Coastal defender stormtrooper

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Sources

Bounty Hunters 29, Bounty Hunters 30, Chapter 15: The Believer, Star Wars: The Rebel Files, Dawn of Rebellion, "Imperial Troops" — Star Wars Encyclopedia'

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Coastal defender stormtroopers—more commonly known as shoretroopers^[1] and also known as the coastal guard,^[10] with those stationed on the planet Scarif referred to as Scarif stormtroopers^[11]—were a specialized variant of the Galactic Empire's stormtroopers trained and equipped for combat in tropical environments.^[2] Organized into the Coastal Defense Division,^[9] shoretroopers operated under the command of sergeants, leading squads of regular stormtroopers. One of the notable aspects of coastal defender stormtroopers was that the position they served in was temporary and subject to change along with their rank. On a galactic scale, shoretroopers as a whole were scarce, as the conditions for necessitating their employment were few and far between, as few stations or garrisons were located on coastal/tropical planets.^[1]

History[]

Imperial Era[]

BustCollection9-Scarif-Troopers — Shoretroopers and stormtroopers fight against the rebel incursion on Scarif.

Many coastal defender stormtroopers were stationed at the top secret Imperial security complex on the tropical planet Scarif, where they patrolled the beaches and bunkers of the facility.^[6] Del Meeko, later a member of Inferno Squad, served as a shoretrooper on Scarif prior to becoming a TIE fighter pilot.^[12] In 1 BBY,^[13] shoretroopers participated in the Battle of Scarif against the Rebel Alliance, where many of them were killed when the Death Star blew up the Imperial security complex to wipe out the remaining Rebels.^[14]

Around 0 ABY,^[13] shoretroopers came into conflict with Rebel leaders Leia Organa and Luke Skywalker after they crashed on an ocean planet.^[7]

New Republic Era[]

During the New Republic Era, shoretroopers served among the grouping of Imperial remnants based on the planet Morak, where they worked to defend an Imperial refinery from insurgent and rebel attacks in 9 ABY.^[8]

During the Cold War between the Resistance and the First Order, Agent Terex of the First Order Security Bureau had possession of a shoretrooper helmet aboard the Carrion Spike that was displayed next to the helmets of an Imperial Royal Guard, an AT-AT pilot, a death trooper, and others, along with a custom set of armor.^[15] The First Order military also fielded mountain troopers who wore armor that resembled that of the Imperial shoretroopers.^[16]^[14]

Armor and equipment[]

Shoretrooper Squad Leader - Hasbro — A shoretrooper squad leader

Shoretroopers wielded both the E-11 medium blaster rifle and the upgraded E-22 reciprocating double-barreled blaster rifle while stationed on Scarif.^[17] They also carried a C-25 fragmentation grenade, a highly explosive grenade that was used to destroy SW-0608, an Imperial cargo shuttle the Rogue One team used to bypass the Empire's Shield Gate in orbit over the world.^[14] Other equipment used by shoretroopers included zap rods^[18] and the E-11P blaster, a type of blaster pistol with water-sealed cooling vanes, which themselves were complete with sand filters.^[19] When not in use, the pistol was worn on a holster.^[18]

There were several distinct colorations of shoretroopers, all with unique markings on their shoretrooper armor.^[3] Regular shoretroopers featured sand-colored armor, with a red band around their right arm and a white stripe around their left shoulder guard. Squad leaders were identified by a sand blue stripe that went along the top of their breastplates and onto the top of their shoulder guards. Squad leaders also sported a kama attached to their belt.^[20] Shoretrooper captains had almost all of their breastplates blue, along with a small plate of armor that was on their left side. Their right shoulder guard was sand colored, but their left shoulder guard was all sand blue, save for the white stripe. Further down the same arm were stripes of sand blue and yellow. They also had limited or no upper leg armor, similar to scout troopers.^[21]

BeachWarfare-2015StarWars33 — Shoretroopers involved in a coastal operation

Another variant of shoretrooper armor came with the shoretrooper snipers, whose armor featured red accents and were deployed as snipers.^[3] Heavy Shoretroopers, meanwhile, wielded heavy weaponry and were equipped with extra ammo.^[2] On Niamos, a shoretrooper coloration variant existed in 5 BBY. This shoretrooper variant could also be seen with a white line going across their upper breastplate, a red band on their lower-right arm, a bag on their upper-right leg, and white shoulder armor, the left of which had two black stripes across it. Shoretroopers guarding the Niamos Courthouse used zap rods as well as the E-11P blaster and featured a white band with two black lines on the edges on their upper-left arm, and a red band on their lower-right arm.^[5]

Behind the scenes[]

The first footage of the shoretrooper was shown in the teaser trailer for the Star Wars standalone film Rogue One: A Star Wars Story, on April 7, 2016.^[22] The shoretroopers were identified by name in the third episode of The Star Wars Show on May 25, 2016.^[23]

According to Production Designer Doug Chiang: "Glyn [Dillon] actually modeled the color scheme on the [WWII fighter] Messerschmitt, where the base color that was sort of tannish, but then it had patches of this blue and orange that were so elegant. Again, it makes that reinforcement of connecting it with something that we know from history, it makes that connection to Episode IV, which was World War II technology, vehicles, and colorations. So the shoretrooper, I think, is a wonderful blend of all those requirements into something new."^[24]