Minotaur-class destroyer

The Minotaur-class were the first interstellar heavy destroyers of the United Nations Space Command (UNSC). Built as part of the UNSC response to the Inner Colony Wars in the late 2380s, the Minotaur destroyers were a powerful element of the UNSC Navy from their commissioning to their retirement in the 2440s; the class would return from reserve as part of the desperate efforts at combating the Covenant in the 2540s, though the Minotaur-class would suffer terrible casualties in the process. The last of the class was retired for the last time in 2554. 
==History==
===Development and construction===
Prior to 2386, interstellar heavy destroyers were entirely theoretical, being seen as entirely unnecessary outside of the Sol System. The enormous colony ships were seen as inherently defensible and were intended to be escorted primarily by colonial cruisers and corvettes as needed. Nevertheless, when the first colony ships departed the Sol system in 2362, a number of heavy and super-heavy interstellar destroyer schematics were already in limited circulation, including the AK-54 heavy destroyer and the FM116 super-heavy destroyer, and followed traditional design elements, namely heavy plate, arsenals of anti-ship missiles, heavy point defenses, and redundant life support elements. Developments continued through the 2360s and 2370s while remaining entirely limited to hypothetical concepts, even as the UNSC commissioned its first interstellar command cruiser and interstellar assault carriers in 2377. 
The relative stability of colonial space began unwinding in early 2386 and by August the UEG judged its new colonies to be in a state of accelerating crisis. The rapid destabilization of the colonies resulted in a demand for military spacecraft unequalled since the height of the Interplanetary War, bringing a host of new designs to the forefront. Of these new designs, a modification of the AK-54 was proposed in January 2387 and was immediately accepted and put into production in May. The new interstellar heavy destroyers were built alongside the CMA's Valor-class heavy carriers and the new Mako-class light corvettes and entered service in early 2389. 
Unlike practically all other CMA and UNSC spacecraft of the era, the new heavy destroyers (and later super-heavy destroyers) were christened with names of monsters and mythological creatures and usually carried a prominent ship's badge that featured a fearsome or terrible visage intended to frighten, dismay, or worry. The heavy destroyer was intended as a formidable threat to any would-be rebel, pirate, or smuggler, and the Admiralty considered it fitting that such dangerous ships bear ferocious names. The first interstellar heavy destroyer to be commissioned was the Minotaur. 
===Service===
The Minotaur heavy destroyers served with distinction during the colonial crisis and were considered to be highly capable warships of dependable design. A total of forty-one were ordered before the class was superseded by the subsequent Valravn-class (2397) and Draugr-class (2402). 
The class survived the crisis entirely intact and remained in active service in the Inner Colonies into the 2430s. Alongside its wartime contemporaries, the Minotaur-class was replaced by the Resolute-class in the late 2430s and early 2440s, with most of the old heavy destroyers being decommissioned and placed in reserve. While several individual ships were eventually withdrawn from reserve and scrapped, more than half of the class was still available for limited reactivation by the time of the Covenant invasion, though the Minotaur destroyers would remain in reserve until the UNSC grew truly desperate for available ships. The first of the class was reactivated for limited service in the early 2540s; all remaining Minotaur heavy destroyers had been reactivated and were in service by 2550. Despite limited modernization efforts, the class suffered tremendous casualties during the Human-Covenant War and the only survivors of the class to see the end of the conflict did so by miraculously avoiding action against the Covenant. 
==Design==
*No colonial support or humanitarian options
*No frills missile platform with moderate speed and considerable firepower
*Outrigger MAC systems following reactivation (2540s)
==Ships in class==
*UNSC Amphisbaena
*UNSC Basilisk
*UNSC Black Dog
*UNSC Capricorn
*UNSC Cerberus
*UNSC Charybdis
*UNSC Cockatrice
*UNSC Cyclops
*UNSC Flying Serpent
*UNSC Gargoyle
*UNSC Griffin
*UNSC Harpy
*UNSC Helhest
*UNSC Hippocampus
*UNSC Hippogriff
*UNSC Ichthyocentaur
*UNSC Keres
*UNSC Kraken
*UNSC Kusarikku
*UNSC Lamia
*UNSC Lampago
*UNSC Manticore
*UNSC Mare of Diomedes
*UNSC Medusa
*UNSC Mermaid
*UNSC Minotaur
*UNSC Monoceros
*UNSC Musimon
*UNSC Nawarupa
*UNSC Ogre
*UNSC Ophiotaurus
*UNSC Orthrus
*UNSC Pegasus
*UNSC Sarangay
*UNSC Satyr
*UNSC Scylla
*UNSC Serpopard
*UNSC Siren
*UNSC Sphinx
*UNSC Unicorn
*UNSC Wyvern
Category:Destroyer classes