW toy that didn't see much sales. That's why they're bolted on to the side of the transport.

I think the 6 on the outside are extra. Those slots are more often used for cargo or prisoners/hostages. Could be a punishment detail that gets you stuck outside.

Oh for the love of god. I TOLD you that the allowable varriance on the mag lev platforms was 2.55 kg, two point five five! NOT 255 KG. How many people have you crushed this month?

This thing was based on a Kenner ST toy from the 1980s that was never in any of the films back then. The video actually showed one near the end. BTW there were two versions of the toy one with electronic battle noises & one without. I had the "without" version, but a friend of mine had the "with" version.

It's like a mix between a BMP-3 (IFV, decently armored, has a big 100mm gun and 30mm autocannon and missiles and has space for infantry transport inside) and WW2 Soviet Tactics (aka use mounted soldiers while pushing so that they take panzerfaust/panzerschrek rounds before it hits the tank)

During the Vietnam war, soldiers rode on top of their armored personnel carriers rather than inside of them, so the Imperial Troop Transport is not without precedent.

I think this particular Imperial Troop Transport is the kind that is "cube proof" since it's so insanely tough.

3:29) The truck, foreground carries 2.5 tons off road. 5 tons on hard surface roads. Easy to ID from the 5 bows under the canvas, or the 5 slots for them. The other truck is a 5 ton and has 7 bows. 3:56) Twin Ion Engines. TIE. 7:38) Some rocket launchers have no back blast. One o them is the Armbruster? Ambruster? Since the Sturmtruppers are being used a s door gunners, some heavy gun rings would add firepower. The 5 ton truck at 3:29 gas a fifty caliber Heavy Machine Gun (HMG) ring on the right side top.

They also sometimes kept prisoners in those outer pods to dissuade rebels from shooting at them.

"The Mouse annihilated any kind of reference to them." Literally the only good thing Disney has ever done for the Star Wars universe.

basicly its armoured infantry returned to mechanized infantry, they aren't necessarily protected but they are getting transported.

LAAT be like: The best defence is a good offence. And damn, does it have a good offence.

The empire does also sometimes stick prisoners in the side compartments as meatshields, on the grounds that even if they don't give a crap about them the enemy actually might.

And you can transport 6 troopers per trip in this? 8, I suppose, if you include the pilot and gunner. Seems like its capacity leaves a bit to be desired. Honestly, at first blush I thought this was the imperial fleet's honeywagon. A six-hole Andy Gump meant to ply its way from ship to ship to facilitate potty call for the troops and crews in compensation for the fact that none of these ship designs apparently include toilet facilities of any kind. I draw your attention to Spacedock's essay, "The Most Important Thing On A Spaceship." ( ru-vid.com/video/%D0%B2%D0%B8%D0%B4%D0%B5%D0%BE-Zq01ELxfRYg.html )

TBF, there is sometimes a good reason to ride on top of a transport. If your going through terrain thats good for ambush, having more eyes to spot really helps. Then there's the issue if the transport is hit and on fire and the doors are jammed. Plus the role of APCs is to transport troops TO battle, and not INTO battle.

Yea as a vet it does make sense. The UH1 and Black Hawks will have dedicated door gunners the big doors can be opened so the gooey soldiers inside can also shoot.

Any brick can be a Murder Brick if you believe hard enough

We invented a great tool for the external stormtrooper racks called "firing ports" here on Terra.

I mean I like to imagine that there’s enough space in those little capsules for a stormtrooper to duck down and use the door as a bit of cover from small arms blaster fire But I’m pretty sure those little capsules are meant for transporting prisoners over troopers

'6.21 'Trooper whats you hand doing inside there...are you checking you belt '' ''Err... yes yes yes yes .YES !! FOR THE EMPIRE !!!!....arrrrrrrrrrr...my belt fine now sir''

channel underated asf

Carries troops, lightly armored, has an auto cannon turret, designed for troops to quickly dismount into battle with fire support. It's an Infantry Fighting Vehicle!

The only major issue with this vehicle was the external troop compartments(most troops were inside and the vehicle was quite literally indestructible). If they removed the external compartments and made it possible to fire blasters from inside the vehicle via specific ball joint areas prob be a lot more useful. Less sci fi tho

it can be easy re-canonized as the pockets being used to carry security driods for the empire.

But boy howdy do I remember the troop transport. Had one in the early 80s. Robust for a piece of Kenner plastic, actually, but still an odd design for an AFV. Of course, this is an empire that designed the AT-AT, so no points for tactical flexibility.

These things are actually heavily armored, and in it's current canon configuration it's unclear if some stormtroopers are forced to be exposed or if those are simply firing positions they can man

Me from 0:00-5:57: ‘Neat. Maybe a bit impractical, perhaps a few design flaws, but I can’t imagine there’s much else.’ Me when the image at 5:58 pops up: *W H E E Z E*

Check out scenes from last summer's protests. Police routinely showed up basically "strapped on to the side of the transport", so perhaps this is more common than you realize. Obviously, in that situation no one is shooting lethal weapons, so the analogy isn't perfect, but close.

ITT Pilots: "Four of the troopers riding outside died." Imperial Grand General Clarkson: "Oh no...Anyway."

The vong: that one time the empire was the lesser of two evils

I hear they initially wanted to call it the Bradley, but they changed the name at the very last moment.

Its basically the LAV 25 or Striker in Starwars

This is like modeled have the M111 or the german Half-track (Sd.Kfz. 251) in WW2. Where troops could fight from the back of the vehicle. They just moved them from the carrier compartment to the outside in a fitting for carrying an individual. It also allows for rapid deployment off the side of the vehicle similar to how Air Cavalry deploys from both doors on a helicopter

Stickin stromps to your ride works! It saves a ton on paint cause you just hose their bits off later.

The version in the Mandalorian 7:47 fixes some of the issues as you can see the outside booths aren't actually separate from the interior but are a kind of hatch to let them pour out of quickly.

That reminds me: the Soviet BMP's have portholes with clamps that allow you to hook your AK-74 and let you open fire while the vehicle is in motion.

"Murder brick" couldnt stop laughin i gotta watch this

i'd argue this is one of the few cool vehicles the empire has ever developed, as it's an all around decent vehicle that's is well armored yet has a much more shorter profile, dish out great fire power against opponents in similar weight class, surprisingly fast, and all you need is to replace the stormtroopers with battle droids (and with battle droids you can shove in additional droids, since they can fold themself while deactivated). you could send only several of these to wipe out most rebel hide out with less effort then what walker and several storm troopers can pull off

Honestly this design makes perfect sense. Protect the drivers so the vehicle keeps moving, but have easy access for the troops to begin firing before they even exit the vehicle. It's the Star Wars equivalent to taking the doors of the Humvee so you can get out and counter attack faster.

At least under Papa Palpatine, the shuttles ran on time.

2:43 HEY! They also make Jabba's actual Space Ship. The Minstrel-Class Star Yacht. A tanky Corvette size thing that can mount 6 turbolasers, some lighter guns, and carry 6 starfighters. Also if you play Dark Forces 1 it's way bigger than 160 meters long on the inside and has a really sweet bar!

I also like the Imperial APCs from Rogue Squadron Rebel strike, two big arms with guns at the end protect the troops as they disembark, (Or trap them in the line of fire if the commander lets them out directly facing the enemy like idiots) with an Eweb on the commander's cuppola.

It would be nice if the star wars designers would use actual vehicles for inspiration say the Russian BMP-1 armored carries a squad has a big gun and missile launcher wait there's more the troops can fire through ports in the side or the vehicle keeping the people protected unlike the inperial target practice vehicle.

Your not expendable, just easily replaced.

This is actually something both superpowers have done (in the past) via port firing weapons or just gun ports on armored transports

I kinda love the 180 you pull on the common opinion of this thing. Everyone else: "Wow, this thing is so stupid. The Storm Troopers are just bolted onto the side like baby carriers, like they WANT them to die." Sacred Cow: "Yes. That's the POINT. When you have, quite literally, *ALL THE MAN POWER IN THE GALAXY,* who cares if a couple of these bozos get sizzled? Plus, now you've got extra "armor" that can also shoot back at things! What's not to love?"

This was obviously designed to be a toy before anything else. To make up a reason to buy 6 identical dolls.

Alternatively you could call it the Imperial Clown Car

I WILL NOT IGNORE THAT COMMENT! The Mouse did my old legends material the dirty. I wish Legends to return.

Once i think about it, the reason why the empire went into the expendable approach to their military, is primarily because: - they have an extremely large territory to cover, against pirates, separatist hold outs, and rebels. To them these minor factions could barely put up a fight so they had no real need to upgrade their fighters. - in the event of rebels do try to steal TIE fighters, it would be useless anyways to them due to how expendable and vulnarable they are.

As much build up the vong had in lore… they always felt like a plot device to me. Their whole thing with tech hating and non force stuff felt like a missed opportunity to loop things back to trea and the whills of the force, or he’ll even pointing out the purpose of the dark side and that it was not meant to be synonymous with Sith doing evil shit. They could have tied so much up but we’re instead villains with no nuance to really speak of.

It looks like basic motorised infitray to me roll up dicks out guns blazing spread out lay down fire and have the vehicle return with more troops or stand off and provide fire support. Really reminds me of the Russian BMP troop transport with the side doors and roof hatches.

general rule of thumb for how star wars small arms mesh with IRL, holdout blasters are like picket pistol style rounds from like .25 ACP to possibly 9MM, blaster pistols range from something like 9mm to small intermediate rifle rounds (5.56 to 5.45), heavy blaster pistols range from like .357 to litterly 12.7 (in the case of the power of something like the DL44), blaster rifles go from all the way from 9mm up to like 7.62, heavy blaster rifles are like 5.56 to possibly 20mm/30mm autocannons (depending on how you class something like an E web compared to more man portable systems which can both be called heavy blaster rifles in some circles), laser cannons (heavy, medium and regular) range from something like 50mm to 90mm autocannons, 25mm to 40mm autocannons and 7.62 to like a 35mm autocannon (lot of overlap on some depending on the source so this is just a rough idea, overall laser=something between 7.62 to like a 76mm naval autocannon) turbo lasers (light, medium, heavy and super heavy) are roughly 76mm to 120mm, 120mm to 155mm, 155mm to 203mm and finally 12 inch guns to small tactical nuclear weapons respectively, super lasers (DS and similar) are roughly strategic nuclear weapon+, these are all kind of loose but are intended to give a rough idea on scale but it varies from source to source and some things power scales overlap, like supposedly in some sources you could down a starfighter with a DL44 and that massed laser cannon fire can whittle down a star destroyers shields or destroy external systems while in other cases light turbo lasers are like a mild hailstorm, ions and disruptors and other exotics are even harder to classify in power scale, really just to give an idea on how inconsistent the lore is you have the ISD and the gladiator both classes as SDDs, there are examples of corvets as small as the gazanti (roughly similar to the YT1400) and the CR90 which is way bigger (also a fornian gunship is about the same size as a gazanti roughly), not to mention a bellator is like half the size of an executor but both are SSDs, it's weird man edit: obscure fun fact, the MP38,MP40 and related submachineguns have that little fun under the barrel. that is not a bayonet lug but a rest designed to be braced over the side of an open toped APC (can be used on other surfaces as well)

ITT looks like a mobile bunker

The itt has always been a favourite of mine

There's fan theory saying that the whole Star Wars saga was nothing than Obi Wan and Rey retelling their life experiences. After listening to that theory and a couple of you videos about vehicle names...I think Star Wars is pretty much the Lego Movie. The whole thing is made up by some kid/nerd while playing with some toys. I mean it's supposed to happen a long time ago in a galaxy far far away and yet we have Earthly words and concepts used throughout the series. We have shuttles called the Abecedarian lines and each shuttle model is named with Greek names. It feels the original is told during a kid's play time, the prequels is told through his/her teenage days while the sequels is crafted in his/her time college.

Most people in the Empire don't really know about the bad things it does and those who do are not really in the full loop.

Good video. A few things: 1. Ubrikkian industries also made the Umbrikkian Flying fortress. Was only seen in one episode of the Clone Wars and was used by Trandoshan hunters as flying outpost on their hunting worlds. Other than that, I agree, they have the 3 things to named and that's it. Look at Kuat Drive yards though, those bastards can build. 2. The Empire didn't equip most of their star fighters with hyperdrive due to the fact that they thought pilots would desert the military in a stolen TIE fighters 3. the Empire wouldn't allow its pilots to fly multiple sorties with the same TIE because they didn't want the pilot to become attached to the fighter 4. The Mon Calamari ships are technically cities as well. They are designed as deep sea cities and can withstand immense pressure due to this reason... also they're fish people, so they like to keep they're ships super humid Also, f*ck Disney. They ruined star wars... except the mandalorian. That was good

They can strap the prisoners into the outside pods.

The Empire mostly uses cheap units because they're spread thin. They have 70 million worlds, not counting the billions of young, barren, mineral-rich worlds they have from the Mining Guild. So of course, most of their army will just have enough to get the job done. There are elite units there, spread amongst the cannon fodder. TIE Defenders and TIE Hunters have energy shields, hyperdrives, proton torpedoes, and ion cannons, but they're expensive, so they're saved for veteran pilots or commando units. There are power-armored elite units like Dark Troopers, Hazard Troopers, Zero-G Stormtroopers, but again, such power armor isn't cheap, so they're saved for the real chads of the Imperial forces who deserve such armor. Stormtrooper commanders even have energy shields and handheld blaster cannons, and they're accompanied by elite Shadow Stormtroopers who have cloaking devices, rapid-fire blasters, and thicker armor. Later on, they even developed Dark Jedi Shadowtroopers, who have lightsaber-proof armor and were imbued with the power of the Force and trained to use lightsabers. But again, those guys are elites among the Empire, akin to Space Marines in 40K.

"horrific concept" is just usual thing for ussr and successors

Can't wait for the tie fighter

This thing makes me think of a glorifed cattle car for some reason.

The best explanation I have for Stormtrooper armor is that its not about making sure the trooper is still standing after a hit, but that he survives. Since stormtroopers are supposed to be outnumbering their enemies and the rebels needing to flee even if they are victorious you cab pick up the downed soldiers afterwards, heal them up and send them back in. It helps the recycling process and also helps the soldiers in their almost suicidal attacks. You might get hurt, but as long as you and your friends did your part you can be saved. It also helps in maintaining the skill of your soldiers since you dont have to throw fresh recruits into the mix. And yes, stormtroopers in the original trilogy were *incredible* marksmen. The opening scene in A New Hope sees them take a chokepoint against overwhelming odds with fewer people and casualties than their opponents. Obi-wan says they are accurate and they were ordered to miss on the Death Star and Cloud City. Seeing their guns being semi-auto and their accuracy rate far outperforming that of modern militaries just makes them that much scarier.

Reminds me of a GI Joe toy.

Interesting....@8:31 you just described the subjugation control of most, if not all, governments on this planet! (including the US)!