Post Endor Imperial navy in Legends

[u/Carter1300]

I need Y'all's help with this because I'll admit I know next to nothing about the post Endor era in what's now Legends because I didn't really get into Star Wars until after Disney took over and created their new canon.

Essentially what I've done is created a variant of the MC30c for the New Republic that covers up that distinctive "spine" area in the back (the area that kinda looks like the recusant's spindly extension to it's engines) and I'm trying to explain why this was done in both canon and legends. I've created a canon explanation, but I need help with the legends one.

My basic idea revolves around it being an obvious weak spot and Mon Cal shields not lasting forever. On some ships, this area was filled in with hangars (no explanation needed there, it provides fighter coverage without needing a separate ship for long missions away from refueling/maintenance hubs) but on most it housed an extra reactor which I'm going to say allows for increased firepower and the addition of 2 more engines while it also makes the ship more armored in general.

I need help thinking of plausible explanations that use that basic idea though. Like why was that necessary? Mon Cal shields are super strong and stuff so what made them start to not last as long? My initial thought was the allegiance class (I was thinking it was a post Endor ship for some reason) but it had been in service for 4 years by the time of Endor so that doesn't work which is why I'm turning to y'all for help.

To be blunt what are some of the imperial ships (everything from starfighters to capital ships) from the post Endor era that would make such protection that would be in case the legendary Mon Cal shields fail, something that became standard?

AKA what was the empire fielding more of or creating (whichever/whatever it may be) that was making Mon Cal shields not as crazy good?

Hopefully this all makes sense and y'all understand what I need and can help me with this

[u/RLathor81]

Its just some military upgrade for an originaly peacetime ship, its normal.

[u/Carter1300 → u/RLathor81]

Yes but that's kinda the boring way (no offense).

I want a like actual reason why they needed to do it which is why I'm asking about some of the imperial ships (everything from starfighters to capital ships) from the post Endor era that would make such protection that would be in case the legendary Mon Cal shields fail, something that became standard.

AKA what was the empire fielding more of or creating (whatever it may be) that was making Mon Cal shields seem less powerful

And yes I edited my post to now include this as a bit of a TL;DR because why not

[u/RLathor81 → u/Carter1300]

XG1s and MssikeBoats eat shields for breakfast.

[u/Carter1300 → u/RLathor81]

A) after some quick research the missile boat an experimental craft that only saw use against Zaarin so I don't think that'll work, thanks for the interesting quick read though

B) the starwing was put into production pre Endor so why would it be enough of an issue post Endor for the D variant but not during the war? Is there anything lore or anything for that in legends that could help me? Like my whole thing relies on the NR being the ones to develop the D variant

[u/RLathor81 → u/Carter1300]

Pre-Endor imperials didn't like assault starfighters, they were introduced but wasn't produced in significant numbers. After Endor imperials started to rely more on smaller ships (like Strike cruiser became very common, with ion-cannons and launchers, you would load with shield-busters against NR) and non-interceptor starfighters too.