Transport ships at Endor

[Coriolis]

I was watching ROTJ, and I noticed that there were transport ships in the fleet attacking the DSII (like the ones from TESB). I didn't notice any noticeable external weaponry, so I wondered what their purpose was? Why would the Rebels send in lightly or unarmed transports/freighters into battle?
Are they ramships or kamikazes?

[Mange]

I was watching ROTJ, and I noticed that there were transport ships in the fleet attacking the DSII (like the ones from TESB). I didn't notice any noticeable external weaponry, so I wondered what their purpose was? Why would the Rebels send in lightly or unarmed transports/freighters into battle?
Are they ramships or kamikazes?

Well, according the ROTJ novelization, they were loaded with explosives and were to ram Imperial vessels.

[Kanastrous]

Perhaps some of them could have been ECM (or the SW equivalent of ECM) platforms, too.

I was puzzled by the Hospital Frigate being sent into the fight. The Impys don't impress me as the sort to spare a hospital ship, just because it's a non-combatant vessel...or maybe it stayed a safe distance from Endor while the fight was on.

[Stark]

Haven't you played the games? The rebels had like 87,000,000 ships of that configuration.

[Coriolis]

Haven't you played the games? The rebels had like 87,000,000 ships of that configuration.

No not really. The most I played was Rogue Squadron _ (I forgot which one it was) and Shadow of the Empire for N64. I knew they had a shitload of those transports, just not why they had them at Endor.

[Stark]

I was poking fun at Kanastrous, as the games make out like the 'Nebulon-B' is a standard light warship, of which the rebels have a near-infinite supply, rather than exclusively medical ships.

[lord Martiya]

The Nebulon-B class frigate is technically an escort ship for combat with starfighters and light capital ship, in standard design. The Rebels love this Imperial design, and they capture it every time they can.

[Isolder74]

Perhaps some of them could have been ECM (or the SW equivalent of ECM) platforms, too.

I was puzzled by the Hospital Frigate being sent into the fight. The Impys don't impress me as the sort to spare a hospital ship, just because it's a non-combatant vessel...or maybe it stayed a safe distance from Endor while the fight was on.

Perhaps it was present to serve as a Hospital for wounded after the battle?

Having it as part of the fleet but not in the main lines of battle means that after the battle that it is availble for quick transfer of wounded to it for treatment. Remember they were not expecting to find a major Imperial ship presence in the area. The ram ships might have been enough to deal with the minimal ships guarding the Death Star that the Tydirian encountered.

[Publius]

I was puzzled by the Hospital Frigate being sent into the fight. The Impys don't impress me as the sort to spare a hospital ship, just because it's a non-combatant vessel...or maybe it stayed a safe distance from Endor while the fight was on.

The medical frigate was deployed in the battle precisely because she was a combatant. A hospital ship is by definition unarmed; she cannot possibly be a frigate, because a frigate is a warship. A frigate is armed; an armed ship cannot be a hospital ship. The medical frigate, therefore, is neither a hospital ship nor a non-combatant.

See the real-life example of RFA Argus, which has a modest armament of four 20mm GAMBOs and four 7.62mm machine guns. This is enough to disqualify her as a hospital ship, which is why she is classified as a primary casualty receiving ship instead. It is, however, not remotely sufficient to qualify her as a surface combatant; in comparison, the Type 23 frigate has two Harpoon missile launchers, nearly three dozen Sea Wolfs, a 114mm Vickers gun, two Oerlikon 30mm guns, and four torpedo tubes.

The fact that the medical frigate is a frigate means she is a space combatant, not a support ship. She is certainly no hospital ship.

[Almightyboredone]

Mabye they packed the insides with a lot of shield generators (even the rebels should be able to find a lot of low-grade ones, right?) and planned for them to soak up abuse so as to buy time for the other ships to get close to the DSII?

[Cykeisme]

Mabye they packed the insides with a lot of shield generators (even the rebels should be able to find a lot of low-grade ones, right?) and planned for them to soak up abuse so as to buy time for the other ships to get close to the DSII?

It's not quite that simple. A shield generator has to be mounted securely on a ship's superstructure, because the momentum from weapon impacts is transferred to the mounting point. Otherwise when the shields are pounded by enemy fire, the ship would be torn apart even without the shields themselves failing!
A combat-effective shield generator has to be designed into the ship from the start.

As stated, they're most likely ramships or ECM broadcast platforms.

[Molyneux]

Mabye they packed the insides with a lot of shield generators (even the rebels should be able to find a lot of low-grade ones, right?) and planned for them to soak up abuse so as to buy time for the other ships to get close to the DSII?

It's not quite that simple. A shield generator has to be mounted securely on a ship's superstructure, because the momentum from weapon impacts is transferred to the mounting point. Otherwise when the shields are pounded by enemy fire, the ship would be torn apart even without the shields themselves failing!
A combat-effective shield generator has to be designed into the ship from the start.

As stated, they're most likely ramships or ECM broadcast platforms.

How about ammunition resupply ships, for fighters? In a prolonged battle, I'd think that would be helpful for the large bombers...

[Coriolis]

Mabye they packed the insides with a lot of shield generators (even the rebels should be able to find a lot of low-grade ones, right?) and planned for them to soak up abuse so as to buy time for the other ships to get close to the DSII?

It's not quite that simple. A shield generator has to be mounted securely on a ship's superstructure, because the momentum from weapon impacts is transferred to the mounting point. Otherwise when the shields are pounded by enemy fire, the ship would be torn apart even without the shields themselves failing!
A combat-effective shield generator has to be designed into the ship from the start.

As stated, they're most likely ramships or ECM broadcast platforms.

How about ammunition resupply ships, for fighters? In a prolonged battle, I'd think that would be helpful for the large bombers...

That's too much of a hassle though. Loading all the munitions from the transports onto a cruiser (b/c from the looks of it, the transport ships don't have docking mechanisms) in order to resupply them.