The galaxy is full of backwater planets where the authority of sector governments is felt only lightly, if at all and where local governments are impoverished enough that just maintaining civil infrastructure is a strain. Despite these hardships, these worlds must still be defended against pirates, slavers and other villainous types. On the flip side, law breakers will not be able to purchase modern fighters from any reputable shipyards, and so must be more creative in their search for fighter craft to support their illicit trade. In both cases, junkyard and ship-breaking planets become a valuable resource, where law-abiding citizen and criminal alike can find operational or near-operational ship parts that can be salvaged and put to use to build a patchwork fighter craft. While not aesthetically pleasing, hence the common moniker “ugly”, these Salvage-class Fighters can nonetheless be useful in deterring the attacks of spacefaring criminals, or conversely, facilitate their activities.

The Salvage-class Fighter is a hodgepodge of parts welded together to form a functional, weapon carrying platform to carry out the duties of a starfighter. Mechanics in the Outer Rim (as well as many less developed planets in the Mid Rim) are able to put together parts from two or more different types of fighter to form a functional whole – taking a cockpit module from one type, drive assembly from another and weapons from another type of fighter altogether and somehow marrying them all into a working whole. With function being prized over form, and the whole dependent on what parts can be sourced from whatever scrapyard or breaker is nearby, the construction of these non-regulation fighters is generally frowned upon by more wealthy governments and organizations, who frequently trumpet the less-than-stellar, and usually unverified, safety record and performance these fighters tend to possess. however, when the chips are down, a Salvage-class Fighter is usually better than no fighter at all.