«'346. It's fast, powerful, and maneuverable, but it gets almost as many of our pilots killed as it kills enemies.»
―Anonymous Drijoken pilot
The JA-346 starfighter was a small starfighter in the service of the Eniam Air-Space Corps. Its intials stood for Jraklahjukluck Anklukkohklukken, literally "spacefighter".
JA-346s were designed as light interceptors that were only to be extensions of capital ships, they had no hyperdrive and limited life support. The ships were wide arrowhead-shaped, and had one large engine in the rear center. The engine was framed by horizontal fins that helped in atmospheric control and stability and helped disperse excess heat.
They used amazing cutting-edge Drijoken power generators. As a result, they were fast, well armed, had powerful lasers. Very light and maneuverable, they had no shields, little armor, and their wing-mounted cannons were attached to exposed power generators. Two or three laser cannon, blaster cannon, or Yaret-Kor hits to most areas would puncture, and one shot to the power generators or up the engine would often cause the ship to explode.
They were difficult targets, but because of these weaknesses, it developed a bad reputation among Eniameneine pilots. Pressure put on ENE resulted in the development of the JA-347 starfighter. This successor to the JA-346 was larger and less maneuverable, but showed far more respect for the life of the pilot.
When the JA-347 entered full production, the JA-346 was discontinued. Fortunately for ENE, it was discovered that 346s could be upgraded to 347s quite easily, without having to build an entire new starfighter. Also, some JA-346s were refitted with droid brains to become 1JD-1 droid starfighters, the first Eniam droid starfighters.
Behind the scenes[]
JA-346 concept art.