UNSC destroyer

Destroyer is a warship classification in the UNSC Navy, as well as the now-defunct Colonial Military Administration. Its hull classification symbol is DD. Fast, maneuverable and designed for long-term endurance, destroyers were intended to escort larger vessels, such as the Marathon and s.

Specifications
Although some vessels of this classification are only seven meters longer than a UNSC frigate, they have almost double the mass. Unlike most ships in the fleet, destroyers carry no single-ship fighters; rather, their large mass comes from the one and a half to two meters of Titanium-A battle plate that covers the ship. Cortana once stated that destroyers are essentially the same as frigates except for this additional armor. Destroyers are also described as having arrowhead-shaped noses.

The destroyer's armament comes in the form of two Magnetic Accelerator Cannons, twenty-six oversized Archer missile pods and three Shiva-class nuclear missiles. For defense against starfighters the Destroyer carries eight point-defense autocannons.

Class history
In 2497, the Gorgon-class, a heavy destroyer with a single MAC, was introduced into service. Later ship classes would include two MACs as they became standard armament on UNSC warships. These warships were used to put down the Eridanus rebels during Operation: TREBUCHET, with the loss of several vessels. The CMA destroyer Heracles was the command ship of Battlegroup 4 during the disastrous first contact with the Covenant.

During the Human-Covenant War, destroyers were looked down upon by many in the Navy. The destroyer class was initially considered too ineffective against the superior Covenant ships, but in reality, it could receive and dish out a considerable amount of damage for its size, and in groups could prove a match for the Covenant's larger CCS-class battlecruisers. Senior naval officers estimated that, on average, seven UNSC destroyers were generally a match for four Covenant frigates.

Commander Jacob Keyes commanded a destroyer, the during a short skirmish over Sigma Octanus IV. During this engagement, he devised the Keyes Loop as an act of desperation. The Iroquois managed to single-handedly destroy two Covenant frigates and a Covenant destroyer.

Speculation
The UNSC destroyer made its first visual appearance in Halo Wars: Genesis. After this, different incarnations of the UNSC destroyer have appeared in The Babysitter and the motion comic adaptation of Midnight in the Heart of Midlothian. Both the first and third variations have since been depicted in Halo: Fall of Reach - Boot Camp. These varying illustrations probably depict different classes of destroyers or, less likely, indicate that some have been specially refit.

It is known that the armament and overall design of UNSC destroyers underwent drastic redesigning following humanity's first space battles with the Covenant; as such, the design of the Heracles may represent an earlier destroyer class, as it had been built prior to the investigation of Harvest.

List of appearances

 * Halo Wars
 * Halo: The Fall of Reach
 * Halo: First Strike
 * Halo: Ghosts of Onyx
 * Halo: The Cole Protocol
 * Halo: Evolutions - Essential Tales of the Halo Universe
 * Midnight in the Heart of Midlothian
 * The Impossible Life and the Possible Death of Preston J. Cole
 * Dirt
 * Halo Legends
 * Prototype
 * The Babysitter
 * Halo Wars: Genesis
 * Halo: Fall of Reach
 * Boot Camp
 * Covenant