Popular during the Thrawn uprising, the Scimitar is named after the Scimitar Assault Wing, one of the most highly decorated ground assault units in the Empire, who are reportedly responsible for it's design. The Scimitar, though using only a single ion engine, is still faster than the TIE Bomber by more than a quarter. The pilot has been joined by a bombadier/co-pilot, and both are housed in a detachable cockpit module which has it's own life support and power supply, increasing crew survivability. The Scimitar adds a repulsorlift engine, and is specifically intended to support ground forces and attack surface targets, rather than space assaults. It has a similar weapons load to the TIE Bomber, but uses a simpler weapons mount. The entire underside of the fuselage may be opened for weapons release, and the drum is driven from a center mounted spindle, rather than the overly complicated, end-mounted gears of the Bomber. This entire system may be lowered free, allowing the weapons drum to be slid off of the spindle, improving the speed of reloading, and allowing a single Scimitar to function as a scout ship with a target designator and defensive jammers mounted on a special drum. While the Assault Bomber is the only Scimitar to have been placed into production, an escort fighter, an interceptor and a heavy bomber have all been designed based on this model.