Artillery stormtrooper

The artillery stormtrooper, also known as the Mortar Stormtrooper, mortar troopers, or shell trooper, was a stormtrooper variant within the Galactic Empire's military which were skilled with indirect fire weapons. Equipped with explosive loaded backpacks, some used Model 201 mortars, including one trooper who fought on the planet Tython following the Empire's fall as part of an Imperial remnant.

Description[]

ArtilleryTrooper-TMH — An mortar trooper setting up a Model 201 mortar system.

Artillery stormtroopers,^[3] also referred to as Mortar Stormtroopers or shell troopers,^[4] were a variant of stormtrooper in the Galactic Empire that specialized in indirect fire weapons such as mortars while in the battlefield. They launched explosives of different types at a high angle to fall at precisely calculated coordinates from cover.^[2]

The stormtrooper was equipped with standard stormtrooper armor, albeit with yellow markings,^[3] identically arranged to the red markings of the incinerator troopers,^[5] which denoted their specialization. Additional equipment which differentiated their kind included a yellow pauldron and a military backpack which carried ammunition^[3] like C-25 fragmentation grenades.^[6] One weapon used by the artillery stormtrooper was a collapsible Merr-Sonn Munitions Model 201 mortar.^[3]

History[]

Artillery stormtroopers served in the Empire's military.^[2] During the era of the New Republic, following the demise of the larger Empire,^[7] at least one of the troopers remained in one of its remnants, which was led by Moff Gideon.^[1] In 9 ABY,^[8] the mortar trooper was deployed on the planet Tython as part of an effort to capture the Force-sensitive infant Grogu from the hands of the Mandalorian Din Djarin.^[1]

ArtilleryStormtrooper-TMCh14 — An artillery stormtrooper loads a mortar into a launcher on Tython.

Part of a unit of stormtroopers, the trooper set up their Model 201 mortar system while the other troops advanced up a hillside, under attack from the assassin Fennec Shand and the bounty hunter Boba Fett. The artillery trooper then fired on Shand's position, soon backed by an E-Web heavy repeating blaster cannon. One of the mortar's shells partially dislodged a rock near Shand. Taking advantage of it, the assassin pushed the rock down the hill, which trampled several stormtroopers and the E-Web emplacement. The stormtrooper forces were ultimately forced to retreat, and their transports were down by a rocket fired by Fett.^[1]

The Hunter Sentinel, who had abandoned the Empire but adopted a pro-Imperial persona on stage at the Hunters of the Outer Rim,^[9] had a suit of artillery stormtrooper armor he could wear in matches.^[10]

Behind the scenes[]

The artillery stormtrooper was first mentioned on its official product page as "Mortar Stromtrooper." This article assumes that the title was a misspelling of "Mortar Stormtrooper."^[11] The trooper variant first appeared in "Chapter 14: The Tragedy" of the live-action Disney+ series The Mandalorian, which was directed by Robert Rodriguez^[1] and aired on December 4, 2020.^[12] The variant's name was identified in its Databank entry.^[2]