The TIE Defender is an advanced TIE model employing shields and a hyperdrive. This 10-meter starfighter took the stability and agility of the TIE Interceptor's bent-wing design and added a third bent-wing to it. Not much is known about the TIE/de, as it was never fully accepted in battle and never mass-produced.

The TIE Defender was used to defeat the traitor Admiral Zaarin, although the missions were so secret that very few Imperial officials were unaware of its role. The TIE Defender was produced at a cost of over 300,000 credits per fighter - about five times the cost of a TIE/ln. This, plus the political upheaval created by the Battle of Endor and the fact that it had an aft blindspot created by the wing placement, led to the demise of the TIE Defender as a widely-accepted starfighter.