LC-10bW

The LC-10bW, or laser ice-cutter, was a laser cannon used to sheer through ice with quick precision.^[1] These cutters were used by the Rebel Alliance Corps of Engineers, alongside excavator machinery, to carve out space inside the caves of Echo Base.^[1] The cutters need careful maintenance to operate in sub-freezing temperatures.^[2]

The LC-10bWs could be mounted on tripods or vehicles^[2]. On Hoth they were mounted on cannon sled ground vehicles.^[3] Luke Skywalker once manned an ice-cutter at Echo Base.^[4]

Behind the scenes

An ice-cutter (left) mounted to a Rebel cannon sled in the hangar of Echo Base.

This device appeared, unnamed, in Star Wars: Episode V The Empire Strikes Back, where it is briefly visible in the left corner of the frame when Han Solo rides into a hangar.^[5] It is mounted on a vehicle named a "cannon sled" in original production blueprints.^[3] The vehicle, complete with the laser cutter, can be briefly glimpsed near the Rebel defenses outside of Echo Base.^[5] On set footage of the vehicle was included in the rarely seen documentary by Michel Parbot, The Making of "The Empire Strikes Back".^[6] There were a number of publicity photos of Luke Skywalker manning the laser cutter which, according to Lucasfilm Story Group executive Pablo Hidalgo, were not deleted scenes but rather on-set photos taken with the prop.^[7]

The 2005 reference book Inside the Worlds of Star Wars Trilogy seems to identify the entire cannon sled vehicle as the "laser ice-cutter,"^[1] but 2010's Star Wars Blueprints: Rebel Edition refers to the laser ice-cutter as the LC-10bW and suggests that it is only the name of the laser cannon itself, which is mounted onto the separate vehicle.^[2]