Skystrike Academy The Skystrike Academy also known as Skystrike Flight Academy was an elite flight academy — located in the atmosphere of Montross — that was part of the Galactic Empire ' s military training program . Some time before the Battle of Yavin , Imperial cadet s Wedge Antilles and Hobbie defected from the Academy , with help from Sabine Wren , to join the early rebellion against the Empire . History . The Skystrike Academy was an elite starfighter academy during the Age of the Empire . It was located on the planet Montross . Under the administration of Instructor Goran and Captain Vult Skerris , the Academy had a reputation for producing some of the best TIE fighter pilot s in the Imperial Navy . Goran was determined that only the best Imperial cadet s would graduate as pilot s at his Academy . During the early Age of the Empire , the - then Lieutenant Thrawn convinced Commandant Deenlark of the Royal Imperial Academy to transfer three troublesome cadets including Gimm to the Skystrike Academy . Deenlark was unwilling to discipline the cadets due to their connections to powerful Coruscanti families . Instead , Thrawn managed to convince Deenlark that transferring the troublesome cadets would convince their co - conspirators Spenc Orbar and Rosita Turuy to behave themselves . Thrawn also believed that the assailants had the aptitude and coordination that would make them excellent starfighter pilots . This ploy worked and Thrawn and his friend Eli Vanto encountered no further problems with Orbay and Turuy . Gimm later became a skilled TIE fighter pilot and mistakenly believed that he had outwitted Thrawn . Two years before the Battle of Yavin , three cadet s Wedge Antilles , Derek Klivian , and Rake Gahree became disillusioned with the Galactic Empire ' s policies and conduct including the shooting of unarmed enemy transport s that had surrendered . Antilles sent a transmission to the rebellion through the auspices of Fulcrum , who was secretly Agent Kallus of the Imperial Security Bureau . The Phoenix rebel cell intercepted Fulcrum ' s message and assigned the former Imperial cadet and Mandalorian weapons expert Sabine Wren the task of infiltrating the Academy and extracting the defectors . After infiltrating the Academy , Wren managed to make contact with Antilles . She told him and his friends , Klivian and Gahree , to be ready to leave at a moment ' s notice . Wren ' s mission was complicated when Governor Arihnda Pryce and Agent Kallus arrived at the Skystrike Academy to investigate rumors that some cadets were planning to defect to the rebellion . Kallus ' investigation disrupted the Academy ' s operations but yielded no results . In response , Pryce and Goran set a trap which involved sending all the cadets out on a mock combat exercise in order to draw the defectors out of hiding . Pryce ' s plan worked when Wren took the chance to escape and arranged for her rebel comrades Ezra Bridger and Kanan Jarrus to rendezvous their CR90 corvette near Montross . Wren and the three defectors tried to fly their TIE fighters to the rebel corvette . However , Pryce disabled their solar collector panels ; leaving them stranded in space . Captain Skerris then destroyed Gahree ' s fighter before driving the rebel ship into hyperspace . Antilles and Klivian were detained while Wren was interrogated by Pryce . However , Wren fought back and rendered Pryce unconscious . Wren freed the two remaining defectors and escaped in a TIE bomber with the help of Kallus , who respected the Mandalorian ' s Lasat friend Garazeb Orrelios . Skerris pursued the trio in his TIE interceptor and although he inflicted damage on their bomber , the rebels managed to escape when Bridger returned in his rebel corvette . As a result of Wren ' s successful mission , the rebellion gained two starfighter pilots . Curriculum and organization . The Skystrike Academy was an elite starfighter academy with a grueling curriculum . Only a minority of candidates passed its rigorous program which was designed to produce the best TIE fighter pilots . All cadets wore black TIE fighter pilot uniforms and helmets . The Academy ' s curriculum consisted of simulator pod s which were used to simulate combat exercises and mock starfighter battles . Two known instructors were Instructor Goran and Captain Vult Skerris . Goran supervised training exercises while Skerris was also known to participate in the simulated exercises as an enemy starship . Campus . The Skystrike Academy was a space station that floated in the gassy upper atmosphere of the planet Montross . It was only accessible by starship . The Skystrike Academy also had holding cells for rebellious cadets and multiple hangar bays that could host TIE fighters , TIE bombers , and Imperial landing craft . Cadets slept on bunks in dormitories . Behind the scenes . The Skystrike Academy first appeared in the " Star Wars Rebels " episode " The Antilles Extraction " , which premiered on Disney XD on October 8 , 2016 .