Botajef Shipyards, a small shipbuilding concern based on the Outer Rim world of Botajef, conceived of the SS-54 assault ship as a gunship worthy of competing with other starship models on the military market such as the GAT-12 Skipray and the Firespray-31-class patrol craft. Despite this, it was erroneously classified as a light freighter by the Galactic Empire, an error which, due to the nature of Imperial bureaucracy, was never rectified.