C-9979 Landing Craft

"Captain, we've searched the ship, and there is no trace of the Jedi. They may have gotten on one of your landing craft."

- Rune Haako to OOM-9

The C-9979 landing craft was a large landing craft built by Haor Chall Engineering for the Trade Federation's military forces, and later for the CIS.

Characteristics
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. After much debate, the C-9979 configuration was chosen due to its close resemblance to the commercial barges used by the Federation's merchant fleet.

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. The massive wings of the landing craft were strong enough to bear even the strongest and heaviest metal alloys, thus making tensor fields essential for the craft.

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 prevent the span of the wings from collapsing under pressure.

These wings were used to carry vehicles racked in garage channels for maximum loading capacity. 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.

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.

History
During the Invasion of Naboo, the Trade Federation deployed C-9979 landing craft to transport troops to the major cities of Naboo, thus furthering the invasion. During the Clone Wars, when the Trade Federation pledged its forces to the Confederacy, they were used to transport troops and equipment from orbiting Lucrehulk-class battleships down to countless battlefields such as Rhen Var and Thule.

During the Second Battle of Coruscant, large numbers of C-9979 landing ships participated in the raid on the capital world of the Republic that saw the kidnapping of Supreme Chancellor Palpatine.

These ships also deployed the Kashyyyk invasion force during the Battle of Kashyyyk.