Similar to its cousin, the Lambda-class shuttle, the Sentinel can often be mistakenly identified as such at a distance. The landing craft's exterior, however, is encased in heavy armor plating. Equipped with four deflector shield projectors and despite its size, the Sentinel is fast and agile a result of the Cygnus HD7 engine array it boasts, making it marginally superior to the Lambda-class in most respects. The vessel's sensor suite, which was located in the cockpit, allowed navigation in nearly all conditions and featured infrared imaging, motion detectors and life-form indicators. The vessel's computer also had an automatic mapping function and a rudimentary autopilot that could pilot the vessel towards a garrison, starship, or homing beacon during emergencies and several powerful communication arrays which enabled contact with most starships, planets, and garrisons within a given system. Given its well-known utility, they are commonly seen assigned to capital ships, often to be used at the captain's discretion. The high sublight and hyperspeed ratings also lend them to being used as excellent couriers of valuable data, light cargo or persons of importance.