Star Citizen Polaris vs Hammerhead: Weapons, Crew & Fleet Roles

The RSI Polaris and Aegis Hammerhead are both large multi-crew warships, but they are built for different combat roles.

The Polaris is a strike corvette designed to threaten large vessels with Size 10 torpedoes. Its fighter hangar, medical facilities, cargo capacity, and broader weapon network also allow it to support longer fleet operations.

The Hammerhead is a dedicated anti-fighter gunship. Its six manned turrets carry 24 Size 4 laser repeaters, distributing direct-fire coverage around the hull to protect larger ships from fighters and small attack craft.

The distinction matters because neither vessel uses its principal weapons equally well against every target. A fleet that needs sustained fighter screening has different requirements from one preparing to engage a capital ship.

This comparison focuses on those operational differences, including the crew needed to make each ship useful.

Version note: Alpha 4.10.1 became LIVE on September 16, 2026. The numerical ship specifications used here come from the verified Alpha 4.10.0-LIVE.12519617 vehicle records. They are not presented as independently tested Alpha 4.10.1 performance figures.

Polaris vs Hammerhead at a Glance

The main differences are easier to understand when the ships are considered as complete combat platforms rather than compared through a single DPS figure.

RSI Polaris — Size 6 Corvette

The verified 4.10.0 record lists a length of 181 meters, crew of 12, 576 SCU of cargo, 145 m/s SCM speed, 940 m/s maximum speed, and 648,000 shield HP.

Its combat equipment includes a Size 10 torpedo battery, five manned gun turrets, and seven automated point-defense turrets. The ship also has a dedicated fighter hangar and four Tier 2 medical beds.

Aegis Hammerhead — Size 5 Heavy Gunship

The same version's record lists a length of 120 meters, crew range of 9–11, 40 SCU of cargo, 160 m/s SCM speed, 1,000 m/s maximum speed, and 144,000 shield HP.

Its principal weapons are six manned turrets, each carrying four Size 4 laser repeaters. The ship also carries 32 conventional missiles.

The Hammerhead has no comparable dedicated fighter hangar or Tier 2 medical facility.

These specifications establish the ships' different scales, but they do not measure how effectively a particular crew will operate either vessel.

Weapons: Capital Strike vs Anti-Fighter Coverage

The weapon comparison starts with what each ship is intended to attack.

Polaris: Size 10 torpedoes and heavy supporting guns

The Polaris's defining weapons are its Size 10 torpedoes.

CIG's 2024 Polaris reference sheet specifies 28 loaded S10 torpedoes across four launchers. The current rack description also identifies seven S10 torpedoes per launcher.

There is a source-data inconsistency worth acknowledging: the Alpha 4.10.0 API's aggregate rack field can display eight missiles per rack, while the same rack's detailed port structure contains seven S10 torpedo slots and one separate inner-tube attachment.

The official reference sheet and detailed rack structure support the 28-torpedo configuration. This comparison therefore uses 28 rather than silently treating the aggregate field as proof of 32.

The Polaris backs those torpedoes with heavier and lighter gun positions, including a lower-front twin-S6 Maris ballistic turret and two quad-S4 Omnisky cannon turrets in the verified 4.10.0 configuration.

Its weapons give the crew several ways to pressure a large target before or after committing heavy ordnance.

A torpedo strike still requires suitable circumstances. Enemy point defense, countermeasures, maneuvering, and escort ships can affect the result. The Polaris benefits from selecting valuable targets and coordinating its attack rather than launching S10 torpedoes simply because a lock is available.

The Polaris Weapons Guide covers the complete loadout, torpedo-count evidence, and current weapon mechanics.

Hammerhead: Six quad-S4 turrets

The Hammerhead concentrates its principal firepower in six independently manned turrets.

Each turret carries four Size 4 laser repeaters, giving the ship 24 S4 guns distributed around its hull.

CIG's Hammerhead Q&A describes the vessel as a patrol and escort ship intended to screen larger ships from fighters and small attack craft.

Its turret arrangement supports that mission. Several gunners can track separate approaches while the pilot maintains a position near the vessel being protected.

The laser-repeater configuration also avoids the need to replenish ballistic ammunition after every engagement, although power distribution, capacitors, cooling, and component condition still affect sustained fire.

The Hammerhead does not need a capital torpedo to engage the targets its main weapons were designed to handle.

Anti-Fighter Defense: The Hammerhead's Specialized Role

The Hammerhead's defining advantage is the organization of its turret network.

A protective gunship may need to engage fighters approaching from the front, above, below, or behind its formation. Six separate turrets provide the potential for coverage across several directions without requiring the pilot to chase every individual target.

CIG specifically describes the Hammerhead's intended combat position as providing broad coverage rather than concentrating all six turrets forward.

That distinction is important. Its 24 guns do not automatically contribute their combined damage to a single target. Their value comes from positioning, firing arcs, and the ability to engage threats distributed around the ship.

The Polaris can defend itself against fighters, but its smaller defensive weapons serve alongside a much broader armament.

Its current configuration includes S3 repeater turrets and seven automated PDCs. According to CIG's released Polaris Q&A, the PDC network prioritizes incoming hostile ordnance before nearby hostile vehicles.

Those automated defenses are valuable, particularly against missiles and torpedoes. They do not make the Polaris's main gun turrets fully automated or provide the same operating pattern as six staffed Hammerhead turrets.

A Polaris can also deploy a fighter when the crew has an appropriate carried craft and pilot available. That adds another defensive option, but it does not eliminate the manpower required to operate the mothership.

The Hammerhead's weapon arrangement is therefore more directly aligned with sustained anti-fighter screening, while the Polaris combines defensive capability with its primary heavy-strike role.

Attacking Large Ships: What the Polaris Brings

The balance of capabilities changes when the target is a large warship.

The Polaris's Size 10 torpedoes provide an anti-large-ship weapon system that the Hammerhead does not possess.

CIG has described the Polaris as a strategic combatant intended to threaten larger vessels rather than remain in prolonged close-range engagements. Its heavy torpedoes are central to that role.

The Hammerhead's S4 guns can still damage suitable large targets, but its principal weapon layout was developed around defending a formation from smaller attackers.

CIG's original Hammerhead Q&A even identifies dedicated anti-capital ships as threats that can engage it from beyond the effective range of its guns.

This does not mean a Polaris torpedo automatically hits or that the Hammerhead cannot contribute against larger ships. It means their principal weapons present very different problems to an opposing fleet.

A large target facing a Polaris must account for heavy incoming ordnance. A group approaching a Hammerhead must account for sustained direct fire from several turret positions.

For fleet planning, those are separate capabilities rather than two versions of the same weapon system.

Crew Requirements: Different Jobs, Similar Staffing Pressure

The Hammerhead is smaller than the Polaris, but neither ship is a low-crew combat platform.

The verified 4.10.0 vehicle records list 9–11 crew for the Hammerhead and 12 for the Polaris. These are vehicle-data crew figures, not mandatory minimum-player requirements.

The important difference is how the crew's work is distributed.

Staffing a Hammerhead

A Hammerhead pilot and six gunners can occupy the ship's complete main turret network.

That already accounts for seven people before assigning anyone to additional bridge duties, engineering, or other support work.

With fewer players, the crew must prioritize the turret positions that provide the most relevant coverage for the current encounter.

For example, a gunship escorting another vessel may concentrate its available gunners on the approaches where hostile fighters are most likely to appear. That is a practical compromise, not a substitute for full coverage.

Staffing a Polaris

The Polaris places more responsibilities outside its primary gun positions.

The pilot, torpedo operator, heavy turret crews, engineering personnel, and potentially a fighter pilot all contribute to different aspects of the mission.

A player assigned to the carried fighter is no longer available to occupy a Polaris turret. Similarly, somebody responding to an internal component failure cannot simultaneously remain at a distant weapon station.

Our Polaris Crew Guide uses five to eight players as an editorial combat-planning range, not an official CIG minimum.

For this comparison, the useful distinction is that Hammerhead staffing concentrates heavily on turret coverage, while Polaris staffing involves a wider set of simultaneous responsibilities.

Mobility and Positioning

The Hammerhead has the smaller hull and higher movement figures in the verified 4.10.0 snapshot.

It measures 120 × 72 × 16 meters, compared with the Polaris at 181 × 87 × 40 meters.

The same records list 160 m/s SCM and 1,000 m/s maximum speed for the Hammerhead, versus 145 m/s SCM and 940 m/s maximum speed for the Polaris.

CIG's historical Hammerhead Q&A also describes it as intended to be more nimble than the Polaris.

Those differences support the Hammerhead's escort role. It can reposition around the formation it is protecting and adjust its orientation as smaller threats change their approach.

The Polaris has different positioning priorities.

Its crew benefits from establishing useful firing opportunities against large targets while avoiding unnecessary exposure to an enemy's strongest weapons.

Neither ship should be evaluated as a dogfighter. Their handling matters because it supports different large-ship combat tasks.

Shields and Survivability

The verified 4.10.0 vehicle records list a much larger raw shield pool for the Polaris:

Polaris: 648,000 shield HP. Hammerhead: 144,000 shield HP.

That difference illustrates the scale of the two vessels, but raw shield capacity is not a complete survivability measurement.

The Polaris is substantially larger and can present a larger target. The Hammerhead has a smaller hull and different movement characteristics.

Incoming weapon types, shield facing, armor, component damage, engineering response, crew performance, and positioning all affect how the ships survive actual engagements.

A well-maintained ship with coordinated crew may respond to damage very differently from the same hull with most stations unattended.

The shield figures are useful reference data. They should not be converted into a guaranteed time-to-kill calculation or a prediction of a direct fight.

Hangar, Medical and Logistics Capability

The Polaris offers capabilities that sit outside the Hammerhead's principal combat role.

It has a dedicated fighter hangar, four Tier 2 medical beds, and 576 SCU of rated cargo capacity.

Those facilities can support a carried fighter, crew treatment and recovery, equipment transport, and longer deployments.

The Hammerhead does not have comparable dedicated fighter-carrier or medical facilities.

For an organization that already has separate carriers, medical ships, and logistics support, those missing functions may not be important. The Hammerhead can concentrate on defending the formation.

For a group that wants one warship to support several activities, the Polaris provides more of that infrastructure internally.

The Polaris can support a carried fighter

The hangar allows a Polaris crew to transport a smaller craft and deploy it when a mission requires reconnaissance, interception, pursuit, or local activity.

Ship Hangar Services, introduced in Alpha 4.8, also allow supported host ships to repair, refuel, and rearm compatible craft when the necessary resources are available on the host ship's cargo grid.

These mechanics create a carrier workflow that the Hammerhead cannot reproduce internally.

The Polaris Hangar Guide covers ship compatibility and servicing limitations without requiring this comparison to reproduce the full fit list.

Medical support changes the mission scope

Four Tier 2 medical beds give the Polaris an onboard recovery capability useful for fighter pilots, ground teams, and its own crew.

The Hammerhead's operating model is more dependent on whatever external medical support the wider group provides.

This distinction becomes more relevant during longer operations than during a short engagement near a station.

Cargo: 576 SCU vs 40 SCU in the Verified Data

The Polaris's 4.10.0 vehicle record lists 576 SCU, divided across two 288 SCU cargo grids.

The same version-locked source reports 40 SCU for the Hammerhead.

A separate community-maintained Hammerhead reference has also described a 64 SCU hold. Because those published figures differ, the 40 SCU value in this comparison is specifically identified as the version-locked API figure rather than an independently measured Alpha 4.10.1 grid capacity.

The broader operational distinction does not depend on resolving that discrepancy.

The Polaris can devote substantially more rated cargo space to mission supplies, ammunition, equipment, fighter-servicing resources, and recovered goods.

The Hammerhead carries a much smaller logistics footprint because cargo transport is not central to its role.

For a dedicated anti-fighter escort, the larger cargo hold may be unnecessary. For a mobile combat platform supporting a fighter and several crew activities, it becomes a meaningful part of the Polaris's operating capability.

Practical Mission Scenarios

The differences become clearer when the ships are placed into specific operations.

Protecting a valuable ship from fighter attacks

A Hammerhead can remain near the protected vessel while its turret crews cover multiple approach directions.

Its pilot can concentrate on maintaining a useful escort position, and the gun network is directly relevant to smaller attackers.

A Polaris can help defend the same formation, but its Size 10 torpedoes contribute little to routine fighter interception. It must rely on its secondary turrets, automated defenses, and potentially a carried fighter.

The Hammerhead's specialization is particularly relevant in this situation.

Engaging a large enemy warship

The Polaris brings a heavy torpedo system designed for this target class, supported by its gun turrets and conventional missiles.

The Hammerhead can contribute direct fire when the engagement allows it, but its main weapons were not designed around the same heavy-strike role.

A fleet facing a large opponent has different reasons to bring each ship.

The Polaris can threaten the primary target, while a Hammerhead may be useful protecting the attacking force from fighter escorts.

Conducting a longer multi-ship operation

The Polaris offers more support infrastructure aboard one hull.

Its hangar, medical facility, and large cargo capacity can support fighter operations and crew activity without requiring every function to be provided by another vessel.

A Hammerhead contributes a more specialized combat function and may rely on other ships for those additional services.

An organization planning an extended deployment should therefore consider its existing support fleet before deciding which capabilities need to be carried internally.

Polaris vs Hammerhead in a Direct Fight

A direct engagement between the two ships would place their different weapon systems against each other.

The Polaris has a heavy torpedo battery, larger recorded shield capacity, and supporting guns intended for substantial targets.

The Hammerhead has stronger dedicated turret coverage against smaller craft, a more compact hull, and higher movement figures in the verified snapshot.

The Polaris's anti-large-ship weaponry is relevant to an opponent of the Hammerhead's size, but a successful torpedo attack is not guaranteed.

Engagement range, maneuvering, point defense, crew performance, component damage, and the initial tactical situation would all affect what happens.

A direct duel is therefore a narrower test than the broader ownership question. It does not establish which vessel will be more useful across fighter-screening, capital-strike, and fleet-support missions.

Ownership and Operating Complexity

The vehicle records list reference pledge values of $975 for the Polaris and $725 for the Hammerhead.

These are MSRP/reference figures, not guaranteed current RSI store offers, in-game prices, or secondary-market quotations.

The Polaris asks a group to manage a wider range of systems and supplies. Its torpedoes, carrier operations, medical facility, cargo hold, and internal engineering all create additional opportunities for gameplay as well as additional work.

The Hammerhead's ownership proposition is more specialized. Its principal value comes from having enough crew to operate the turret network and a mission that benefits from sustained fighter-screening fire.

The practical ownership question is how frequently the group will use the capabilities it is paying to maintain.

For a deeper discussion of the Polaris's operating burden rather than another specification comparison, see the Polaris Review.

Choosing for Your Fleet

A group planning primarily around anti-fighter escort duty has clear reasons to consider the Hammerhead's specialized turret layout. Six manned quad-S4 positions provide the coverage CIG designed the ship to deliver, provided enough gunners are available.

A group planning around large-target strikes and longer fleet operations has different reasons to consider the Polaris. Its heavy torpedoes, carried-fighter capability, medical support, and larger logistics capacity support a wider mission set, but require more varied crew assignments.

An organization that regularly performs both tasks may have a reason to operate the ships together rather than ask either one to cover every role.

The relevant decision is not which vessel has the more impressive headline specification. It is which capabilities the group's actual missions require, and whether the necessary crew and support resources will be available.

Final Verdict

The Hammerhead is a purpose-built anti-fighter screen, while the Polaris combines heavy strike capability with carrier and fleet-support infrastructure.

The Hammerhead's six quad-S4 turrets are organized around protecting larger ships from smaller attackers. The Polaris's Size 10 torpedoes address a different target class, and its hangar, medical facility, and cargo hold make it useful beyond the immediate combat encounter.

Both ships depend on coordinated crews, but they distribute work differently.

The Hammerhead concentrates more of its personnel around defensive gun coverage. The Polaris needs to coordinate weapons, engineering, carrier operations, and other support tasks as the mission demands.

For the complete Polaris specification and broader ship context, see the Star Citizen Polaris Guide.