simon1954 If a part of the ship gets shot a lot, especially those two 'prongs' then they are the damage absorbers, and they should be mostly armor and lines with shields. The enemy likes to target the first strong weapons it come in range of, or exposed power cores. And those guns at the end probably are getting targeted.
If its getting destroyed because your crew cannot keep power supplied to the shields, then some reorganization is needed. Place crew and power cores closer to the shields. If the crew is busy loading weapons, then you need to add more crew to that area so they keep the shields recharged.