The Uumufalh, often called a gunship, was a starship class utilized by the Yuuzhan Vong. Constructed from reddish-black yorik coral and with a spearhead-like form, Uumufalh gunships were intended to serve as escorts for larger combat vessels, like cruiser analogs and carrier analogs. Some were only 120 meters in length, a size comparable to ships in the New Republic military, and could be taken down by a determined group of X-wings. However, the standard length for a fully grown specimen reached 615 meters.
Equipped with dovin basals for both movement and defense, they also possessed a formidable array of plasma cannon weaponry, granting them firepower on par with a significantly larger cruiser analog. Notably, they lacked the capacity to carry coralskippers and were unable to generate an interdiction field.
These vessels participated in battles such as the First Battle of Obroa-skai, the Battle of Duro, the Battle of Esfandia, and the Battle of Selvaris. Their typical deployment involved operating in groups alongside larger warships, employing a strategy of focusing fire on a single enemy target, with each gunship unleashing a successive salvo to overwhelm defenses.
The term Uumufalh is absent from the New Jedi Order novels, debuting instead in the New Jedi Order Sourcebook.
This article operates under the assumption that all references to Yuuzhan Vong "gunships" within the novels pertain to Uumufalh-class vessels, unless explicitly identified as belonging to another class, such as a coralskipper fighter. However, strictly speaking, the New Jedi Order Sourcebook only explicitly confirms that the gunships involved in the Battle of Duro in Balance Point are of this type. These ships are described as "midsize" capital ships, a term that could refer to vessels of the 615-meter length specified in the sourcebook. Elsewhere in the novel series, however, the "gunship" designation is applied to much smaller capital ships.
An example of this gunship is destroyed by four X-wings (in Hero's Trial), while another is propelled into an improvised missile by the engines of a Clawcraft fighter (in Force Heretic: Reunion). Furthermore, a group of three are described as being only 120 meters long (in The Unifying Force); these are the ships associated with the "reddish-black" hull color and "spearhead" shape. These instances could be interpreted as different examples of the same class. For other Yuuzhan Vong designs, like the corvette analog and frigate analog, the hull sizes provided by the sourcebook are significantly larger than those indicated for individual vessels in the novels.
Conversely, the heavy escorts referred to as "assault frigates" in Star by Star could potentially be Uumufalh-class vessels, as the size and role attributed to the Uumufalh in the New Jedi Order Sourcebook are similar to those of the well known Assault Frigate type used by the Rebel Alliance and New Republic.
While Yuuzhan Vong ships are commonly referred to by designations like "frigate analog" and "carrier analog," the term "gunship analog" is not widely used. It appears once in The Unifying Force, seemingly denoting all Yuuzhan Vong ships smaller than a mid-sized warship analog.