The A-9 Vigilance interceptor was a short-range starfighter used by the Galactic Empire and the Dark Empire that began production in 9 ABY.
Simple cockpit controls made the A-9 an easy fighter to learn. While faster than the TIE Interceptor, it had a weaker hull due to deliberate design choices made to reduce mass. Thanks to independent power generators, however, the weapons system was quite powerful for a ship of its size.
The A-9 was armed with two laser cannons, mounted in a structure on the ventral side of the fuselage. One was slightly more powerful than the other. They were fire-linked and aimed forward in their standard configuration, but several modifications existed which allowed the gun to pivot 90 degrees down to perform strafing runs, as well as allowing the cannons to be independently targeted. These cannons were more powerful than those of a T-65 X-wing starfighter.
Starfighters very similar to the A-9 were seen in a captured Imperial hangar on Brentaal IV in X-wing Rogue Squadron Issue 22, but their class was not stated. They may be early prototypes of the A-9 or a similar-looking predecessor.
A-6 Interceptors were mentioned in Jedi Quest: The School of Fear, but very little information was provided aside from the fact that they had turbolaser cannons and used astromech droids. It was the predecessor of the A-9 interceptor.