A-24 Sleuth-class scout ship

The A-24 Sleuth-class scout ship, often called simply the A-24 Sleuth, was a model of high-performance scout vessel built by the venerable Incom Corporation.

Characteristics

Designed by Incom Corporation at its peak^[1] for stealth and speed, the A-24 was a long and narrow craft, with a distinctive flat and triangular aft that housed the ship's engines, weapons, and distinctive stabilizers.^[3] Amidships, the A-24 sported a pair of canards that supported the ship's powerful sensor and communications arrays, while the forward command deck, while cramped, sported a cockpit that was offset by panoramic sheets of thick photosensitive transparisteel.^[3]

True to its role as a scout ship, the panoramic cockpit gave the pilot a nearly unobstructed view of the ship's surroundings, while the A-24's powerful Fabritech multi-role sensor suite combined active and passive sensors, optical and electronic enhancers, and a full suite of dedicated energy receptors, full-spectrum transceivers, and lifeform scanners to give the pilot a comprehensive readout and analysis of their surroundings.^[3]

Ultimately, the A-24 was renowned for being small, fast, and hard to detect - qualities that made it highly regarded as a blockade runner and getaway ship.^[4]^[6] Possessing superb speed and being highly maneuverable and agile, the A-24 was considered one of the best-in-class for a ship under twenty meters.^[5]^[6]

Routinely, the A-24 was used for scouting, spying, smuggling, and any other activity in which a small and incredibly fast ship was needed.^[6] While the A-24 came modifiable, and there was some variance in tonnage, passengers, and length, these changes were nearly always modest in nature.^[2]^[1]^[3]

History

One of the few ships that could slip past a blockade without being noticed, the A-24 was sometimes used to get important people off blockaded planets and through Imperial patrols. One A-24 was the Red Fang owned by Mol Hedron; Mol used the modified Red Fang for spying on New Republic activities, and installed a high-powered tight-beam transmitter to send nearly undetectable messages to facilitate this.^[1]