OOM pilot battle droid

The OOM pilot battle droids were designed to serve as pilots to control starships, such as the cruisers of the Confederacy navy. Pilot droids could also serve as gunners for artillery or, if they were armed with a blaster, be used as soldiers, though they were known to protest against serving in such roles.

Pilot battle droids were part of the OOM-series, a mark of the B1-series battle droid. The pilot droid's blue coloring denoted their specialist function, although standard B1s were also used aboard starship bridges. Still, pilots possessed more-advanced cognitive capabilities than the basic B1 infantry.

OOM-series battle droids were used as crews aboard Trade Federation starships. They saw use in the Federation's Lucrehulk-class Battleships during the Invasion of Naboo. After most of Naboo's blockade dispersed, the only battleship above Naboo was the Droid Control Ship Vuutun Palaa. However, all pilot droids and Neimoidians aboard were killed when Anakin Skywalker destroyed Droid Control Ship during the Battle of Naboo.

When the Trade Federation gave its Droid Army to the Confederacy of Independent Systems, OOM pilot droids saw use by the Separatists. Two OOM pilot battle droids stood by Viceroy Nute Gunray and Rune Haako as they entered a Sheathipede-class transport shuttle to escape the First Battle of Geonosis, the first battle of the Clone Wars. Once the shuttle began to take off, the pilot droids and the organic Separatists around them moved away. During the mission to sweep outer corridor of space, an OOM pilot battle droid served aboard General Grievous's Munificent-class star frigate, and the droid notably disagreed with Grievous's decision to launch all starfighters to combat Anakin Skywalker. The fighters were launched to combat the Jedi Knight, however.

During the infiltration of the Citadel, the Republic used three reprogrammed B1 battle droids, painted blue to serve as undercover pilot droids, to fly shuttle 81572 and deliver an extraction team to the Citadel prison. Ultimately, all three units sacrificed themselves to protect their Republic allies, including their commanding officer, R2-D2. As the Separatists hijacked the Venator-class Star Destroyer Renown, four OOM pilot battle droids pilot the ship on the bridge as the officer corps, as the overseer super tactical droid told the Republic droids to surrender or they will be destroyed. Two other OOM pilot battle droids are the control room above the hangar. The OOM pilot battle droids from the bridge are setting course to the space station Valor in the Carida system where the Republic strategy conference is, to blow up the Republic fleet with lots of rhydonium canisters.

OOM pilot battle droids were used by the Separatists for the entirely of the Clone Wars. They were used aboard the Invisible Hand during the Battle of Coruscant. When Anakin Skywalker and Obi-Wan Kenobi were aboard the dreadnought, General Grievous ordered for the pilots to keep working on the ship instead of trying to fight the Jedi Generals. After Grievous fled his command ship and it began to crash onto Coruscant, the pilot battle droids and Neimoidian officers on the bridge tried to flee, but several of the pilot droids were cut down by Kenobi and Skywalker. Not long afterwards, at the end of the war, Skywalker, now known as the Sith Lord Darth Vader, executed the Separatist Council and shut down all Separatist droid units.

During the Age of the Resistance, a surviving B1 battle droid named R0-GR wrote the book "droidography." Among the many droids he discussed in the book were the B1 pilot battle droids.

OOM pilot droids could use E-5 blaster rifles if they were deployed for field combat. Some units also wore comlink booster packs. On starships pilot droids worked on computers.

OOM pilot battle droids first appeared in Star Wars: Episode I The Phantom Menace, and were later identified in the novel Tarkin, written by James Luceno. In Star Wars Battlefront II, pilot droids became playable in the DLC pack called the "B1 Pilot Bundle."

In the Star Wars: The Clone Wars episode "A Necessary Bond," several OOM pilot droids are depicted as fighting with E-5 blaster rifles in the invasion of Florrum, but the next shot depicts at least two of those pilots as being regular B1 units. Still, this implied that pilot droids could be deployed to fight in surface warfare with blasters, which was later confirmed by Star Wars Battlefront II.

On its pages for the Multi-Troop Transport and the Armored Assault Tank, the 2018 reference book Star Wars: Complete Vehicles features OOM pilot droids. However, the placement of their blue coloring is slightly different between pages and from Star Wars: Episode I The Phantom Menace, making it unclear if this slight variation on coloring is meant to be a canon appearance or just a mistake.

The magazine Star Wars: Build Your Own R2-D2 31 makes the claim that OOM pilot battle droids were only "often" times identified via their blue markings. With that, the magazine makes the claim that non-marked battle droids seen in piloting positions are actually OOM pilot battle droids without blue markings. However, numerous other sources make it clear that OOM pilot battle droids are always identified with blue markings so as to distinguish regular B1s from the specific pilot variant. Furthermore, it visibly distinguishes OOM pilots from other specialized B1 variants and openly shows their specific purpose. As such, the unmarked B1 units seen at piloting stations must simply be regular B1s assigned pilot duty, suggesting a degree of overlap between regular B1s and OOM pilot battle droids.

• Ultimate Star Wars
• Star Wars: Build the Millennium Falcon 30
• Star Wars: The Visual Encyclopedia
• Star Wars: On the Front Lines
• Star Wars: Droidography
• Rise of the Separatists
• Star Wars: The Clone Wars: Character Encyclopedia - Join the Battle!