Long Range Destroyers



Long Range Destroyers

The  unexpected scale of Union growth kept Union Fleet planning and the required protection screen always lagging behind.

The Fleet calling on ship devlopers and engine manufactures for ships with drastic increased range and speed. The need for a destroyer sized ship that could respond fast to situations especially in the thinly populated fringe regions  was strongly indicated.

A destroyer needed much less crew, logistics and support than a cruiser or even a battle ship. A ship class  that could be stationed independent of a "Number Fleet " as part of an Outpost, border station or even as a fast response  unit for Inter Union space traffic patrol was needed.

The existing destroyers, while formidable and well designed simply lacked the range and speed. Especially escort tasks for long range space bus and border region traffic were handled by Scorpions, Long range fighters and larger ships like cruisers and  super cruisers. Yet none of these were adequate, either due to effective battle range ( relay lines had to be implemented) or due to simple cost and logistics reasons.

In the face of this problem, a Long Range destroyer class was called upon.

In 5001 the first LRD type ( SII - Ranger Class ) was delivered to the Navy. Both United Ship Yards and Enroe followed suit and introduced their desings. The Navy ordered 5000 units of each for fleet evaluation.

Fleet procurement received inconclusive reports as to which design should be favored.

The  Fleet corruption scandal of 5008 where investigative reporters of the Fleet Gazette accused Rear Admiral Roger Riposte taking bribes to favor the United Ship Yards entry. The Rear Admiral committed suicide before he could be questioned officially. His wife presented the investigators with evidence that the Admiral received substantial money gifts of an untraceable source and confirmed that her husband might even had connections to the Worm.

While the investigation could not find a single shred of evidence of USY involvement in the affair and the company was never known to do anything like that, the Assembly voted to exclude the USY entry.

75,000 SII and 25,000 Enroe ships were ordered.

SII able to provide a new Attikan /SII joint engine development and Enroe who had to deal with a computronic malfunction that wiped out much of the design data led to the fact that SII was awarded the entire contract in  5014.

Long Range Destroyers were soley produced and delivered by SII until 5049 when the Karthanians introduced their excellent Tora Class long range destroyer, with retro engineered Seenian engines provided by SOWA Corp.

The Image shows the SII Ranger class (Upgraded 5030 version)