ShipCore

Lore Interlude - Talon Light Destroyer

** James Fighting Starships - USD 3464 **

| Talon|

|Class: Light Destroyer|

|First Production Year: USC 3463|

|Categorization: Military|

|Sub-Cat: Point Defense / Light Escort|

|Inner Hull Length: 146m|

|Inner Hull Beam: 42m|

|Outer Hull Length (Bow to Stern): 286m|

|Outer Hull Beam: 90m|

|EST Effective Operation Duration 12 months|

||Armament||

|64x Single 32mm Point Defense Cannons, AP rounds |

|Range: 29,979km / 0.1ls |

||Configuration: Dorsal: 10| Ventral: 10 | Amidship: 20| Bow: 14| Aft: 10||

|32x Single 10cm Point Defense Laser Turrets ACC-Mod|

|Range: 299,792km / 1ls |

||Configuration: Dorsal: 5 | Ventral: 5 | Amidship: 10 | Bow: 7 | Aft: 5||

|1 Bow AMLS 4 Tubes, 1066.8mm Light Missiles|

||Bow Missile Magazine: 1 20x 1066.8mm rack, including autoloader||

||Range: Variable, 299,792km - 1,500Mkm||

|2x EWCLS|

||Configuration: Bow: 1| Aft: 1||

||Magazine (EST): 6 EW Drones, 256 Chaff Clusters, 256 Smart Flares||

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|Bow D-field: 178cm C-lens|

|Plasma Fusion Reactor, 6 Rod Configuration, Small|

|Military 3-Waveform Tunnel FTL Drive|

|Bi-phase Military Class Linear Drive|

|Gas Thrust Vectoring System, Class V, Ports: 208|

|Pressurized Cargo Bay|

|Amorphous Carbon Radiator Array - Retractable and Inlaid|

|Crew Berthing: 106|

||Captains Quarters: 1x - Single Bunk||

||Officers Quarters: 7x - Double Bunk||

||Quartermaster Cabin: 1x - Single Bunk, Galley-Attached||

||NCO Quarters: 17x - Double Bunks||

||Marine Quarters: 1x - 12 Berth Bunkroom||

||Ratings Quarters: 8x - 5 Berth Bunkrooms||

The new Talon class is a modern light destroyer with a point defense and light escort role. With an upscaled Linear Drive it has a strong acceleration profile and ability to deliver its multitude of light weapons where they are needed. Carrying a heavy cruiser, or even light battleship worth of PDC-Ks, anything that gets close enough to this ship is going to be pelted with a steel rain of destruction.

That is not even mentioning the upsized reactor and ability to power its thirty-two point defense laser turrets in a long-range area defense anti-missile roll. Those same laser turrets having the latest high-precision accuracy mod recently developed by Shiro Tech Ltd. This comes at the expense of independently targetable turret barrels, but this is not a tremendous issue unless dealing with numerous heavier torpedoes.

Although the Talon seems quite capable at its role, only a limited production run has been put in place by the Admiralty Office. Possible reasons include a decline in heavy missile armaments for medium class vessels in favor of more advanced medium ranged weapons, specifically advanced railgun smart munitions. That and the continuing trend to arm heavier warships with a plethora of their own anti-missile suites that have a much more robust NAI and ECM suite. It is entirely possible that the Talon class will find itself phased out of main battle fleets entirely.

However, it is not likely to disappear; we have noticed a trend that several frontier system navies have made several orders to acquire their own Talons. This is likely because such a unit would be able to supplement a smaller task force or squadron with a larger amount of defense against missiles than would be normal, allowing for a smaller group of ships to punch upward against a heavier fleet relying on missile saturation. This would at the very least allow a smaller group of ships to close to a range that allows them to enter close or medium range combat which will require both sides to accept brutal losses.