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I'm just wondering if the Sentinal class shuttle or the imp landing craft has taken the place of the Republic Gunship?

any thoughts on this?

The impression (and it is only an impression) that I get from looking at the Landing Craft is that it's sleek, fast, carries a reasonable payload and is intended to land in unopposed LZs; making it the equivalent of today's V-22 or CH-53.
The Gunship seemed to be a more combat orientated design; carrying only a squad of troops, it routinely carried armament to provide direct support to ground forces on the fly. Reminding me of say, the UH-1, or the Mi-24.
The Imperials do have another ship-to-surface assault vehicle in the Dropship. Little seems to have been said about this ship, but it does seem to be armed and armoured; maybe it's the descendant of the Gunship.
I dunno, I'm just speculating wildly.

I have to agree with radio the Sentinal does not apear to be designed for heavy combat.

In my opinion, the sentinel is more of a transport than a fighting craft. And unlike the gunship, it's enclosed and can fly in space.

from all sources it a very heavy arm drop ship:

Forward Retractable Double Laser Cannons (Fire-Linked) [Total of 8 cannons]
2 Concussion Missile Launchers (8 Missiles each [Fire-Linked])
1 Retractable Turreted Ion Cannon
2 Turreted Repeating Blasters (Used when deploying troops)
Along with the abilities to carry 54 troopers and their gear

And has more power shield and armor than most Shuttle vessel.

this is the Black hawk of the SW universe..

Given that much of the Imperial fleet can not enter an atmosphere to launch gunship, and building a much larger transporter to take them down would be impratical in most cases the Sentinal seems pretty logical.

It's larger but has nearly twice the troop capacity and retains an impressive armament, while it can also launch from orbit and may have its own hyperdrive. I cant recall.

I don't know about that Skimmer, the have huge landing barges for there armored units (AT-AT's, etc.). Really though the TIE's are all the support they need.