Cannon sled

The cannon sled was a small ground vehicle used by the Rebel Alliance during the Galactic Civil War.^[2]

History

A cannon sled (left) next to several snowspeeders.

During the Battle of Hoth between the Rebel Alliance and the Galactic Empire, several cannon sleds were present, with at least one on the front lines and another in a hangar.^[2]

Some of the craft had LC-10bW laser ice-cutters mounted to them and were used by the Rebel Alliance Corps of Engineers, alongside excavator machinery, to carve out space inside the caves of Echo Base.^[1]

Luke Skywalker manned such a craft inside Echo Base.^[3]

Behind the scenes

The vehicle appeared, unnamed, in Star Wars: Episode V The Empire Strikes Back. In the film, one is briefly visible in the left corner of the frame when Han Solo rides into a hangar at the beginning of The Empire Strikes Back, and can be briefly glimpsed near the Rebel defenses outside of the base.^[2]

The original blueprints for the prop show its production name was "cannon sled". The Star Wars: The Blueprints book indicates the vehicle was mounted on a sled towed by an Aktiv Fischer Snow Trac vehicle.^[4] On set footage of the vehicle was included in the rarely seen documentary by Michel Parbot, The Making of "The Empire Strikes Back".^[5] There were a number of publicity photos of Luke Skywalker manning a turret on the vehicle which, according to Lucasfilm Story Group executive Pablo Hidalgo, were not deleted scenes but rather on-set photos taken with the prop.^[6]

The 2005 reference book Inside the Worlds of Star Wars Trilogy identifies the laser ice-cutter on top of the cannon sled^[1], while 2010's Star Wars Blueprints: Rebel Edition refers to it as the LC-10bW.^[7]

A vehicle resembling the cannon sled was featured in 8083 Rebel Trooper Battle Pack, a LEGO Star Wars battle pack that included several Hoth Rebel Troopers, along with dual flick firing rocket launchers. The vehicle was later added to the LEGO Star Wars: Microfighters video game.