Hammerhead needs a minor boost, whether it is better combat stats and/or burn 5 instead of 4, or decrease in Logistics and FP cost. It is usable, just like a Mule is usable, but the Hammerhead does not seem as strong as its other three peers when under player control.
AI is probably more profficent at controlling it than Medusa (not sure what exactly is problem here, but their survival rates are surprisingly bad) or Enforcer (Burn drive pretty much contributes negatively to AI survival, also uses shield too much). At least in rare cases when i had all three in fleet and started taking losses, Hammerhead was usually the last to die.
Depends what they are armed with. When I put blasters on AI Medusa, they buildup flux quickly, and often overload and die. With pulse lasers (backed by railgun or needlers), they live longer.
When I tried out ships for AI use, Medusa with pulse lasers and kinetics was the last to die. Enforcer and Hammerhead died sooner (but not much sooner) than Medusa, and roughly about the same time. Sunder died the fastest.
Default Hammerhead layout with sabots is atrociously horrible though.
Yes, it is bad. I rather have autocannons instead of chainguns, and either Annihilators or Harpoons instead of Sabots.