Sphyrna-class Hammerhead corvette

The ***Sphyrna*-class Hammerhead corvette**, also known as the ***Sphyrna*-class C80 corvette** and known more commonly as the **Hammerhead corvette**, was a model of corvette that saw wide use during the Imperial Era as an armed transport, and later served as a mainline warship in the naval forces of the Alliance to Restore the Republic and subsequent New Republic Security Bureau during and after the Galactic Civil War against the Galactic Empire.

## Characteristics

Sphyrna-class Hammerhead corvettes, also referred to as C80 corvettes or Hammerhead-class cruisers, were inspired by a similar starship design by Rendili Hyperworks that dated back centuries prior to the Imperial Era. The Sphyrna-class was a joint operation between two companies, as it was designed by Corellian Engineering Corporation and manufactured by Rendili StarDrive. A big, bulky transport, the Hammerhead was built for the transportation of goods and individuals safely, comfortably, and without the need for escort ships. It had a cylinder-shaped hull that contained a number of large modular cargo holds, external docking points for cargo containers, and an external cargo lift.

The flight deck, crew berths, and passenger staterooms were located in the angular, vertical bow, which gave the ship its notable physical profile and name. Three large pylon mounted ion sublight engines dominated the ship's aft which gave it a sublight speed of 900 kilometers per hour. The engines were placed on an inverted triangular engine block which also housed the ship's main reactor, the ship's hyperdrive, and the bulk of the engineering section. The Hammerhead was equipped with a primary class 3 hyperdrive along with a secondary class 15. It was equipped with a navigation computer and a medium range sensor.
The engine block was connected to the ship's main fuselage, ultimately ending up at the front of the ship at its spacious cockpit. The bridge of the Hammerhead had four crew stations, though it could be operated by two crew members, or in certain situations even a single pilot. Despite this, it could be fully crewed by thirty-five crew members and carry 125 passengers. A circular tactical display console was used for crew briefings, often led by the fleet group commander to coordinate their ships. The console was situated in the middle of the bridge room, behind the command chair. It held enough consumables for six months and cost 1,000,000 credits to manufacture. Hammerheads typically held a cargo capacity of 22,833 metric tons.

Hammerhead corvettes carried a respectable armament of heavy laser cannons and turbolasers, with the standard variant being armed with two dual forward-mounted heavy laser cannons by the bridge and a dorsal turret-mounted twin light turbolaser battery at the ship's engine block. The ship's internal systems were easy to maintain and upgrade, and were backed by numerous redundant systems; because of this, popular upgrades were to add a second turbolaser battery and to upgrade the ship's ion engines for even greater speed.
The hammerhead was specifically designed for ramming attacks; a common tactic was to keep the hammerhead facing an opponent, to keep its powerful forward shields and tough reinforced hull in line for a potential ram - even heavy collisions only resulted in minor damage to a hammerhead's bow. In addition to standard armament, Hammerheads could mount external ordnance racks, as well as quad turbolaser batteries. With its heavy defenses and ramming ability coupled with a decent armament, Hammerheads were deployed as heavy attack ships, and were fully capable of taking on vessels of similar size, or even larger ships when deployed in groups.

Throughout its existence, several variants of the Hammerhead existed. One was commonly seen utilized by early rebel cells that featured a large ventral cargo bay and three dual laser cannon, as well as a vertically-elongated bridge section characteristic of the Hammerhead. In its early years, the Rebel Alliance continued to use this model. The Hammerhead Scout Corvette and the Hammerhead Torpedo Corvette were part of this variant.

By 0 BBY, however, the Alliance had modified its previous Hammerheads, such as the *Lightmaker*, into a slightly different refit. Several new features were added to the original Hammerhead structure, including two extra modules mounted to the port and starboard of the craft at the docking tubes, which included a ventral and a dorsal turret-mounted twin light turbolaser battery, increasing the total number from one to five. Six escape pods were added in place of the cargo bay, and a fourth sublight ion drive mounted on top of the primary three, giving it enough power to single-handedly move a disabled Imperial I-class Star Destroyer. Additionally, the hull and frame of the ship was fitted with additional modules and compartments. Due to the ship's easily upgradeable systems and tough hulls, smugglers and pirates acquired Hammerheads and highly modified them with more powerful armament and better cargo-handling systems.