Contender Class Destroyer

The Contender Class Destroyer (Hull Classification: DDX) was a class of warship employed by the United Nations Space Federation, introduced into service with the Federal Navy Co-Ordination in 2540, before the Mars-Federation War.

Class History
Initially designed in 2532 but only introduced seven years later due to budgetting concerns, the Contender Class Destroyer was meant to be a new Destroyer design to fit the needs of the Federation Navy's anti-piracy operations, whilst also as an effective warship in case of tensions with the Unified Martian Republic flourishing into war. The Contender was made as an effective jack-of-all-trades Destroyer, to allow it to serve against small pirate fleets alone, or in a battlegroup in military situations. In 2545, multiple Contender Class Destroyers were present in the Jovian, Saturnian and Uranian Orbital Systems when the Unified Martian Republic invaded.

Design Details
Similar to the frontal segment of the later Indignance Class Destroyer, the Contender is built like a large, angular shard, with an angular hangar bay on the ventral hull, and a sunken-in missile deck on the dorsal hull.

Armament
The Contender is known as the smallest warship employed by the Federal Navy Co-Ordination to employ a Magnetic Gauss Accelerator coilgun emplacement. This spinally mounted cannon is a 3-Type, meaning it can fire thrice before having to recharge its coils, allowing the Contender to be a deadly opponent for many ships larger than it.

Its large missile deck uses six autoloading torpedo banks, launched very similar to a VLS System. Each tube can carry two Danger Class Anti-Ship Ballistic Missile each, allowing the warship to carry twelve of the missiles at any time.

Utilities
The Contender carries Laser Ablation Point Defence banks across its hull to defend against incoming projectiles and missiles, Chaff Systems, and internal ECM Suites.

Ships of the Line

 * FNC Contender [DDX-001] - Type ship of the class.
 * FNC Covenant [DDX-032] - Participant in the Battle of Charon
 * FNC Where Angels Fear To Tread [DDX-048] - Participant in the Battle of Charon