Citadel-Class Missile Destroyer

A destroyer used by the Karsian Military for its space forces, the Citadel-Class Missile Destroyer is a heavily-armed warship designed to destroy other vessels from afar, overwhelming the enemy with hundreds of missiles and torpedoes. Even a single Citadel can pose serious harm to a dreadnought from range. This vessel focuses on firepower and speed over armour, though is protected by a series of disruption systems to avoid being targeted and a wide variety of defensive munitons such as particle disruption smoke, depth charges and/or decoy pods.
=Background Info=
==Development==
The design for the Citadel was commissioned in 60AF for the need of a fast and powerful vessel to defend the space around Karsol. Dreadnaughts were out of the question in the Karsian Navy until the arrival of the Empire in 70AF who had superior production facilities and technology to allow manufacture of such enormous vessels so a medium-sized destroyer would be deployed and make up the backbone of the Karsian fleet.
The vessel was constructed to house massive amounts of firepower with the principle doctrine of out-ranging enemy vessels and ensuring they could never close the distance with the Citadel. Armour was sacrificed due to a policty following, "All or Nothing" against large-scale cannons/warheads. This increased the amount of space, lowered the weight of the vessel and allowed more systems to be put into place to compensate.
By the time the design was finished, the destroyer would be the only Karsian vessel ordered in large quantities aside from the Pillar frigate due to how well it fit with Karsol's doctrine of space combat. Because of this, over fifty-percent of the Karsian fleet would be made up Citadel destroyers by 91AF for the Battle of Karsol.
Being the backbone of the Karsian fleet, these vessels were made to be easily retro-fitted to keep the majority of the fleet up-to-date giving the vessel a long service life expected only to end once the final one has been destroyed or heavily damaged.
==Role==
The Citadel serves the function of a long-range destroyer, hitting enemy ships from afar with overwhelming firepower and repositioning should enemies attempt to close the distance thanks to its considerable speed and lack of armour when compared to other destroyers.
The warship also provides fleet support via its depth charge and decoy launchers. The former drawing enemy fire and occassionally forcing them fo re-aim their current shots when launched while the later is used to fire disruption smoke to protect against energy weapons or standard depth charges with a small EMP charge that can temporarily disrupt a warship's stealth systems.
==Weaponry==
Missiles are the primary weapons of the Citadel. Its smaller 100mm missiles are made to overwhelm enemy defenses, damage vital components and knock out/distract interception weaponry to clear a path for its large tactical missile launchers whose purpose is to pierce through the shields and armour of enemy warships. Only a couple of these missiles are needed to knock out even the larger vessels.
At shorter-ranges, it has six heavy torpedo tubes that support the tactical missile launchers in destroying incoming warships having similar roles, but are slower with a more devastating effect against the hull of opposing vessels. The vessel also supports a single 300mm cannon mounted on the bow meant for destroying lighter vessels and to weaken the shields and armour of larger warships.
The Citadel has only light interception weaponry when not using missiles with eight dual-barreled flak cannons, four mounted on each side of the tower. These are mainly effective against strikecraft, but direct hits can cause moderate damage to HMVs. Against missiles, this is less effective than most rapid-fire CIWS due to its inability to fire as many shots off.
==Speed and Defenses==
The Citadel lacks heavy armour, only capable of shrugging off the interception weapons found on most warships. The warships relies completely on its series of disruption systems, range and speed for its protection.
The vessel's shields are only average in terms of protection against physcial and energy weapons, but while active, it disrupts targeting computers tracking the vessel. This does not provide total protection from shots; instead, it simply makes an opposing vessel's weapons less precise and more likely of missing or hitting an unintended section of the ship. Once the shields go offline, the system goes down as well.
To remedy this, the destroyer carries multiple decoy and depth charge launchers. The former is launched which can throw off enemy weaponry for a couple of seconds, overwhelming enemy radar and computers with false signatures, mainly effective against missiles and guided munitions. The later is capable of launching ordnance that can deploy disruption smoke that weakens incoming energy weapons or regular charges to bring cloaked warships out of hiding and possibly destroy them, if they are nearby.
Speed and range, however, are the major key to this warship's survival: to destroy the enemy before they can get into optimal weapon range and the ability to constantly keep the enemy at arms length since the Citadel destroyer is almost utterly incapable at fighting at short-range battles due to light armour and lack of heavy broadside weaponry.
Should be noted, the vessel actually lacks the exposed bridge despite how it appears to oppsing forces. The large tower superstructure is actually a massive designation and targeting array for the Citadel allowing its large stockpile of missiles to be directed towards multiple enemies at once and quite capable of changing course while in-flight.
Category:Ships