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Early in the Galactic Empire, Clone Wars era armaments remain in use as new Imperial era technologies are slowly rolled out to replace the last relics of the Republic power. Known parts of the transition can be outlined as follows:

  • Clone Trooper -> Stormtrooper
  • AT-RT -> AT-ST
  • AT-TE -> AT-AT
  • V-Wing, Actis Interceptor, ARC-170 -> TIE Fighter, TIE Interceptor
  • Y-Wing -> TIE Bomber
  • Venator Star Destroyer -> Imperial Star Destroyer
  • LAAT/i -> Sentinel-Class Shuttle

(Original question paragraph here deleted. Please see the reworded version below.)

Edit: To clarify, I don't want to know when each Imperial military weapon replaced its older Republic version just for the sake of it. The primary question is when did Imperial-era military technology replace their Republic counterparts? To quote a 501st stormtrooper:

Armed with deadly new weapons, blazing new ships, and shiny new armor, our presence let the galaxy know that the days of the Old Republic were well and truly over.

When did the Galactic Empire complete its transition to "deadly new weapons, blazing new ships, and shiny new armor"? That is the real question, and phrased this way that would be a valid singular question without needing to be split up.

But the answer would still be too broad at this point: There are a lot of Republic tech whose replacement is ambiguous/unidentified (what replaced the SPHA-T?) or they remained active and never retired (at least one Juggernaut served during the Battle of Hoth in canon). So the above bullet list serves to set boundaries on the scope to be addressed when answering the main question. If I split this question weapon by weapon, it'll be fragmenting my actual, main question by too much and scattering its answer to the winds.

So, I guess I should at least rephrase the question: Using the above list as the sole representation of the Galactic Empire's military's transition from Republic era weapons to Imperial era weapons, when in canon did the Empire conduct and complete this transition?

The answer should be based on when the Imperial weapons entered service and the Republic weapons fully retired. Where that is not possible, the answer should state when the weapon in question first/last saw action under Imperial usage (esp. for tech retained by the Rebellion such as the Y-Wing and the LAAT/i - Rebel usage doesn't count).

thegreatjedi
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  • We see AT-STs in Rebels. – phantom42 Jan 26 '16 at 14:05
  • This is perhaps a bit broad, and it might be worth splitting up these into multiple questions. The answer to the Star Destroyer part is here: http://scifi.stackexchange.com/q/107965/31936. – Null Jan 26 '16 at 14:34
  • @Null It doesn't match the VTC reason for broadness: "There are either too many possible answers, or good answers would be too long for this format." Under complete knowledge of existing lore, there's only one set of answers: Nine for Republic weapons, eight for Imperial, with likely many overlaps (eg. clone trooper & stormtrooper), and there can only be one correct answer for each value: If we know when it started/ended service, that's the answer. Failing which, the answer is the first/last known use by the Empire. Failing which, the answer is simply "idk". Neither VTC conditions are met. – thegreatjedi Jan 26 '16 at 15:10
  • And if you read the title, each bullet point belongs to the same theme, Splitting the question further would be too fragmented when it comes to questions on the subject of the Republic's transition to the Empire. – thegreatjedi Jan 26 '16 at 15:13
  • I guess you missed the fact that I didn't actually VTC. My suggestion is based on the fact that if the answer to each bullet point is as long as the answer to my linked question (just one of your seven points), then good answers might be "too long for this format". – Null Jan 26 '16 at 15:16
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    there are 9 listed, but what if i only know the answer to one (as is my case)? it opens the door to incomplete answers. too broad is a very valid close reason here. – phantom42 Jan 26 '16 at 15:23
  • @Null I know there's no VTC, but I wanted to disagree on the need to split by counterarguing based on the community definition of "too broad". As for the linked question: The one-line short answer is all that is needed honestly. Even if you substantiate on it, 80-90% of the long answer is actually irrelevant. So to me, I feel that a good answer - concise, fully relevant, well-organised - will not be long at all. – thegreatjedi Jan 26 '16 at 17:16

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The new tech appeared not all at the same time, the Clone Wars tech ruled over in the Empire for at least a decade before starting to lose ground to the new Imperial ships. The 501st legion was using the most advanced tech before other legions.

Stormtrooper: The first thing the Empire replaced was the Phase II armor, starting around mid-18 BBY until 17 BBY, the first imperial legion to use the stormtrooper armor was the 501st legion in the Naboo uprising, until 18 BBY Phase II clone armor was the norm, so the transition took several months putting the last Phase II armor replacements at 17 BBY.

Republic fighters\ships: Around 12 BBY the Clone Wars ships\fighters start being replaced by the TIE Fighter, as well the Venators, although the Republic-era fighters would continue to be used as main until 6-5 BBY where the majority of the fighters were replaced and reduced to a small role in the navy.

Although ARC 170 were no longer the bulk of the Imperial navy, the fighters continued to serve in a limited number as heavy fighters, same for the Venators that were mostly assigned to outer rim worlds patrol or used as training grounds.

Republic vehicles (AT-TE, AT-RT, LAAT): These vehicles lasted longer than the Phase II armor and they were used a lot, but less than fighters and ships, they were replaced pretty early, around 15-14 BBY but they didn't dissapear completely, as they were used in the Empire in minor operations.

The Empire replaced this tech not because it was outdated, but because these vehicles\ships recalled to the Republic. The SPMA replaced the SPHA-T while the Imperial HAVt B5 Juggernaut replaced the Republican HAVw A6 Juggernaut.

Obsidia
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Porber
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