Why is the Hammerhead Ship Design so Popular in Star Wars? 

"Looked like a hammer." *Cue picture of a wrench* Me: "Wait... that isn't right." ಠ_ಠ

Alternative theory: They lasted so long because everyone agreed they just looked bloody cool

"Should be credited with the best kill of the war in my opinion." Gimli: That still only counts as one!

No wonder why the design in legends lasted for 4000 years.

0:30 PrOcEeDs To ShOw A WrEnCh

A consideration you actually might have missed: If you place turrets on the hammerhead at the top and bottom as well as midway port and starboard, each of those turrets actually have GREATER arcs of fire than the typical weapons we see on similar designs, and when you combine the four positions, you actually have near perfect firing arc coverage (save close in directly aft, but if you move far enough aft the high mountings of the upper and lower guns would also give aft coverage) with any position having two to three guns able to be brought to bear and in the forward arc all four guns. Combine that capability with more powerful individual guns (again, the weapons on the Hammerheads appear to be larger than weapons on similarly sized ships) you get a design philosophy focused on long range, accurate, powerful fire over volume of fire like what Star Destroyers appear to prefer). Combined with the narrow forward profile and the Hammerhead clearly has a strong matchup against ships in similar weight classes as they likely can engage at LONGER ranges, bring more firepower to bear on any given firing arc, all while minimizing fire taken due to the narrow profile.

If all you have is a hammer, every problem begins to look like a nail

In-universe reason: the Hammerhead was a design that served the Republic well for 4000 years, and its reliability, as well as its iconography rooted in Republic history, ensured it a long service life despite there being bigger, better ships even in the Old Republic era. Real-life reason: People love KOTOR and the people owning Star Wars use the Hammerhead style of warship to tickle their nostalgia boners and take their money.

0:30 "Due to its narrow body, the bridge looked, in fact, like a gammer* *proceeds to show picture of wrench despite having picture of hammer on TV behind him during entire video*

"The ship did in fact look for a hammer, " shows a picture of a pipe wrench.

As the owner of a police model Explorer, I can attest the extra bracing welded into the frame makes it a beast in a collision (it's happened to me twice so far). So assuming the corvette is lacking heavy kinetic shielding which is really neglected in Star Wars canon, thick metal structuring can turn a ship into a battering ram.

So first the Rebels had to pull a win out of nowhere at Scarff, then they had to get the luckiest shot ever near Yarvin, before finally having a deus ex machina from killer teddy bears. You know, in retrospect the Empire really did have a streak of bad luck, they really should've won.

7:14 "So we can create stronger materials…" Like cheese? Lunar astronauts Wallace and Gromit approve.

Why is the Hammerhead so popular? Knights of The Old Republic!!!

Generation Tech: “The Hammerhead is one of the best designed ships.” Republic Ship Designers: “WRITE THAT DOWN! WRITE THAT DOWN!”

Think about it. As proven in Rogue, if you have a ship design that has a super-reinforced front-end, you always have an option to prevail in a space battle, regardless of the number or power of the opponent's weapons.

Hammerhead cruiser: "I'm proud of you, little one"

Because it looks like a hammerhead shark so it scares away the dolphins..

It's also possible that the hammerhead used tractor beams to "soften" the impact similar to how a crumple zone works. This would also explain why the acceleration right before the impact. They would have needed to overcome the tractor beams pushing against the Stardestroyer.

A modification of the Hammerhead philosophy/design would be to mount _as many weapons as possible_ in turrets near the end of the blade/head. That gives them maximum coverage. The heaviest guns on the end of the hammerhead in 360° coverage front back and sides. The other guns mounted on the sides of the hammer, still far enough out to be able to target behind (as well as to the relevant side and either fully top or bottom and part of the other aspect). The Hammer becomes a way to give front mounted guns clearance over the engines and rear of the ship. Thus it can run rampant through a enemy formation, getting out of the firing arcs of traditional ships, while still being able to bring a lot of firepower to bare - yes your would lose a little bit of firepower compared to the _head on angle of attack,_ but not much. It also would've been a good design philosophy for the New Republic StarHawk class battleship that was featured so prominently in TROS …?

I always thought of ion weapons as tripping all the breakers \ blowing the fuses on a ship. It would not destroy it, but resetting the breakers and replacing the fuses would take time. Also rebooting the computers and interface terminals. At least that is how I imagine it.

I remember watching that hammerhead scene in theaters and it absolutely blew my mind, it was the coolest thing i had ever seen in star wars

Keep in mind "ramming ships" are actually a class of vehicles. Depending on the shields they usually protect against most laser fire and depending on the shielding it may also protect against straight up physical attacks like if forces tried to board a ship from the outside(separatists and republic both showcased this strategy in the shows and movies). Chances are Hammerhead Corvettes were actually intended to be used in tandom with the y-wings and subsequent ion attacks. Kind of a "last option" tactic but still one they probably didnt just make up on the spot. In regards to the Old Republics use of the ship you could maybe explain the hammerhead as a cost:impact. The republic of that era was crippled after the wars with the mandos and further with Revan+Mal would have taxed the republics forces even further. Potentially developed the ship specifically because they were backed into a corner and needed to embrace tactics that would allow a balls to the walls; honey glazed 100% offense. Added point would be that Bastilas battle meditation would have made weird ships like this make more sense in the long run.

Its a great idea for destroyer and corvette size ships. Love the scene in rogue one, the only part that bothered me was the imperial crew being thrown around during impact. The crew of the star destroyer (a ship thats at least 12x the size) should barely feel the impact of a tiny corvette.

"so we can make stronger materials," says Allen while he shows a picture of cheese.

Ah yes, the great smashy boi

I literally jumped out of my seat when I saw the hammerhead in Rogue One, i was so excited haha

Grave-Stone: "Momma proud of the HAMMERHEADS!"

haven't had a single one of these suggested in ages the hell

“Looks like a hammer” Inserts photo of a pipe wrench

I've always figured the reason why the Hammerhead ship (which is by far my favorite ship design) survived for so long was because of the republics ability to field such strong axillary ships and star fighters, particularly when the Jedi assisted the various Republics throughout history. Really powerful forward facing Ship-Of-The-Line with smaller ships that can block, shield, or destroy anything that would come in from the sides would be a very good tactic. Plus in the case of the Battle of Scarif, Hammerhead Corvette would have maximum shielding and armor on the bridge area allowing for it to repel most attacks. So it would function like an old Greek Trireme

“Looks like a hammer” Inset picture of a pipe wrench.

Imperial star commanders: ha ha the rebels can’t hurt us A-wing Pilot: KAMIKAZE

This video really added to my enjoyment of that scene. It’s really cool seeing the rebels use such an aggressive ship for such an aggressive maneuver in a high stakes battle.

"MSG: IBO" has really good in-universe reasons for "hammerhead-style" ships. It mainly revolves around heavier armor on the leading edge, with smaller aft dimensions to give cover to the less heavily armored portions. Makes the ships pretty hard nuts to crack using full-frontal attack strategems.

Thank You GT. As always your research is impeccable with your wealth of knowledge of the STAR WARS universe! 👍🏿

Having a ship part that is wide or tall makes sense, since you can place sensors on both ends. Having several sensors in a line is same as having one giant sensor. NASA uses this for the SETI project, having a line of sensors several kilometers long that works like one giant dish, several kilometers long. The benefits are of course massive in capability. The Hubble uses the same technique, taking a picture of a target in one end of its orbit, and a second one in the other, making a dish comparable to larger than Earth itself.

The ships used thrust based engines in sublight, thrust is at the rear so weapons need to be at the front (or at least facing forward).

Give me a Fleet of Hammer Head ships. RAMMING SPEED!!

"Looks like a hammer" Shows a wrench

Here's a theory: Hammerhead corvette + Consular class cruiser= CR-90 corvette.

For the hammerhead, it's also a dedicated warship, meaning more likely to be heavily armored and with a reinforced frame along with everything else, it was also a controlled collision from that side of the fight against a, largely, disabled star destroyer. The transport is a cargo ship with guns and bits of armor strapped to it. If you notice, the Corellian Corvette also follows the same basic hammerhead look, just rotated...

The renowned pipe wrench cruiser. Excellent for removing Imperials.... or clogged pipes.

The hammerhead design also has an arch, an arch can sustain more wait in a structure than a straight beam ever could.

Allan, you've got a great voice for these videos and I really enjoy your presentation style

The Blockade Runner and this are my two favourite ships

Simply put Hammerhead ships are sexy and well designed!

CEC's official motto in-universe was "CEC: It won't stop moving 'till it hits something."

Also, by having such a design you can load the front with armor. A couple meters of durasteel plating on top of a moderate shield would make the ship very tough. The armor might also explain why the front of the ship didn’t suffer more damage. It might actually be designed as a ram for desperate situations.

Hammer head protects body of the ship from slight angle of top and bottom so you can concentrate armor at from then spread it around, battles are messy so allowing you to plow through a debris is added advantage and if you put turrets on top and bottom they will have good firing arcs

Line formations have been around for a pretty long time in naval battles. Less profile means smaller target. Considering the thing is made for bum rushing straight into the enemy as opposed to broadsiding that's about the best you can do.

What's it made of, you say? Well, the strongest material in the 'verse. Even stronger than Mythril. It's called Plotium.

I thought the hammerheads use in scarif was really cool because it reminded me of the korean admiral Yi Sun Shin and his use of the turtle ships. Plus its really funny to see, in a galaxy as advanced as star wars, people saying screw it and just ram into each other with their ships.

Diggin your shows Bro! Thanks for doing the history of the Clone Wars. Been keeping squared away when I am not working at the hospital.

The design feature that Hammerhead ship had that allowed it to survive a crash like that was plot armour, pure and simple!

The hammer head will also spread the impact force across the head of the ship. It looks to me like the whole ship is just made for ramming. Oversized head, frontal guns, oversized engines, long slim body to spread impact evenly across the ship. Yup, its meant for ramming and pushing

Great video, nice idea, had really not thought about it. Stay safe my friend! 🙏

The Lightmaker was destroyed when it reached the sheild gate protecting Scarif.

yes, they function great as space 'tugs'. good call, great reporting, great channel. i approve

these ships. both the cruiser and corvette are the perfect blockade runners. due to the ships being designed from the ground up for frontal assault from the fairly large front cannons to just the sheer armor designed for ramming speed. you could just literally push the enemies out of the way or cut your way through by ramming

So I would point out the mid 60s Chrysler Imperials, they had full X-frames that were boxed out and were so strong they were banned from demolition derby's. The body and passengers were the limit points for them, not the frames, and was a design philosophy quickly abandoned as overkill in the wrong direction. I view the hammerheads similarly. In legends Old Republic ramming was a decently viable tactic, and as pointed out the hammerheads shape is a great way to transfer pure force with two triangles meeting at a common point, the strongest part of a triangle. I assume they had reinforced and overbuilt frames as a legacy of their thousands of years long design line, and inertial compensation combined with armor (both things that are standard for a warship in starwars) eliminates the two real world weaknesses that would make it not worth keeping. The long narrow profile would allow long strong beams to be run down the ships spine from thruster to bow, these could be tied together by X's creating highly protected compartments between (ideal for warships anyway) the X's, and the rigidity would allow the ship to ram or operate as an emergency tug offering flexibility in battle. The benefits outweigh the risks thanks to inertial dampening, meaning no reason to change, meaning even if no one remembered exactly WHY it was this way originally, they'd have no reason to adjust.

When I heard Hammerhead, I thought "Shark". Video shows a pipe wrench. Well, silly me!

Great video, dam that was detailed very informative.

Can you do more what if videos, I really enjoy them

The official cannon says that Captain Kado Oquoné (the corvette captain that made the star destroyer go boom) died in the crash, even though him and his crew were all uninjured after the impact, along with the fact that the ship looked mostly undamaged. I would like to think that he escaped the crash by somehow getting an escape pod as he was a badass captain and I doubt he would just die like that

Ever since we saw our first Hammerhead in KOTOR I loved it. Idk why I just do.

Don't forget about the Legacy Era because the Republic went back to Hammerhead designs again during that period and had a lot of hammerhead designs.

There is another reason for the hammerhead design. All aspect firing arcs - The tips of the hammers will have 360 degree rotational freedom and can elevate or depress beyond the level of the flat parallel plane This means that the protruding spurs of the hammers make perfect defensive anti-fighter weapon mounts as they allow even the rear of the ship to be covered effectively vs Tie fighters or Tie Bombers with Ion weapons that could try disable them

How ironic that I was in a conversation earlier about the CR-90's length and then I find it even HERE it's quoted wrong! According to the Ultimate Star Wars - New Edition: the Sphyrna-class corvette, aka Hammerhead, is 315 meters or 1033 ft long. Alan, along with the pipe-wrench pic - that's TWO STRIKES!!!

Great video, wasnt expecting to learn about safety or the advances in cutting cheese

"The bridge did look like a hammer" *shows a pipe wrench*

"Stronger material" *THINLY SLICED CHEESE*

0:31 Holy crap! That is a beautiful hammer you have! Where on earth did you find such an exquisite hammer?

The Corvette size has been accidentally mentioned as 315 meters by Disney books. Glad you said it's around the correct 100meter range

The Mon Cala race was committed to the rebellion before the destruction of the Death Star. They were still refitting all their MC80s with armor, shielding, and weaponry. They were not completely done mobilizing their race.

The other Advantage: Munitions can be mount in the upper and lower blades. Having Missiles and Torpedoes (NOT BOMBS!) can be a force multiplier. In addition, extra equipment can be mounted, such as sensors and communication units. Finally, by my guess, a docking system could be mounted for emergency and salvage operations. Just for the record, I would also go for reverse thrusters to aid in maneuverability and escaping.

Tbh, I'd pick the Harrower class sith dreadnought for ramming another enemy ship. The command bridge is far away from the bow which helps keeps the command bridge from getting crushed upon impact when being used to ram an enemy ship. Also, the forked pong shaped of the Harrower's bow lets it be reinforced for raming actions as well too. I'd definitely be using that shape to jam it right in between someone's command bridge like the Venator's or the Imperial Star Destroyers. Or to sever a Nebula B frigate in half.

I'd like to add two things to this. First is that there were variants to this design ethos, like the Paladin-class Corvette, where the hammerhead Bridge section was rotated to be horizontal. This would still allow the Bridge to still act as the main focal point in a head-on fight with a ship that is arranged horizontally. The second is that with defence focussed on the hammerhead Bridge it is simpler and more cost effective to attach Ablative Armour to just this section to improve defence rather than over the entire ship. Plus Ablative Armour would help explain the Lightbringer's ability to survive the impact with the ISD, as it would absorbed part of the impact with its destruction.

One more point, the hammerhead bridge design allows those ships to tow/store containers behind it. Indeed in the Sphyrna-class we see cargo containers behind the lower hammerhead along the underside of its "neck" being lowered on elevators attached to the hammerhead in Rebels.

Star destroyers: you can’t defeat us Rebel fleet: we know, but he can Small hammerhead ship: destroys both destroys and shield

0:32 those dolphins got him. That ain’t a hammer that’s a wrench

I just assumed it was made just for ramming. "Sir the shields are falling" Captian doesn't look worried. "Welp time to ram the enemy bridge"

A few points: 1) Slim head on shoot is reminiscent of an attack helicopter. This is for much the same reason. Narrow, hard to hit. 2) In legends, the Hammer Head cruiser was ridiculously durable with about the best structural integrity in Star Wars. The Endar Spire to a heavy beating over Taris, crash into the planet, and was found largely intact hundreds of years later. (This also mean that it some how survive the bombardment of Taris). 3). If you look closely at the film, only the armor was damage in the collision with the star destroyer. The armor crumpling functioning much the same way a car crumple zone would. Also, when you look at the armor on the Hammer Head design, it appears to be much heavier than the armor on other ships of its size. 4) The engines are way oversized. It’s little wonder it could push a “dead in the water” Star Destroyer. 5) The Hammer Head just looks awesome.

Ram ship commanders are always thinking, "Get me closer, I want to hit it with my sword!"

Like a hammer *shows clamp wrench* god I love this channel

can you guys do a series about the galactic civil war since the time in between 4-5 and 5-6 arent well milked if you know what I mean. Great video and I just love the scene in rogue one! Oh and awesome video

Another option for dispersion of energy is expulsion of debris from the vehicle. It has been used in motorsport having parts fly off the car in a crash obviously this can be dangerous for spectators and fellow competitors but also creates an interesting option for warfare

No hammers were harmed in the making of this video.

Watching this I noticed you actually do see some of her frame crumpling. My guess is they used there shields to reinforce the ship for the manuver. She dident move the imperial class fast at first, but I gotta give props to this being the first time we see in star wars using inertial physics to your advantage. Without power, you could move the star distoryer with the force of the hammerhead Corvette here. Mind you, Corvette dispite being in relative one peice was if fact totaled. Her engines where fried and her frame warped.

"Stronger material" Cue picture of cheese Me: "Wait...that is deffinetly right"

The Crumple Zone: aka the reason my 11 mph impact was a $7,000 rebuild that insurance said was more than the car was worth. I mean, if my car is going to be totaled, I at least want my air bags to deploy, lol. Wasn't even going fast enough to do that... :P

The hammerhead design obviously calls out the shark motif but also the IndyCar/F1 forward fins that also imply speed and maneuverability.

You forgot to mention that rebel refitted/purpose built corvettes (lightmaker included) had Reinforced bridge and frontal structure. While not actually intended for ramming, this increase in structural integrity is what allowed the heavy impact to not only be survivable, but allow it to continue on it's reactionary push without further damage to itself. The ram wasn't just some tactical potentially suicidal run. Also, even the Lightmaker wouldn't have been able to survive the hit that transport took. Vader's ISD was just coming out of hyperspace and the transport was moving in it's direction. Shields on the ISD were at full, A hammerhead wouldn't have fared much better.

Using the most important part of the ship to shield the less important parts is definitely genius.

Allen: Says hammer. Video: Shows wrench. Me: 🤔

Another reason why the ship didn’t explode or crumble was the angle of impact. It wasn’t a 90 degree impact more like 45 degree and it slid instead of stopped immediately

"Look at how narrow this ship looks from the front view: It provides an extremely small target for gunners" would make an even smaller target without that big hammerhead, which only shields the top and bottom of the rest of the ship and thus only against enemies who are *directly* in front of that particular ship.

The only thing I would change on the Hammerhead would be to add turbo lasers to the dorsal and ventral tips of the bow, that would give it an amazing fire arc.

The comic Holdo in the Age of Resistance shows even more of that ship's design was carried through to the Corvette/Blockade Runner design-- in the issue she blasted a weak spot through a Star Destroyer and weakened it enough to physically punch through with her Corvette's WHOLE SHIP. That makes me think she was a ships nerd and knew of this structural feature, and used it

RAMMING SPEED! is the reason why.