@@rhettorical6128 look at it this way, if the ship hadden't done that, victory against the empire might've been impossible, so technically any other kill is an assist for them. Right ?
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.
@Galactic Tech Creator The comments apply to both, but definitely more to the Cruisers, as if you look at the weapons on the Cruisers they have top and lower emplacements while the corvettes don't.
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.
In other words, Gareth Edwards, unlike all the morons Disney had direct their other Star Wars films, realized that the audience for Star Wars films was Star Wars fans.
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*
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.
@@marcbartuschka6372 plus Vader refused to kill luke because he thought he could be turned, when in reality he didn't want to kill his only (known) child. then you add in the fact that Palpatine wanted to turn luke as well which led to his and Vader's death
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.
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.
@@thomasl8810 Other than S.T. O.L. which is or is not current canon. But thank you for bring that up. I don't care what the " official " wants to call canon, I just need to hear something that makes reasonable sense for what I am seeing. I used to play RPG, and we/ the game shop I went too was always trying to make up crap on the fly to keep the game story play moving. If that didn't work, out comes the note pad for math work. My shop liked to run space combat like the movies " Hunt for Red October," and Star Trek II: Wrath of Khan."
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.
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.
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.
While thats true, if their power was entirely offline, its possible the inertial compensators would also be offline, so they'd feel the full impact of vessel slamming into them much in the same way you would feel the concussion of an impacting bullet despite being over a hundred times larger. The speed of the impact means a lot.
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.
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.
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
"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.
What find more ironic is that "tecno banzai" or the famous japanese suicidal phrase from WWII actually can be translated as "for the emperor" (from what I know) And rebels who are fighting against the empire ruled, of course, by an emperor. You know......
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...
They always use kind of obscure humor. I think it's a reference to many peoples childhoods trying to turn any heavy metal object into a hammer whne you didn't have a hammer available. I love this kind of humor.
@@Wand422 not just children. There were a number of times in engineering school I'd use a wrench to force a stubborn part to go where it was supposed to.
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.
In that case you could say that the design is not SO well thought. I mean they have made a cockpit with open windows in that same front, and I guess that is not THAT strong...
@@hansmerker5611 Ohhhhhh I get now. Because CR-90 is very similar to both ships. The ships maker probably got the idea to create the CR-90 from the Hammerhead corvette and the Cousular class corvette as well🤔.
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.
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
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.
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
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.
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.
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
The theory of why the hammer head corvette is shaped in such a way works. It is the same reason as to why tank armour is concentrated at the front of the vehicle. As such having a thicker amount of armour plating on the front of the ship than you would see in most ship designs also makes sense. I also think there is a history in the Star Wars cannon of such designs being made with ramming in mind.
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.
I really don't know why I would admit this, but here goes: I now understand why the two Destroyers collided in Episode V. I never realized one of the ships was dead in space. Sit semper vis vobiscum.
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
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.
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
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!!!
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.
It may not be able to perform the venerable "Other Wedge Manouever" but a version of the Hammerhead whose prow was shaped like the Knightly Heater Shield would be able to shelter an escort behind the prow when anti-fighter ships are employed by the enemy.
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
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.
"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.
@Dillon Brunschon 1. Why would you need to make the ship wider? What does "providing extra vertically" do to help? 2. If the hammer is wide enough to shield the sides of the ship from frontal attack you could just make a circular head which is only that wide. 3. That works for a frontal assault against a single slower enemy ship but in a fleet battle with multiple hammerheads vs multiple enemy ships the enemy ships can get different angles on any given hammerhead. 4. Not to play the "it's fiction" card because building a coherent world which one can think about in detail is one of the best parts of SF, but both of us are living in the reality where Hammerhead Corvettes don't exist.
This design appears to rely on phalanx style tactics. You mass these in a wall so enemies cannot move to attack the flanks of the ship. It probably works best in encirclements which would be viable for the Republic to mass sufficiently to deploy them that way regularly. It is also highly reliant on superiority fighters because of the design flaw that it is likely extremely weak to agile ships and awful in open space battles. Also the design forces enemies to concentrate fire either on the threatening but less important weapon turrets at the bottom/top of the hammer or the engine area. It prevents single attacks scuttling the ship, either you can run or keep fighting.
@@TheWizel If you mass spaceships close enough that their fronts shield each other like a phallanx/shield wall you're also making it totally impossible for the enemy to miss, plus making it likely that the debris from a destroyed ship will hit and at least damage adjacent ones. Since Star Wars has shields, it's not *necessarily* the case that the same factors that made shield walls obsolete by the late middle ages apply there, but in all the star wars battles we see they still do, and- since we're already overthinking things, with the way shields work in Star Wars (both as shown in the OT and logically) the shape of the hammer won't matter much because either your shields are up, or you're a rapidly expanding cloud of gas; star wars ships pack enough punch that armor is useless. The reason for the hammerhead design is it looks really cool- I'm all for overthinking things but you have to acknowledge this sort of thing occasionally or you'll end up trying yourself in knots and muddling your own thinking.
@@AlexanderRM1000 Phalanx shield walls were less closely packed then you think, most had a full man gap between them. You do not need to be tightly packed to make it impossible to miss, they can be easily hundreds of ship widths apart and still be obstructing the firing angle due to the long distances space battles operate at.
@@TheWizel A formation for mele fighting might have room for the men to move around, but if you're using the type of formation where each man's shield protects the man next to him (like with Greek hoplites for example) then by definition they need to be within 1 shields width of each other at a maximum. How exactly are they "obstructing firing angles" from hundreds of ships' widths apart? That's not a "phalanx type formation", that's just... a formation, with at least as much resemblance as to the line of battle or carrier groups as to the phallanx
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
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.
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
"Looked like a hammer."
*Cue picture of a wrench*
Me: "Wait... that isn't right." ಠ_ಠ
What we call a wrench in the UK kind of matches what we would call the guy who inserted that picture in this video. A spanner.
Harronus (intercom sound) Screw up on aisle Technological Support!! 😂😂😂
Face palm
Anything can be a hammer, whether it survives or not, after being used as such, is a different story.
Best sh!t ever!!!! Ty editor!!! ^_^
Alternative theory: They lasted so long because everyone agreed they just looked bloody cool
Harry Obriensmith That’s probably why Lucasfilm brought them into Canon, because so popular!
I had not even read your response. I saw the thumbnail and though "Ummm...I looks cool?"
The "Rule of Cool" has been enacted.
The entire crew save of the captain were Warhammer 40k orks. Waaagh! rule applies: if we think it works, it works.
hahahahahaha
"Should be credited with the best kill of the war in my opinion."
Gimli: That still only counts as one!
MrDelta509 Luke blowing out the first Death Star, and Lando blowing up the Second Death Star, “Are we a joke to you?”
@@rhettorical6128 KK and RJ in unison while molesting a stormtrooper: "Yes.... yes you are..."
Rhettorical lol and I was just going to say the A-Wing pilot that kamikazed and brought down the executor
@@rhettorical6128 look at it this way, if the ship hadden't done that, victory against the empire might've been impossible, so technically any other kill is an assist for them. Right ?
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.
peregry
How many people only read the top paragraph
Psalms 92 verse 12
@@woodliongaming7383 Believe me, this isn't even the longest comment I've seen on UA-cam.
I read all of it...and YES. This is what I want in my fleet, not as my flagship, but my escort fleet as the spearhead.
@Galactic Tech Creator The comments apply to both, but definitely more to the Cruisers, as if you look at the weapons on the Cruisers they have top and lower emplacements while the corvettes don't.
No wonder why the design in legends lasted for 4000 years.
No kidding, robust and badass. These things are friggin AWESOME 👌
@@crazyguy1mania537 agree
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.
Ramming Speed!!!!!
In other words, Gareth Edwards, unlike all the morons Disney had direct their other Star Wars films, realized that the audience for Star Wars films was Star Wars fans.
@@nathanbrown8680 Exaclty.
@dar'man beskar Ordo I agree. Even female Revan would be sickened with them.
Yes and 🤣
0:30 PrOcEeDs To ShOw A WrEnCh
Jerome Espinosa Harronus (intercom sound) Screw up on aisle Technological Support!! 😂😂😂
I lost faith in this boy ever being a man
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*
Akis Sotiriou Harronus (intercom sound) Screw up on aisle Technological Support!! 😂😂😂
You know it does look like a wrench
@@kostakatsoulis2922 It kinda looks like 2 wrenches facing each other
@@akissotiriou6009 yes it does look like a gamer
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.
Even more if you consider how close the Empire came to kill many high ranking rebels at Hoth and other narrow escapes...
@@marcbartuschka6372 plus Vader refused to kill luke because he thought he could be turned, when in reality he didn't want to kill his only (known) child. then you add in the fact that Palpatine wanted to turn luke as well which led to his and Vader's death
One in a million chances work 9 times in ten.
Blah, blah something, something the force... ;p
not bad luck, just plot armor
If all you have is a hammer, every problem begins to look like a nail
I'd smash that. 😜
Where's that quote from?
That's why Domestic violence exist. Yaw honestly.
@@theevildrummingsithlord1492 World War Z maybe kinda?
@@isaiahwolftail867 what do mean ? Thought we is talking about tools & stuff.
"The ship did in fact look for a hammer, " shows a picture of a pipe wrench.
7:14 "So we can create stronger materials…"
Like cheese? Lunar astronauts Wallace and Gromit approve.
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.
Why is the Hammerhead so popular?
Knights of The Old Republic!!!
Mostly nostalgia.
Ramming Speed!!!!!
@@edelta88 It is also good ship. It isn't Y-Wing what has in-universe reason to not be present in sequels. But crybaby fanboys wanted it.
TheRezro they could have gone with a replacement of the y wing if the replacement was better than a snail
@@ShadowGaming-ft4fh They did. T-85
Generation Tech: “The Hammerhead is one of the best designed ships.”
Republic Ship Designers: “WRITE THAT DOWN! WRITE THAT DOWN!”
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
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.
Nope. The tech that allowed the hammerhead to survive was non other than plot armour.
@@MrAranton Star Trek: internal structural integrity fields .....
Plot armor....
@@krispalermo8133 Actually, according to Star Trek Online, it's called Polarized Lattice-Optimized Tritanium Armor.
@@thomasl8810 Other than S.T. O.L. which is or is not current canon. But thank you for bring that up. I don't care what the " official " wants to call canon, I just need to hear something that makes reasonable sense for what I am seeing.
I used to play RPG, and we/ the game shop I went too was always trying to make up crap on the fly to keep the game story play moving. If that didn't work, out comes the note pad for math work.
My shop liked to run space combat like the movies " Hunt for Red October," and
Star Trek II: Wrath of Khan."
@@MrAranton That is just untrue in every possible fashion.
Hammerhead cruiser: "I'm proud of you, little one"
Good anikin good.
James Tribble It’s Spelled Anakin.
James Tribble *anakin
@@annusrideviravindran6396 We cannot use capital letter for someone who never got the rank of master.
Grave-Stone: "I LOVES MUH BABY HAMMERHEADS! MOMMA PROUD HAMMERS!"
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.
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 …?
Yes. Rotating turrets all over the head.
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 literally jumped out of my seat when I saw the hammerhead in Rogue One, i was so excited haha
Because it looks like a hammerhead shark so it scares away the dolphins..
I hate dolphins... They're course, rough And iritating. And they get everywhere!
Humanity First
Scott Wendt Indeed
Top underrated comment.
And pizza
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.
While thats true, if their power was entirely offline, its possible the inertial compensators would also be offline, so they'd feel the full impact of vessel slamming into them much in the same way you would feel the concussion of an impacting bullet despite being over a hundred times larger. The speed of the impact means a lot.
@@Akazaji very true
"so we can make stronger materials," says Allen while he shows a picture of cheese.
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.
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.
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
haven't had a single one of these suggested in ages the hell
Grave-Stone: "Momma proud of the HAMMERHEADS!"
Koth better bring me *_MY_* ship back if he values having a skull to keep his teeth in...
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).
"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.
Ah yes, the great smashy boi
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.
Allan, you've got a great voice for these videos and I really enjoy your presentation style
The hammerhead design also has an arch, an arch can sustain more wait in a structure than a straight beam ever could.
Imperial star commanders: ha ha the rebels can’t hurt us
A-wing Pilot: KAMIKAZE
Banzaiiiiiii
Many years later...
First Order: they can't hurt us...
Holdo: PERHAPS TODAY IS A GOOD DAY TO DIE... PREPARE FOR RAMMING SPEED!!!
What find more ironic is that "tecno banzai" or the famous japanese suicidal phrase from WWII actually can be translated as "for the emperor" (from what I know)
And rebels who are fighting against the empire ruled, of course, by an emperor.
You know......
@@AaronDarkus Tennoheika banzai "long live his majesty the emperor"
They were already going down anyways.
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...
Give me a Fleet of Hammer Head ships. RAMMING SPEED!!
“Looks like a hammer”
Inserts photo of a pipe wrench
They always use kind of obscure humor. I think it's a reference to many peoples childhoods trying to turn any heavy metal object into a hammer whne you didn't have a hammer available. I love this kind of humor.
@@Wand422 not just children. There were a number of times in engineering school I'd use a wrench to force a stubborn part to go where it was supposed to.
@@Wand422 That's just called being poor had nothing to do with being a kid. See also using butterknifes as screwdrivers
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.
In that case you could say that the design is not SO well thought. I mean they have made a cockpit with open windows in that same front, and I guess that is not THAT strong...
@@marcbartuschka6372 It is pretty strong, in fact. Also, the target is really small
Here's a theory: Hammerhead corvette + Consular class cruiser= CR-90 corvette.
You mean putting both designs together? To make a even more unique and powerful ship?
@@kingnamor777 No, i mean that they combined the Hammerhead with the consular to make the CR-90.
@@hansmerker5611 Ohhhhhh I get now. Because CR-90 is very similar to both ships. The ships maker probably got the idea to create the CR-90 from the Hammerhead corvette and the Cousular class corvette as well🤔.
@@kingnamor777 exactly
“Looks like a hammer”
Inset picture of a pipe wrench.
this is the way
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 renowned pipe wrench cruiser. Excellent for removing Imperials.... or clogged pipes.
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
The Blockade Runner and this are my two favourite ships
Can you do more what if videos, I really enjoy them
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.
hay what can we say a good kamakazi will never go out of style
yes, they function great as space 'tugs'. good call, great reporting, great channel. i approve
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
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.
Great video, wasnt expecting to learn about safety or the advances in cutting cheese
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.
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.
The Lightmaker was destroyed when it reached the sheild gate protecting Scarif.
The design feature that Hammerhead ship had that allowed it to survive a crash like that was plot armour, pure and simple!
Simply put Hammerhead ships are sexy and well designed!
When I heard Hammerhead, I thought "Shark".
Video shows a pipe wrench.
Well, silly me!
CEC's official motto in-universe was "CEC: It won't stop moving 'till it hits something."
What's it made of, you say? Well, the strongest material in the 'verse. Even stronger than Mythril. It's called Plotium.
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
The theory of why the hammer head corvette is shaped in such a way works. It is the same reason as to why tank armour is concentrated at the front of the vehicle. As such having a thicker amount of armour plating on the front of the ship than you would see in most ship designs also makes sense. I also think there is a history in the Star Wars cannon of such designs being made with ramming in mind.
Great video, nice idea, had really not thought about it.
Stay safe my friend! 🙏
The Corvette size has been accidentally mentioned as 315 meters by Disney books. Glad you said it's around the correct 100meter range
Like a hammer *shows clamp wrench* god I love this channel
0:31 Holy crap! That is a beautiful hammer you have! Where on earth did you find such an exquisite hammer?
TO SHOW YOU THE POWER OF FLEX TAPE!
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.
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.
I really don't know why I would admit this, but here goes: I now understand why the two Destroyers collided in Episode V. I never realized one of the ships was dead in space. Sit semper vis vobiscum.
No hammers were harmed
in the making of this video.
Ever since we saw our first Hammerhead in KOTOR I loved it. Idk why I just do.
Now i get why they call it a HAMMERhead
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
"Looks like a hammer"
Shows a wrench
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.
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
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!!!
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.
RAMMING SPEED! is the reason why.
It may not be able to perform the venerable "Other Wedge Manouever" but a version of the Hammerhead whose prow was shaped like the Knightly Heater Shield would be able to shelter an escort behind the prow when anti-fighter ships are employed by the enemy.
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
Great video, thanks! But... Couldn't find a photo of a hammer?
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.
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
"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.
@Dillon Brunschon 1. Why would you need to make the ship wider? What does "providing extra vertically" do to help?
2. If the hammer is wide enough to shield the sides of the ship from frontal attack you could just make a circular head which is only that wide.
3. That works for a frontal assault against a single slower enemy ship but in a fleet battle with multiple hammerheads vs multiple enemy ships the enemy ships can get different angles on any given hammerhead.
4. Not to play the "it's fiction" card because building a coherent world which one can think about in detail is one of the best parts of SF, but both of us are living in the reality where Hammerhead Corvettes don't exist.
This design appears to rely on phalanx style tactics. You mass these in a wall so enemies cannot move to attack the flanks of the ship. It probably works best in encirclements which would be viable for the Republic to mass sufficiently to deploy them that way regularly. It is also highly reliant on superiority fighters because of the design flaw that it is likely extremely weak to agile ships and awful in open space battles.
Also the design forces enemies to concentrate fire either on the threatening but less important weapon turrets at the bottom/top of the hammer or the engine area. It prevents single attacks scuttling the ship, either you can run or keep fighting.
@@TheWizel If you mass spaceships close enough that their fronts shield each other like a phallanx/shield wall you're also making it totally impossible for the enemy to miss, plus making it likely that the debris from a destroyed ship will hit and at least damage adjacent ones.
Since Star Wars has shields, it's not *necessarily* the case that the same factors that made shield walls obsolete by the late middle ages apply there, but in all the star wars battles we see they still do, and- since we're already overthinking things, with the way shields work in Star Wars (both as shown in the OT and logically) the shape of the hammer won't matter much because either your shields are up, or you're a rapidly expanding cloud of gas; star wars ships pack enough punch that armor is useless.
The reason for the hammerhead design is it looks really cool- I'm all for overthinking things but you have to acknowledge this sort of thing occasionally or you'll end up trying yourself in knots and muddling your own thinking.
@@AlexanderRM1000 Phalanx shield walls were less closely packed then you think, most had a full man gap between them. You do not need to be tightly packed to make it impossible to miss, they can be easily hundreds of ship widths apart and still be obstructing the firing angle due to the long distances space battles operate at.
@@TheWizel A formation for mele fighting might have room for the men to move around, but if you're using the type of formation where each man's shield protects the man next to him (like with Greek hoplites for example) then by definition they need to be within 1 shields width of each other at a maximum. How exactly are they "obstructing firing angles" from hundreds of ships' widths apart? That's not a "phalanx type formation", that's just... a formation, with at least as much resemblance as to the line of battle or carrier groups as to the phallanx
"The bridge did look like a hammer" *shows a pipe wrench*
Great video, dam that was detailed very informative.
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
My theory: You armor the hell out of the hammerhead part at the front for crew survivability - it would be the last part to survive.
Using the most important part of the ship to shield the less important parts is definitely genius.
Love how theres just a hammer on the tv screen 😂
Clever little details like that is what makes this channel so great.
Gothik Extravaganza facts
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.
At 1.21 where is the mon cal attack from please?
Haven't even watched the video but I can already tell you its just cause its BADASS
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"
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