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In several places, including here, it is mentioned that X-Wings are an iconic image of the Rebel Alliance.

Did any unaffiliated faction ever regularly fly X-Wings? By unaffiliated, I mean factions other than the following:

  • Rebel Alliance
  • New Republic
  • Resistance

For example, did any pirate factions regularly fly X-Wings? Independent planetary militias? Any X-Wing flying Bounty Hunters? Did Jabba have a squadron of X-Wings tucked away somewhere?

Stolen X-Wings count if the stolen X-Wings were incorporated into the faction's star fleet and flown regularly. One or two stolen fighters used on special missions don't count. For example, if a downed Imperial TIE Fighter pilot stole a Rebel X-Wing in order to escape Hoth and make it back to his carrier so he could continue to fly TIE Fighters, that doesn't count. If he was allowed to keep it and fly it regularly as his assigned fighter until it was so worn out or damaged that Imperial mechanics couldn't repair it anymore, it can count.

For purposes of this question, "X-Wing" means T-65 and T-70 craft, as well as any obviously substantially similar craft. The ARC-170 doesn't count.

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    In Legends, only the Rebellion had X-Wings. That's because X-Wings were created by a team of Incom engineers who stole all prototypes and schematics and defected to the Rebellion. In new canon, they just sort of pop out of nowhere, and aside from Rebellion veterans, I can't think of anyone who flies an X-Wing.
    – Petersaber
    Commented Apr 11, 2018 at 13:52
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    Given the intentionally "distressed" appearance given to the rebel spacecraft, it stands to reason that they ought to have been old, well used military hardware.
    – Buzz
    Commented Apr 11, 2018 at 22:06
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    Technically, Luke Skywalker "left" the Rebel Alliance and "joined" the Jedi Order, at which point he occasionally helps out if it doesn't interfere with other Jedi business. It seems he kept his X-Wing in RotJ. Whether this is a good answer or not probably depends on how you view Luke's relationship with the Rebellion/New Republic after he's a Jedi.
    – Ellesedil
    Commented Apr 11, 2018 at 22:07
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    @Buzz Funnily enough, lots of of the rebel hardware (in Legends) is actually top-notch latest tech (the X-Wing, B-Wing, Mon Calamari cruisers...). Some look "clean" enough, others you could argue are a bit "dirty" because they don't get 100% maintenance and the limited technicians available need to prioritize heavily to make sure they work. Appearance is secondary.
    – Luaan
    Commented Apr 12, 2018 at 8:10
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    Come to think of it, having a really noticeable shape to ships which scream "Screw you, authority" is a really bad strategy for an organisation which has to rely on spies and subterfuge, rather than military might...
    – AJFaraday
    Commented Apr 12, 2018 at 11:00

3 Answers 3

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In Legends the X-Wing was originally designed for the Empire, Until Incom defected with the plans.

That is why it is primarily Rebellion (and offshoots) based and basically the Symbol of the Rebels.

As for non-Rebellion usage.

The Lightspeed Panthers (per Star Wars: The Essential Guide to Warfare) were a volunteer starfighter squadron that assisted the Rebellion but were not directly part of it and they flew X-Wings.

In X-Wing: The Krytos Trap, the pro-Imperial Palpatine Counterinsurgency Front has a squadron of X-Wings that were dressed up to resemble Rogue Squadron and used to try to impersonate them; unfortunately (for them) they ended up under the guns of Warlord Zsinj, who was happy to destroy them out of hand either way. It's not stated where the PCF obtained the X-Wings.

In X-Wing: The Bacta War, Ysanne Isard's fighter commander, Erisi Dlarit, tries to sell Isard on the merits of switching at least some of their squadrons from TIEs to X-Wings, which she considers to be superior fighters. She's overruled largely on the basis of Imperial nationalism; Isard thinks of the Alliance (including its fighters) as inferior and what she says, goes. Again the potential source isn't specified, but it may be worth noting that, lacking a factory for them, Isard's forces had been buying TIEs on the gray market.

Post-Galactic War X-Wing varients were used by many organizations in the galaxy that used them that were not exactly directly linked e.g. New Jedi Order and RASP.

Jedi Squadrons were formed mainly during the Yuuzhan Vong Crisis and seen in The Swarm War and through the Legacy of the Force Series and Fate of the Jedi series where they were still flying StealthX's.

RASP (Reconstruction Authority Space Patrol, aka Reconstruction Police) is a policing force that was setup by the Galactic Federation of Free Alliances post Yuuzhan Vong Crisis, mainly seen during The Swarm War and onward.

In canon, The Partisans (Saw Gerera's followers, as seen in Rogue One in the Jeddah scenes) used X-Wings also, and they were not included as part of the Rebel Alliance so that kind of fits.

It's also stated in canon that the X-Wing was is general rotation before becoming the almost exclusive fighter for the Rebellion.

Saponza from the game Star Wars: Commander was a mercenary that flew X-Wings but then joined the Rebellion. Not sure if that is pure canon.

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    Hello and welcome to SFF! This is a good answer but would be better if you could link directly to your sources i.e. not through the wikia.
    – TheLethalCarrot ♦
    Commented Apr 11, 2018 at 14:16
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    -1 As TheLethalCarrot said, primary sources are better than Wiki sources. See this Harry Potter answer for an example of when someone posted something they made up on a Wiki that everyone, including other sites, started to believe was true.
    – Thunderforge
    Commented Apr 11, 2018 at 15:12
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    I'll go back through and provide better sources.
    – Nicholas Tsaoucis
    Commented Apr 11, 2018 at 15:19
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    Cant really link the sources directly as they are books and movies mostly.
    – Nicholas Tsaoucis
    Commented Apr 11, 2018 at 15:48
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    In that case, an excerpt with the book name and page number is fine
    – DCOPTimDowd
    Commented Apr 11, 2018 at 17:28
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This is pure Legends, but in the Han Solo Trilogy, Han was captured and sent to Kessel to work the mines. When he was being attacked, a few squads of ships, including a squad entirely of X-Wings, attacked the Falcon.

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  • Good find! Do you have a quote from the book to back it up?
    – Thunderforge
    Commented Apr 11, 2018 at 15:07
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    I own the book. I'll find you that quote ASAP.
    – G Ninja
    Commented Apr 11, 2018 at 15:09
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    Wasnt that in The Jedi Academy: Jedi Search?
    – Nicholas Tsaoucis
    Commented Apr 11, 2018 at 15:21
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    Nicholas Tsaoucis yes, I went home and checked. It is actually from Jedi Search.
    – G Ninja
    Commented Apr 12, 2018 at 15:21
  • That was one of my first series of star wars books I owned, I remember the cover art really well which is why it came to me. Also setup one of my favorite characters from legends, Kyp Durren.
    – Nicholas Tsaoucis
    Commented Apr 13, 2018 at 15:39
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Yes, but not in any great numbers. For instance, Corran Horn, who was originally with the Corellian Security Force, flew a captured X-Wing on missions with Cor Sec before joining the Rebellion/New Republic.

This was mentioned in passing during dialogue during the Rogue Squadron series.

On what I thought would be my last assignment I drew an X-wing from the pool of craft we'd captured and converted to CorSec use.

This is from the first book of that series Rogue Squadron.

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