Ion cannon / Legends An ion cannon was a weapon which fired highly ionized particles or highly ionized plasma . Description . Ion cannons fired particles that seriously interfered with the operation of electronics and computer systems , shorting circuits and often disabling them outright , in much the same manner as an electromagnetic pulse . The actual physical damage would sometimes result in fused joints on machines , due to the heat produced . Ion cannons can also be used to either slow down malfunctioning door shutters or otherwise disable shield generators , as evidenced by the Fondor shipyard assault and the Battle of Dubrillion , respectively . Large negative - ion pulses were charged in a turbine generator then channeled into a plasma charge or released as a large pulse towards a target . As a result , ion cannons were the weapon of choice for subduing , rather than destroying , enemy starships , vehicles , shields , or droids . There were many types of ion cannons , including ground - based like the N - K7 , planet - based cannons such as the one at Echo Base , and starship - mounted ion cannons such as the one on the " Malevolence " not to mention walker based AT - IC cannon . The ion cannon was not without its weaknesses , however . For instance , they " weren ' t known … for tight - beam accuracy , " to the point that a ground - based ion cannon might hit the defender ' s own battle stations as well as its intended targets . Moreover , on capital ships , there would be crewmen that could repair any damage done , which would allow the vessel to continue fighting . History . They were often used on capital ships , such as Star Destroyers , to facilitate the capture of enemy vessels or disabling them to allow safe close - range fire . They also helped to drop shields prior to destroying enemy vessels . Fighters such as the B - wing , Y - wing , TIE / D Defender , TIE Hunter and the Razor fighter in some cases , were also equipped with ion cannons , of much smaller size . Ships owned by bounty hunters were sometimes modified to use ion cannons , such as Boba Fett ' s " Slave I " . A more powerful form of the ion cannon , the massive ion pulse cannon , was used in the Clone Wars , mounted on the CIS ship , the " Malevolence " . It was capable of disabling " Venator " - class Star Destroyers and could stop entire fleets in their tracks with a single shot . The weapon overloaded near the Balmorra Run thanks to the efforts of Anakin Skywalker , Ahsoka Tano , and Master Plo Koon . The " Malevolence " s sister ship , the " Devastation " , was even larger and more powerful than the " Malevolence " . The ship ' s ion cannons were as powerful as a shot from the Death Star ' s Superlaser , and could destroy any capital ship or even a planet . The reason they were so powerful is that the " Devastation " s pair of ion cannons and the Death Star ' s Superlaser ran on the same type of power source : Force crystal s . They could also be planet - based weapons , as seen in the Battle of Hoth , where the Rebel Alliance used a stolen v - 150 Planet Defender to disable the Star Destroyer " Tyrant " , allowing a transport to escape through the Imperial blockade . However , there are certain types of ion cannons which are meant to do more physical damage with electrical disruption as a plus . These types of ion cannon , however , have the drawback of low firing rate and are often just replaced with heavy turbolasers . One type of ion cannon was the v - 200 ion cannon , used to break through shielding and bring down heavily armored vehicles . There was also a specialized version for taking down the heavily armored spacetroopers . The Galactic Empire also experimented with ion cannons by modifying AT - ATs to become All Terrain Ion Cannon s , or AT - ICs , effectively creating a mobile ion cannon . The AT - ICs saw limited action during the Galactic Civil War . Behind the scenes . Due to their unique mission profile as a disabling weapon , ion cannons have been popular in franchise video games , particularly the " " and " " series . Ion cannons play a significant role in starfighter combat in these games , in contrast to the films where starfighters are never seen to fire ion weapons . In the " X - Wing " series , a few seconds of sustained fire from a single fighter ' s ion cannons can permanently disable any capital ship that has lost shields , while it might take several minutes to destroy the same ship using lasers . In another departure from the movie appearance , the discharge of an ion blast was colored cerulean blue in both series ( all of which predate the blue laser bolts seen in ) . Despite the real - world physics of spaceflight , disabling a craft with ion cannons in the " X - wing " series of games had the effect of stopping it dead in space rather than simply crippling its flight control system . Contradictorily , the use of a Y - wing starfighter ' s ion cannons to disable Kasan Moor ' s TIE / IN interceptor just above the surface of Gerrard V in a cutscene appeared to disable the Imperial craft ' s flight control systems , but not its engine system , resulting in the interceptor flying in a straight line without being able to deviate from its course .