Star Citizen Ironclad Assault Vehicle Support Guide: RRR, Snubs & Mobile FOB

The Drake Ironclad Assault is more than a large vehicle transporter. Its defining advantage is that vehicles and suitable small spacecraft can remain part of the operation after they arrive.

CIG introduced the Assault as one of the supported launch ships for Ship Hangar Services T0 in Alpha 4.8. The official Alpha 4.8 Q&A states that T0 can repair, refuel, and restock supported vehicles using resources stored on the host ship's cargo grid. Refueling covers hydrogen and quantum fuel, while restocking includes ballistic ammunition, countermeasures, and missiles.

That gives the Assault a broader support role than a transport that becomes irrelevant once its cargo leaves the hold.

Its Alpha 4.10.0 vehicle data lists 1,440 SCU across two 720-SCU cargo grids, while CIG's 2026 Ironclad presentation describes room for combat vehicles and ships in the service bay. The same published material also lists 34 infantry jump seats, reinforcing the Assault's combined-arms role.

The important limitation is that not every part of this support concept is equally mature. Ship Hangar Services were implemented at launch, while the Fabricator was not enabled. CIG also said the original ship-wide service area would eventually be restricted to the rear third of the cargo bay.

Those statements document the Alpha 4.8 launch implementation and CIG's stated future plan. They should not be converted into an independently verified permanent Alpha 4.10.1 service layout.

For the broader ship rather than this vehicle-support workflow, see the Star Citizen Ironclad Assault Guide.

The central ownership question remains:

Does your group deploy, recover, and support vehicles or small craft often enough for those capabilities to justify losing 760 SCU compared with the standard Ironclad?

Ironclad Assault Vehicle-Support Basics

The Assault's current version-locked vehicle snapshot provides enough context for its support role without turning this page into another full specifications guide.

Vehicle-support metric	Alpha 4.10.0 / documented value
Cargo capacity	1,440 SCU
Cargo grids	2 × 720 SCU
Dimensions	117 × 50 × 25 m
SCM speed	130 m/s
NAV speed	940 m/s
Ship HP	278,000
Ship-level shield HP	144,000
Crew field	7–8
Crew stations	8
Beds	7
Manned turret positions	3
Remote turret positions	5
Missiles	10 × Size 5
Reference MSRP	$650

The 1,440-SCU figure is not merely a commercial-cargo number. CIG's published description positions the space as both a cargo hold and a service bay for combat vehicles and ships.

That creates an important distinction between cargo capacity and vehicle-support capacity. A vehicle occupying physical floor space can reduce the amount of standardized cargo the crew can carry, while a technically possible arrangement may still be inconvenient if it leaves insufficient room for deployment, recovery, or servicing.

The best vehicle layout is therefore not necessarily the one that fills every available meter.

How Ship Hangar Services Work on the Ironclad Assault

CIG's Q&A: Alpha 4.8 New Features & Content provides the clearest official definition of Ship Hangar Services T0.

T0 allows supported host ships to provide:

• repair using RMC stored on the host's cargo grid;
• hydrogen and quantum refueling;
• ballistic ammunition restocking;
• countermeasure restocking;
• missile restocking.

The same official Q&A lists the Drake Ironclad Assault among the ships supported at launch and states that all supported ships offered the same service range.

The vehicle requesting service uses the familiar Landing Services interface while appropriately positioned within the host's supported area. The necessary fuel, RMC, ammunition, countermeasures, or missiles must be available through the host ship's cargo grid.

This makes the Assault fundamentally different from a simple vehicle carrier. A supported asset can deploy, return to the ship, receive appropriate services, and potentially rejoin the operation without requiring the entire group to return to a conventional station.

These are documented Alpha 4.8 T0 mechanics. This guide does not present them as fresh independent Alpha 4.10.1 testing.

Repair

Repair is particularly useful for vehicles expected to operate repeatedly rather than make a single deployment.

A damaged ground vehicle or suitable small spacecraft can return to the Assault and request repairs when the host has the required resources.

The official T0 documentation establishes the service itself. It does not provide a complete Alpha 4.10.1 benchmark for every damage state, vehicle combination, or edge case.

Refueling

Ship Hangar Services T0 supports both hydrogen and quantum fuel.

This can extend how long supported vehicles and small craft remain useful away from conventional infrastructure, particularly when the carried craft depends heavily on the parent ship for sustained operations.

Snubs are an obvious example. A small craft without strategic quantum mobility is already dependent on a carrier for long-distance transport, so onboard servicing strengthens the Assault's role as a mothership rather than just a delivery vehicle.

CIG specifically used the Ironclad Assault as a thematic example when discussing the Pitbull, noting that it can carry multiple Pitbulls while providing Ship Hangar Services to support wider operations such as mining or escort.

Rearming and restocking

Rearming is part of the official T0 implementation, not merely a community-reported use case.

CIG's Alpha 4.8 Q&A specifies that Restock can replenish:

• ballistic ammunition;
• countermeasures;
• missiles.

Ballistic ammunition must match the relevant weapon size. Missile restocking also depends on rack state and missile compatibility under the T0 rules described by CIG.

That means an Assault being used as a long-duration support ship needs to think about more than fuel and repair material. Its service inventory can also include ammunition, countermeasures, and missiles appropriate to the vehicles or craft it is supporting.

Ship Hangar Services T0 Includes Repair, Rearm & Refuel

For the Ironclad Assault, the official Alpha 4.8 baseline is a genuine repair, rearm/restock, and refuel package.

The useful distinction is not whether rearming is official—it is—but which evidence supports which part of the system.

The Alpha 4.8 New Features & Content Q&A defines the complete T0 service set and identifies the Ironclad Assault as a supported host.

The DefenseCon 2956 Ship Q&A provides Ironclad-specific context, including the Assault's launch-era ship-wide service area and CIG's plan to restrict those services to the rear third of the cargo bay in a future update.

Community players may describe this package simply as RRR. That shorthand is consistent with the official service categories, but individual community reports still should not be treated as independent confirmation that every aspect behaves identically in Alpha 4.10.1.

Ship-Wide Services vs the Rear-Third Service Area

The Assault's service area requires a version distinction.

At Alpha 4.8 launch, CIG said the Ironclad Assault's Ship Hangar Services were ship-wide.

In the same DefenseCon answer, CIG said a future patch would restrict the functionality to the rear third of the cargo bay, identified as the intended servicing area.

These statements describe an initial implementation and a planned later configuration.

Neither should be silently presented as a freshly verified Alpha 4.10.1 boundary without newer official implementation evidence.

For operational planning, the planned layout still has useful implications. If the rear-third restriction becomes the active implementation, crews would need to preserve access to that area rather than using every available space for parked vehicles or static cargo.

A practical layout would therefore keep likely service routes clear, avoid trapping frequently used assets behind unrelated freight, and separate active deployment space from cargo that does not need immediate access.

Those are workflow implications of CIG's announced design, not a claim that the rear-third restriction is confirmed active in Alpha 4.10.1.

How Many Vehicles Can the Ironclad Assault Carry?

There is no single reliable Ironclad Assault vehicle count.

The answer depends on vehicle dimensions, orientation, clearance, recovery routes, service access, and how much of the hold remains allocated to cargo.

SCU alone cannot determine that.

Two arrangements using similar floor area may perform very differently if one allows vehicles to drive out cleanly while the other requires several assets to be moved first.

Pitbulls are the clearest official example

The strongest official small-craft example is the Drake Pitbull.

CIG said the Pitbull was designed not to exceed the volume of the Fury in order to maximize transport compatibility. It then identified the Ironclad Assault as a thematic example because it can store multiple Pitbulls and support them through Ship Hangar Services.

In the same DefenseCon Q&A, CIG said that with careful arrangement the Ironclad can accommodate snubs into double figures.

That supports the ship's snub-carrier potential without establishing a universal capacity number.

“Double figures” for compact snubs does not mean ten larger fighters are supported, and physical storage alone does not guarantee equally convenient launch and recovery.

Can the Ironclad Assault Carry Fighters?

It can carry suitable small spacecraft, but physical fit and operational fit are different standards.

CIG directly supports the concept of smaller carried spacecraft and uses multiple Pitbulls as an example. The service bay also exists specifically to support vehicles and spacecraft rather than standardized freight alone.

A useful carried craft still needs enough room to enter, park or land safely, preserve necessary access, and launch again without excessive reorganization.

A spacecraft that can be squeezed into the hold but is difficult to recover after deployment is a poor operational pairing.

The Assault is therefore better treated as a large service bay with strong small-craft potential rather than a guarantee that every geometrically compatible fighter is a practical fit.

Ground Vehicles Are the Assault's More Natural Use Case

Ground vehicles fit the Assault's combined-arms role particularly well.

They do not require strategic quantum mobility of their own, and deployment naturally occurs after the parent ship reaches the operating area.

A group can transport vehicles, infantry, supplies, and support resources in one hull. CIG's published Ironclad material lists 34 infantry jump seats, 1,440 SCU of resources, and room for combat vehicles and ships.

The additional value comes from sustaining those assets after deployment. The Assault can function as a place for supported vehicles to return for T0 repair, refuel, and restock services rather than serving only as their initial transport.

A Better Vehicle-Deployment Workflow

The Assault rewards crews that plan deployment order before loading.

Putting the first vehicle needed behind several other assets can turn an impressive theoretical capacity into an inefficient operation.

Vehicles needed immediately should have a clear exit route. Assets likely to return repeatedly for service should remain easy to recover, while supplies that do not need immediate access can occupy less convenient positions.

If CIG's planned rear-third servicing restriction becomes the active implementation, preserving access through the bay becomes even more important.

Operational density matters more than parking density.

Cargo and Vehicle Space Compete With Each Other

The Assault still carries 1,440 SCU, but every mixed operation needs to decide how much of its physical space is being used for freight and how much is being reserved for deployed assets and servicing access.

A cargo-first crew may use most of the grids for commodities. A deployment-focused group may allocate more room to vehicles, snubs, service supplies, and clear recovery lanes.

This is where the standard Ironclad becomes an important comparison.

The Alpha 4.10.0 version-locked cargo-grid data gives the standard Ironclad 2,200 SCU, while CIG separately publishes 2,204 SCU. The Assault remains at 1,440 SCU.

The reason for the four-SCU difference between the two standard-Ironclad sources has not been established.

Using the version-locked 2,200-SCU figure for the direct comparison, the Assault gives up 760 SCU.

That trade makes sense when vehicle and small-craft support contribute more to the mission than the additional freight capacity would.

The Ironclad vs Ironclad Assault comparison covers the broader variant decision.

The Fabricator Is Not a Current Buying Argument

The Assault includes a Fabricator, but this remains one of the clearest places where planned functionality must stay separate from implemented Ship Hangar Services.

CIG stated in the DefenseCon 2956 Q&A that the Fabricator was not enabled at launch.

Its intended future functionality is to craft available blueprints directly to and from the cargo grid once fabrication involving vehicle grids is supported.

Without newer official implementation evidence, this guide does not treat Fabricator blueprint crafting as an independently confirmed Alpha 4.10.1 feature.

That distinction matters because Ship Hangar Services already have documented implementation evidence for repair, fuel, ammunition, countermeasures, and missiles. Fabrication remains a separate future capability.

A current vehicle-support plan should therefore work without relying on the Fabricator.

The Assault Can Support Industrial Operations Too

The name “Assault” encourages a military interpretation, but its support systems can also contribute to industrial operations.

CIG specifically mentioned mining or escort as examples of wider activities that could benefit from an Ironclad Assault carrying Pitbulls and providing Ship Hangar Services.

The same general logic applies whenever a group uses vehicles or smaller craft away from normal service locations. The parent ship can carry mission assets, service resources, and supplies in the same hull.

That does not automatically make it the most efficient industrial ship. A group focused primarily on moving commodities or recovered material may benefit more from the standard Ironclad's larger cargo capacity.

The Assault becomes more relevant when supporting the working vehicles matters more than maximizing freight space.

Crew Requirements for Vehicle Operations

The vehicle-data snapshot lists a 7–8 crew field, eight crew stations, and seven beds.

These are separate fields and should not be converted into a new minimum crew requirement.

Vehicle operations create an additional staffing issue because people are needed not only aboard the Ironclad Assault but also in the assets it deploys.

A group may need players for the pilot position, defensive stations, engineering, deployment coordination, and support tasks while also providing drivers, ground crews, or snub pilots.

The exact requirement depends on the operation. One ground vehicle creates a very different workload from several vehicle teams plus multiple snubs.

The Ironclad Assault Review examines that ownership burden in more detail.

Can a Solo Player Use the Assault as a Vehicle Carrier?

Yes, on a limited scale.

A solo player can fly the Assault, carry a vehicle, deploy it, and return to the ship later.

What one person cannot do is exploit every combined-arms function simultaneously. The same player cannot occupy every crewed weapon station while driving a ground vehicle elsewhere, operating several snubs, coordinating recovery, and managing the carrier.

Larger operations therefore depend more heavily on additional players because their tasks occur at the same time.

This is not an official multiplayer minimum; it is a practical consequence of the activities the ship is designed to support.

Does the Command Module Help Vehicle Operations?

The Assault uses the same detachable Command Module as the standard Ironclad.

The Alpha 4.10.0 module record identifies it as an independent Size 2 transport with 0 SCU cargo capacity.

That makes it useful for personnel movement rather than vehicle or standardized freight transport.

A support crew can use the module to move people independently of the larger Assault while the parent platform remains focused on the wider operation.

The current implementation of parent-hull control after the Command Module is fully detached remains version-sensitive. Older CIG design documentation and later 4.9+ Operations-control evidence have not been fully reconciled by newer official documentation.

The dedicated Star Citizen Ironclad Command Module Guide covers that evidence boundary in detail. No site URL is included here because a published LTI Hangar page for that guide has not been independently verified.

Is the Ironclad Assault a True Carrier?

It can perform carrier-like tasks, but calling it a dedicated carrier can create the wrong expectation.

Its service bay can hold suitable smaller craft. CIG explicitly describes multiple Pitbulls and says careful arrangement can reach double figures for snubs. Ship Hangar Services also give supported craft a reason to return to the parent vessel for repair, refueling, and restocking.

Those are genuine carrier-like capabilities.

However, the Assault remains a heavy dropship and combined-arms support platform with substantial cargo capacity. Its internal arrangement may need to accommodate vehicles, service resources, supplies, access routes, personnel, and freight at the same time.

It is therefore better described as a multi-role transport and mobile support base with strong snub-carrier potential.

When the Ironclad Assault Vehicle Role Makes Sense

The Assault is most valuable when deployed assets need support after arrival.

A convoy that only needs its vehicles transported once may not use enough of the specialized capability. A cargo crew that fills the bay primarily with commodities also sacrifices 760 SCU compared with the standard Ironclad without making full use of Ship Hangar Services.

A group repeatedly launching snubs, recovering ground vehicles, repairing damage, replenishing fuel, ammunition, countermeasures, or missiles, and staging extended operations has a much clearer reason to choose the Assault.

Choose the Assault when the operation requires vehicles or small craft to be deployed, recovered, and supported—not merely transported.

Final Verdict

The Ironclad Assault is a combined-arms transport and mobile support platform whose usefulness extends beyond moving vehicles from one location to another.

CIG's Alpha 4.8 documentation establishes Ship Hangar Services T0 with repair, hydrogen and quantum refueling, ballistic-ammunition restocking, countermeasures, and missile restocking. The Ironclad Assault is explicitly included among the supported launch ships.

DefenseCon 2956 adds the Ironclad-specific context: the launch implementation was ship-wide, CIG planned a future rear-third service zone, the Fabricator was not enabled at launch, and multiple compact snubs such as the Pitbull are part of the intended support use case.

Its limitations remain important. Vehicle fit is not the same thing as operational fit, cargo and deployed assets compete for space, and complex support operations require more coordination than simply flying the parent ship.

The Alpha 4.8 Ship Hangar Services documentation should also remain identified as the launch implementation rather than being presented as fresh Alpha 4.10.1 testing.

For a freight-first owner, the standard Ironclad's additional cargo capacity remains easier to justify.

For a group whose missions revolve around transporting, recovering, repairing, rearming, refueling, and redeploying suitable vehicles or small craft, the Assault has a clear specialized role.

FAQ

Can the Ironclad Assault repair vehicles?

Yes. CIG's Alpha 4.8 Ship Hangar Services T0 documentation includes repair, using RMC from the host ship's cargo grid. The Assault is explicitly listed as a supported launch ship.

DefenseCon 2956 separately describes the Assault's launch-era service area as ship-wide and CIG's future plan to restrict it to the rear third of the cargo bay.

Can the Ironclad Assault refuel vehicles and small ships?

Yes. Ship Hangar Services T0 supports both hydrogen and quantum refueling, and the Ironclad Assault is included among the supported launch ships.

This describes the official Alpha 4.8 implementation rather than independent Alpha 4.10.1 testing.

Can the Ironclad Assault rearm ships?

Yes. CIG's official Alpha 4.8 Ship Hangar Services Q&A states that T0 Restock can replenish ballistic ammunition, countermeasures, and missiles, and it lists the Ironclad Assault among supported hosts offering the same service range.

The required resources must be available through the host ship's cargo grid.

How much cargo does the Ironclad Assault carry?

The Alpha 4.10.0 vehicle-data snapshot lists 1,440 SCU across two 720-SCU cargo grids.

Can the Ironclad Assault carry Pitbulls?

Yes. CIG specifically identifies the Ironclad Assault as a thematic carrier for multiple Pitbulls and connects that use case with Ship Hangar Services.

How many snubs can the Ironclad Assault carry?

CIG said careful arrangement can allow snub capacity into double figures. That statement should not be generalized to larger fighters or converted into a precise universal capacity.

Can the Ironclad Assault carry fighters?

It can carry suitable small spacecraft, but physical fit does not guarantee practical launch, servicing, and recovery. CIG directly supports multiple Pitbull snubs; other craft should be evaluated individually.

Does the Ironclad Assault Fabricator work?

CIG stated that the Fabricator's blueprint-crafting functionality was not enabled at Alpha 4.8 launch and was intended for a future implementation.

Without newer official evidence, this guide does not treat it as an independently confirmed Alpha 4.10.1 capability.

Is the Ironclad Assault better than the standard Ironclad for vehicles?

The Assault has the stronger documented vehicle-support role because it was included in Ship Hangar Services T0 and was designed around a service-bay use case.

The standard Ironclad offers more cargo capacity and remains more appropriate when freight volume matters more than vehicle servicing.

Is the Ironclad Assault good for solo vehicle gameplay?

It can transport and deploy a vehicle solo, but larger support operations create simultaneous jobs that one player cannot perform at once. Its most complex vehicle-support use cases are therefore better suited to coordinated groups.