UNSC destroyer

The Destroyer is a warship classification in the UNSC Navy. Fast, maneuverable, and designed for long-term endurance, destroyers were intended to escort larger vessels, such as the Marathon- and Halcyon-class cruisers.

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.

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, what was then a heavy destroyer with a single MAC, was introduced into service. Later ships 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 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 UNSC Iroquois 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.

Trivia

 * In the first pages of Halo Wars: Genesis, a picture of a UNSC Destroyer leaving Slipspace is shown, this being the first canon appearance of a UNSC Destroyer. It had previously only been described in the novels. After this, different incarnations of the UNSC destroyer have appeared in The Babysitter and the animated version of Midnight in the Heart of Midlothian. This could depict different classes of destroyers or show that some have been specially refit.