Sandtrooper

Sandtroopers were specialized stormtroopers who were trained and equipped for desert operations. Organized into a specialized division of the overall Stormtrooper Corps, they served the interests of the Galactic Empire in deserts throughout its reign.

Desert specialists of the Empire
Established as a specialized division within the Stormtrooper Corps known simply as the Sandtrooper Division, sandtroopers served as part of the Imperial Army during the reign of the Galactic Empire. They were deployed to desert locations, such as the Outer Rim world of Tatooine. On planet, the sandtroopers had to deal with tribes of Tusken Raiders. Two sandtroopers stationed on Tatooine once came across a Tusken Raider youngling, but one of the troopers elected to kill the child instead of touch the young sand person.

Following a raid on his village in the Jundland Wastes, a lost Tusken Raider youngling was separated from his tribe, ending up in the city of Mos Eisley. After the child was forced out of Chalmun's Spaceport Cantina, two sandtroopers—the same two who had come across the other Tusken child—arrived due to the commotion. As they debated amongst themselves as to who had to pick up the young Tusken Raider, with the soldier who did not shoot the previous child being unwilling to touch him due to the possibly that the Tusken had sand lice, Jedi Master Obi-Wan Kenobi appeared. Using a mind trick on the troopers, Kenobi ensured he was able to return the child back to his tribe.

Sandtroopers also served on the Ring of Kafrene trading post and the moon of Jedha. On Jedha, the Imperial garrison found itself besieged by rebel leader Saw Gerrera and his Partisans.

Search on Tatooine

 * "She must have hidden the plans in the escape pod. Send a detachment down to retrieve them… See to it personally, Commander."
 * ―Darth Vader[src]

Under the orders of the Sith Lord Darth Vader and Grand Moff Wilhuff Tarkin, a detachment regiment of sandtroopers were dispatched to the surface of Tatooine, where they searched for the missing Death Star plans, which were hidden in the astromech droid R2-D2. Even though there was already an Imperial presence on Tatooine, with sandtroopers among the forces kept on the planet, the increased stormtrooper activity was upsetting to many in Mos Eisley. The sandtroopers themselves were not told much about mission, only knowing that the droids they needed to recover apparently had some kind of secret plans.

Some troopers involved in the search utilized the native dewbacks as mounts, having been assigned to serve in mounted squads. The sandtrooper unit that Davin Felth served in uncovered the droids' escape pod. After one mounted squad under Commander TD-4445 moved into the city of Mos Eisley, Foot Patrol 7—a unit under the authority of Commander TD-110—was also sent into the town to look for the droids. After spotting two droids TD-110 suspected to be the units they were after, the stormtroopers of the patrol were mind tricked by Kenobi, preventing them from taking away R2-D2 and protocol droid C-3PO.

Soon afterward, Foot Patrol 7 arrived in the Chalmun's cantina to investigate a disturbance, which had actually been caused by Kenobi defending Luke Skywalker from the criminals Ponda Baba and Cornelius Evazan. Having realized Kenobi was secretly a Jedi, the bartender, Wuher, chose to give as little information as he could about the situation. Thus, the sandtroopers did not find any useful information, walking to the corner to only find Captain Han Solo and his First Mate, Chewbacca, sitting where Wuher had pointed them. Additionally, although sandtrooper TD-7556 heard whispers from the patrons about a lightsaber, he did not believe them. Although Wuher claimed a Talz patron was telling them that the droids had been spotted heading into the desert, the droids were spotted by the Kubaz spy Garindan ezz Zavor, who informed the nearby stormtroopers of his lead.

After TD-4445 contacted Foot Patrol 7 about Zavor's intel, sandtroopers attacked Docking Bay 94, where Kenobi, Skywalker, and the two droids had boarded a YT-1300 light freighter, the Millennium Falcon. As Foot Patrol 7 raced to reach the hangar, the Falcon escaped, enabling the fugitives to escape Tatooine. Upon seeing the starship fly away, TD-7556—who had become disillusioned with the Empire and instead simply wished to ride dewbacks—deserted from the patrol, leaving only a sarcastic incident report behind.

Galactic Civil War continues
After the fugitives escaped the sandtroopers on Tatooine, Kenobi was killed by Darth Vader on the DS-1 Death Star Mobile Battle Station, and Skywalker later destroyed that same space station in the Battle of Yavin. The destruction of the Death Star, combined with the loss of Weapons Factory Alpha, threw the Empire's supply line into chaos, resulting in the Empire opening negotiations with the Hutt Clan. Dewback-mounted sandtroopers were among the troops that escorted Vader to Jabba's Palace on Tatooine to begin the talks. Sandtroopers later participated in the Battle of Jakku.

Equipment

 * "There we were, bunked up in just our underskivvies, which by the way, since we're on the subject, are all well and good when you're freezing your balls off on Faz or Rhen Var or something but in the doubled-sunned deserts of Tatooine serve only to bake you thoroughly to crisp and lodge sand in the most unmentionable and unreachable places. So thanks for that. Also the temp regulators in those helmets you gave us are an absolute sham; like, not even remotely functional. So you know … you might want to get on that or something."
 * ―TD-7556 in an incident report[src]

Equipped and trained to operate on desert worlds, the stormtrooper armor used by sandtroopers was augmented with cooling fans and a helmet sand filter. In addition, they wore a survival backpack stocked with extra rations and water. Sandtroopers utilized weapons such as the E-11 blaster rifle, the T-21 light repeating blaster, the DLT-19 heavy blaster rifle, and the RT-97C heavy blaster rifle. The Heavy Weapons Stormtrooper variant of the sandtrooper was the Heavy Sandtrooper.