C-9979 Landing Craft

History

 * "It's an invasion army."
 * ―Obi-Wan Kenobi, to Qui-Gon Jinn upon seeing landing craft being loaded

The C-9979 landing craft, also known as the Trade Federation landing ship or the Separatist landing craft, was a large-sized landing craft built by Haor Chall Engineering for the Trade Federation'smilitary forces, and later for the Confederacy of Independent Systems. When the Trade Federation began planning to create its military forces, Haor Chall Engineering produced a design for a landing craft that would carry troops and ground vehicles from warships down to planets.

Characteristics
The C-9979 configuration was chosen due to its close resemblance to the commercial barges used by the Federation's merchant fleet.[1] The ship had four wings with a wingspan of 370 meters. These wings were removable so that they could be stored away easily aboard the massive battleships. They were bound by powerful tensor fields to the fuselage when the craft was assembled for use. Even the strongest metal alloys were unable to bear the immense cargo weight inside the wings, thus making tensor fields essential for the craft.[1]

A series of maintenance and repair stores were located along the front of these wings and service the assault force components, particularly battle droids needing servicing after battles. Forward tensor fields connected the wing mounts firmly to the fuselage and wing-mounted tensor fields prevented the span of the wings from collapsing under pressure.

These wings were used to carry vehicles racked in garage channels for maximum loading capacity. Each carried 11 MTTs that carried troops on the frontlines, 28 PAC for deploying troops reasonably behind the frontlines, and 114 AATs for vehicular support. When deployed, these vehicles were guided along repulsor tracks to a staging platform. Since the maneuvering equipment on-board was not precise enough to negotiate the cramped confines of the garage zones without causing damage, they required the assistance of the repulsor tracks. At a staging area, the vehicles were rotated into position and grabbed by transport clamps, which brought them aft and lead them down the deployment ramp in the landing craft's foot.

C-9979 landing craft could also function as carriers, holding Scarabdroid starfighters or bombers. One carrier, which worked with Vana Sage in the Eos system, was equipped with a hyperdrive.

Because of its heavy cargo, the landing craft had a huge antigravity lifting capacity. The landing craft was manned and operated by B1 battle droids. Landing craft were stored in the hangars of warships where they were assembled, serviced, and repaired. When ready for deployment, they were loaded with ground vehicles. Landing craft were always stored in an unloaded condition to prevent structural stress and so that their vehicles could be serviced and repaired.