Confederation Exeter class Destroyer (Wing Commander):

One of the earliest classes developed during the Kilrathi war, the Exeter class destroyer first entered service in the middle of the 2640s. The destroyer had a reputation for being a fast and nimble ship which carried a nasty punch for its small size. They were employed in a variety of different roles including acting as fast escorts for fleet carriers and torpedo strikes against Kilrathi capital ships and planetary bases. While an innovated design when first introduced, the Exeter class destroyers are considered completely obsolete and have been replaced by the Gilgamesh starting in the early 2660s. The Gilgamesh class is far faster and heavier armed than the old Exeter class and all surviving Exeter class destroyers have been decommissioned and put into mothball status. As might be expected, a huge number of these destroyers were destroyed during the Kilrathi war and only a handful survived to be put in mothballs. The shielding of these ships is far lighter than in later ships and do not have any anti-matter cannons although the obsolete destroyers carried a respectable number of torpedoes. In addition to the four torpedo tubes, the destroyers mount a capital scale neutron cannon in a triple mount, six heavy laser cannons, and six light point defense lasers. Still, the firepower of the destroyer is more similar to a corvette than a true destroyer.

The Exeter class destroyers were named for geographic regions of Earth. More famous ships of the class include the Texas, Tashkent, India, Zagros, Punjab, Brazil, and Gobi. While most ships only had hanger space for a shuttle, a number of Exeter class destroyers were modified to incorporate a larger hanger bay and flight control equipment with the capacity to carry up to eighteen fighters. One of these was the infamous ship named the Gwenhayar, which was captured by the Kilrathi and then used by them as a "ghost ship" to terrorize unsuspecting Confederation forces. Due to the high losses in escort carriers, there is some pressure in the Confederation to bring back into service some of the remaining converted destroyers to act as convoy escorts and fend off raiders as well as for use in high risk deep strikes in Kilrathi territory. This would allow the escort carriers to be freed up for other missions. Most common fighter compliment was a half squadron of light fighters, a half squadron of medium fighters, and four heavy fighters. Some of the destroyers were decommissioned with fighter groups still embarked and stored in mothball status along with the ships although the fighters are completely obsolete in most cases with Hornet light fighters and Scimitar medium fighters being predominant. Rapier fighters were rarely assigned to the destroyers and most Raptor heavy fighters were pulled off when the ships were decommissioned.

Notes of game conversion:

Because of the nature of the Video Game / Novel series “Wing Commander” and the needs to put the starship into game mechanics, the starship has several modification compared to the Video Game and Novels. The most important change it to change top speed to acceleration. Like fighters in Star Wars and original Battlestar Galactica, the fighters appear to act as if they are in the atmosphere even when they operating in space. This is incorrect. The Television series Babylon 5 and the new Battlestar Galactic are good series to watch to get a clearer idea on how space vehicles would probably maneuver although still not a perfect perspective. The starship has been modified to uses my revised phase world starship rules and can hold their own against most C.A.F and Kreeghor starships. See Revised Starship Rules for Phase World / Three Galaxies for more details.

Model Type: Exeter Destroyer
Vehicle Type: Escort
Crew: 120 (6 Officers, 10 Chief Petty Officers, and 104 Enlisted)
Troops / Passengers: Can embark up to 20 additional personnel - Fighter Pilots when configured to carry fighters (40 with extreme overcrowding)

Vehicles:
Fighter Compliment (Modified Version):

	6	F-36 Hornet Light Fighters
	6	F-32 Scimitar Medium Fighters / F-44 Rapier Medium Fighters
	4	F/A-14 Raptor Heavy Fighters

Other vehicles (All Versions):

General Purpose Shuttle

M.D.C. By Location:

	Triple Heavy Neutron Cannon Turret:	800
	Heavy Laser Cannon Turrets (6):	250 each
	Light Point Defense Laser Cannon mounts (4):	100 each
	Cruise Missile Launchers (6):	400 each
	Hanger Bay (1):	800 each
	[1] Bridge:	1,800
	[2] Engineering section:	2,500
	Main Engines (2):	2,000 each
	[3] Main Body:	6,400
	[4] Variable Force Field:	2,000 per side (12,000 Total)

Notes:
[1] In reality this is how much damage needs to be done for a weapon to hit the bridge through the ship’s armor. This ship does not have an auxiliary bridge. Even if the bridge is destroyed, the ship can still be piloted from engineering but ship is -3 to dodge and all weapon systems will be at local control. Weapon hits near the bridge that do not penetrate the ships integrity can injure crew members on or near the bridge.
[2] Destroying the engineering section means that ship FTL propulsion systems are destroyed and maximum sublight acceleration is reduced to ten percent of normal (using navigational thrusters).
[3] Depleting the M.D.C. of the main body will put the Destroyer out of commission. All internal systems will shut down, including life support and internal gravity. The ship itself will be an unsalvageable floating wreck.
[4] Shields positions can be varied and all could be combined in one shield. Shields regenerate at the rate of 5% (600 M.D.C.) per melee.

Speed:
Driving on the Ground: Not Possible.
Sublight: Has a special sublight engine that allows the ship to travel up to 60 percent of the speed of light. Star Ship can accelerate/decelerate at the rate of 0.38 percent of light per melee.
Atmospheric Propulsion: The destroyer cannot operate within an atmosphere. If the ship enters an atmosphere, it will crash.
Stardrive: The destroyer mounts a jump drive which is capable of jumping instantly from a fixed point in a system to another fixed point in a system. These points are weaknesses in the fabric of space and have been mapped in most cases. Fuel is hydrogen which the destroyer scoops from space to fuel the jump engine.
Maximum Range: Effectively Unlimited by either drive system. The destroyer has about one year worth of supplies on board.

Statistical Data:
Length: 1,181.1 feet (360 meters)
Height: 281.2 feet (85.7 meters) for hull and 309.38 feet (94.3 meters) including antenna
Width: 822.55 feet (250.7 meters)
Weight: 8,818.5 Tons (8,000 metric tons) fully loaded
Power System: Fusion with a 20 year life span. The ship normally only goes 5 years between refueling.
Cargo: Cargo holds are scattered about the ship that allows for carrying up to 200 tons of cargo in addition to standard compliment of supplies and ammunition. Each enlisted crew member has a small locker for personal items and uniforms. Ships officers have more space for personal items. Most of the ships spaces are take up by extra ammunition, armor, troops, weapons, engine, and other equipment.
Market Cost: The Exeter class destroyer costs around 1.5 billion credits to manufacture.

WEAPON SYSTEMS:

Triple Heavy Neutron Cannon Turret: This is a heavy mount which is larger than the standard mount carried on fighters and are longer ranged. On later generation vessels, such as the Gilgamesh class destroyers, these are replaced by anti-matter guns. The weapons are mounted near the nose of the destroyer and are the main anti-capital ship weapon of the vessel. They are shorter ranged than the anti-matter guns on later vessels but are longer ranged than standard neutron cannons. Weapons system has half the normal penalties to hit fighters and small targets as standard heavy anti-ship mounts.
Maximum Effective Range: 6,213.7 miles (10,000 km) in space. and 31.07 miles (50 km) in an atmosphere.
Mega Damage: 3D6x10+40 per cannon, 6D6x10+40 for two cannons, and 1D6x100+100 for all three cannons
Rate of Fire: Equal to gunners hand to hand (Usually 4 or 5).
Payload: Effectively Unlimited.
Six (6) Heavy Point Defense Lasers in Dual Mounts: Six total on top, bottom, port, and starboard side. All can fire forward and aft. Each Turret can rotate 360 and has a 180 arc of fire. Individually more powerful than the lasers mounted on fighters and have a longer range. Compared to point defense weaponry carried on most starships within the Three Galaxies, the weapon mounts have a longer range.
Maximum Effective Range: 4,971 miles (8,000 km) in space and 24.85 miles (40 km) in an atmosphere.
Mega-Damage: 4D6x10 M.D.
Rate of Fire: Equal to the combined hand to hand attacks of the Gunner (usually 4 or 5).
Payload: Effectively Unlimited
Four (4) Light Point Defense Lasers in Single Mounts: Four total on top, bottom, port, and starboard side. All can fire forward and aft. Each Turret can rotate 360 and has a 180 arc of fire. Weapon is equal to standard fighter laser mounts. Compared to most point defense weaponry carried on most starships within the Three Galaxies, the weapon mounts have a longer range.
Maximum Effective Range: 3,106.8 miles (5,000 km) in space and 15.5 miles (25 km) in an atmosphere.
Mega-Damage: 1D6x10 M.D.
Rate of Fire: Equal to the combined hand to hand attacks of the Gunner (usually 4 or 5).
Payload: Effectively Unlimited
Six (6) Cruise Missile Launchers: Missile has a top speed of Mach 25 in an atmosphere and in space has an acceleration of 10% of light per turn (far faster than any starship). Since star ships will no longer engage at rock throwing distances, whether weapons can be shot down is calculated from the speed of target, launcher, and missile. When drive goes dead, missile will continue to travel in a straight line unless set to self destruct but has very low odds of hitting star ships (Great for hitting bases and planets because target does not move and missile, when unpowered, is at -25% to be detected.) Cruise missiles have penalties to hit small targets but are all considered smart missiles.
Maximum Effective Range: Missile range is 8,000 miles (12,875 km) in an atmosphere and 4,000,000 miles (6,437,376 km/ 21.5 light seconds) in space.
Mega-Damage & Properties: See revised Phase World / Three Galaxies missile tables for details (Anti-Matter does 4D6x100 M.D.C.).
Rate of Fire: One per launcher per melee attack
Payload: 12 cruise missiles total (2 each launcher)

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CGI / Artwork of starship created by Howard Hill / Howie. Picture taken from Wing Commander CIC.

Writeup by Kitsune (E-Mail Kitsune).

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