SDF Destroyer

A **JUKE-L**, formally known as the **SDF Destroyer** is the standard warship heavily utilised to form the bulk of the Settlement Defence Frontier's Navy.

## Overview

SDF destroyers are the most numerous vessels encountered in all campaigns, military operations and serves to be the backbone of the Settlement Defence Frontier Navy. Due to its modular design and a seemingly ageless service, the JUKE-L was still the finest Destroyer-class ship ever utilised by the Frontier.

### Design

As the primary warship type of the SDF Navy, destroyers are equipped for a variety of different roles. The vessels are designed primarily for the vacuum of space, possessing relatively little aerodynamics and being quite angular in shape. The vessels are oblong, with a compression two-thirds of the way towards the stern of the ship on both sides, near the vessel's wheelhouse; this appears to house access for airlocks and shuttle bays. The vessels possess what appears to be a prominent, horizontal conning tower on their dorsal side, above and behind the bridge. The ship's bow possesses a notable cavity, a common trait amongst Frontier ships.

The forward section of the dorsal side has an elongated, prominent bulge, which contains the launch systems for the ship's missile banks. While the underside of the vessels appears to be a uniform section, some of the "bulges" are actually the doors for the ship's cargo bays, which can open up for ingress and egress. The ship's surface is covered with various features such as access hatches, radars, supply tanks and weapons systems.

Internally, the ship possesses features similar to those of terrestrial warships, as well as those required for space combat. Areas such as the administrative sections, armouries, cafeterias, cargo holds, the *Combat Information Center* (CIC), computer mainframes, conference rooms, crew accommodations, hangars, life support systems, medical bays, ordnance bays, and so on are all present within the ship. The ship has various bulkheads and pressurized doors that allow it to be compartmentalized in the event of a depressurization or a hull breach.

The ship's CIC has windows but can cover these with armoured shutters to maximize protection during combat. The sides of the ship also have windows that can also be covered with armoured shutters, as well as several airlocks allowing access to the ship's interior. The interiors themselves are also fairly spartan, even by military standards, reflecting the SDF's focus on efficiency and functionality over comfort and luxury. The ship, as expected, has artificial gravity, which is generated by a form of special pressurisation gas that provides enough gravity to keep the crew's feet downwards and not in all directions. This is maintained in the private gravity maintenance rooms, where gravity may be turned off and on at the push of a button.

The ship has a crew complement of both sailors, troopers and CID security personnel, which are identified by white gear and the CID logo. This includes CID-6 androids, which are found docked at numerous stations when not in use. Amusingly, they can be easily activated or deactivated in the console found in their stations.

### Offensive & Defensive Systems

SDF Destroyers are heavily armed, possessing numerous autocannons and missile launchers. They are quite capable of taking on their NXSC counterparts.

### Point Defence Weaponry

For defense, the vessel uses 30mm Grunion autocannons, 20mm OST autocannons and MMT40 Whiplash missiles. These are often used to target anything small that might threaten the ship, such as Jackal and Sabre starfighters, but they can also be used in an offensive role against other warships if required. Grunions are tri-barrelled rotary weapons. The autocannons are mounted in rotating turrets and distributed across the vessel's dorsal side to provide a larger amount of fire cover. The OSTs are single barreled and possess a high rate of fire. They are less common, when compared to Grunions.

Whiplash missiles are located primarily in the ship's forward dorsal "bulge", behind a pressurized door. Each Whiplash launcher is actually a square pod of four missiles that protrudes from the launch bay when in use, similar to the SWARM series.

### R-28 Taskmasters

For both offense and defense, the ship's main armaments are R-28 Taskmasters, which are twin cannons mounted on the sides of the dorsal centre line that consists of forty to forty eight turrets mounted strategically.

The R-28 can be used either for attacking enemy vessels or for defending the vessel in point-defense roles.

### Cruise Missiles

For offense, the ship uses tactical cruise missiles. The missiles are launched from fixed launch bays. It seems there are at least three cruise missile variants, judging by what can be seen in the ship's armoury, with each being differentiated by its colour. The missiles seem to have their warhead type marked onto them, followed by an alphanumeric designation:

Black - Fuse Class F6

Red - Impact Class O2

White - NCLR N15

The missiles are loaded onto mobile racks in the ordnance room, where they can presumably be supplied to different parts of the ship. Destroyer ordnance rooms seem to have different racks and control systems for different missiles, with the controlling consoles having the missile type clearly marked on the floor underneath them, though different missiles have been seen on the same rack.

Each missile's name seems to indicate what type of weapon it is, with O2s detonating on impact and F6s having delayed fuses. The N15 missiles are actually equipped with nuclear warheads, as writing on the floor in front of consoles controlling their racks clearly confirms "NUCLEAR", which is presumably also what the "NCLR" written on the missiles stands for. They also seem to possess yellow warning hazard labels on them which the O2 and F6 missiles lack. While the yield of the N15 is still unknown, destroyers are shown to carry numerous N15 missiles, potentially granting each destroyer a devastating amount of firepower.

### Armour

SDF destroyers are reasonably well-armoured with an exterior MIL-REAC reactive armour encasing the Setricium composite overall body and can withstand a fair degree of punishment before being destroyed (this may also be due to their mass and size). Jackal and Sabre fighters do not seem to be able to do significant damage by simply attacking the ship's hull directly but instead often destroy them by taking out many of their weapons systems, which is the only way it causes enough internal damage to kick off a chain reaction that destroys the ship in a massive explosion.

Destroyers also seem to be equipped with a system reminiscent of chaff launchers consisting of five tubes, mounted across the dorsal surface of the hull.

### Air Wing

SDF destroyers also seem capable of carrying a limited air wing consisting of Tusker starfighters and Warden dropships, though not nearly as many as SetDef carriers. To accommodate this, the vessels possess at least one hangar bay. This air wing can engage in a variety of operations including air-to-air combat, ground attack, reconnaissance and ship assault.

### Mobility

The ship is propelled by large thrusters located at the very stern of the vessel. Destroyers are equipped with two large and two small thrusters. Like other warships in the game, SDF destroyers are also capable of faster-than-light (FTL) travel, which occurs via a MR-YX-C13 Drop Engine. Like their UNSA counterparts, SDF destroyers are capable of hovering within planetary atmospheres using several sets of small ventral thrusters.

For power generation, SDF destroyers appear to utilize a proprietary form of nuclear reactor. This is why engine personnel are equipped with anti-radiation apparel when venturing in the engines for maintenance and repairs.

## Trivia

### General

* Internally known as the JUKE-L, its manufacturer designation.
* Various SDF Destroyers are utilised by various Admirals, branding them in their own exclusive designations that are based from Haedian geographical features and cities. This also applies to the superior class, the SDF Carriers.
* SDF Destroyers are indistinct from one another with the exception of those run by notable Fleet Admirals.
* It has an autocannon weapon known as the 30mm Grunion, which is an Earth species of fish and is also used on the FM49 Sabre.
* Its armaments consists of 40 to 48 turrets in total depending on the chosen configuration.
* Like some other ship classes, it does not use the acclaimed SWARM design for its missile pod turrets.