Nation-class maritime destroyer

The Nation-class maritime destroyer, classified at the time of its service as an air combat destroyer, was a line of surface combatants that served in the Royal Australian Navy (RAN) during the Interplanetary Wars. They were named after Aboriginal nations of Australia, and were occasionally called the Wirangu-class after their lead ship. Along with the Warrior-class of the late-twenty-first century, the Nation-class held the title of the single-most successful class ever adopted by the RAN, with a total of 14 ships assembled at BAE System Australia's Williamtown, Osborne, and Franfield facilities between 2130 and 2144. In addition, a further three vessels were built for the Royal New Zealand Navy as the slightly-modified Maori-class.

As a design, the Nation-class destroyer represented a significant improvement over their predecessors. It was developed specifically to enforce Australian interests in international waters or engage in attack missions, where it had the capability of exacting punishing anti-ship and naval bombardment. This was in contrast to earlier ships, whose multirole mission profile meant that they had to sacrifice weapons for speed, versatility, and carrying capacity. A single squadron of three Nations were expected to be more than a match for any capital ship or small flotilla they were likely to encounter, and had to operate for extended periods away from home in humid, tropical conditions. They were often vital for standing off against violations of Australia's, and their allies, sovereign territory.

The Nation-class destroyer was originally designed as part of the Australian Government's "Swift Fleet" doctrine of the late-21th century, which demanded a fleet of high-speed ships for the country's needs. While they were passed over in favor of the much lighter Virtue-class, a block of ten was approved as a response to encroaching Chinese and Indian navies. They were frequently sent abroad, as far as the United Republic of North America to the east and the Mediterranean to the West.

Development and construction
Planning for the next generation of Australian seaborne fleet began in 2079, about fifteen years before the current line of destroyer, the Opportunity-class, was due for decommissioning. The RAN was dissatisfied with the class, as the sudden fall of the United States of America, their largest ally in the Pacific, saw all branches of the Australian Armed Forces undergo a panicked expansion in preparation to defend themselves. As a result, much of their strengthened fleet was composed of updates of much older designs; the Opportunity-class was a derivative of the French Épéiste-class frigate of the 2030s. These ships lacked modern innovations that made them more expensive to upkeep, more manpower intensive, and less capable than their peers in nearby nations. This planning was also started so early as to maximize the amount of time their own development program had, so as to avoid the issues that cropped up in the few original designs that were hastily approved before. In addition, the government announcement also noted that the new ships were to be built in Australian facilities, and needed to hit a top speed of 37 knots or greater - a requirement forced on them by the Australian Labor Party of the time.

While a design submitted by BAE Systems Australia was quickly proving to be the favorite, a competing model was submitted by Lotean Maritime. Designed by Dr. Reese Lanford, the Lotean model, termed 'NXD-12' internally, was devised as an incredibly-powerful ship. It far more powerful than the BAE alternative, and incorporated new turbo-vacuum drive systems for propulsion compared to the BAE's electric shaft propellers. While it was popular with the admiralty, the politicians ultimately approved the BAE Systems design. They cited that it was a risk to develop further and would cost an extra $700m AUD to build for three ships compared to four of BAE's design. In addition, there were concerns that approving such a well-armed ship could inspire other nations to develop their own answers to it.

However, over the next fifty years, it became rapidly apparent that the escalation in the South-Asiatic region was becoming a concern. As a result, in 2122 a new competition was devised intended to meet these challenges, demanding a ship that had 50% of the firepower of the current generation of destroyers, with a matching speed, and the ability to conduct surface bombardment at extended ranges. The merged Lotean-SeaBorn Defense Services participated in this with a heavily-revised design that was the only one of the submissions to include armor and twin turrets. BAE, meanwhile, offered a tailored version of their smaller, faster new Type-47 destroyer, which was currently undergoing development. In 2128, it was announced that Lotean's submission was accepted, as structural issues discovered in the United Kingdom's destroyers meant that a considerable redesign period was needed. A total budget of 6.6 billion AUD was awarded for three destroyers, although Lotean's ability to build the ships far under budget saw this increased to eight, then fourteen. These were initially intended to be built at the propriety drydocks in Franfield, but the increasing number demanded meant that smaller factories and BAE's Williamtown and Osborne drydocks were also brought in to manufacture the destroyers.

Armament
The Nation-class was considered an incredibly powerful ship of its day, with a total of 140 missile cells making up its primary armament. Its anti-ship complement came from the Canadian-designed Mark 73 vertical launch cells, arranged into two batteries of 28 silos each at the front of the ship. These units were designed with electromagnetic catapults, which would launch the missiles high up into the air away from the ship, saving on fuel which could be used to extend their range. Each of these were capable of accepting RIM-80 Machete anti-ship missiles and Javelin-IX anti-ballistic missiles, and could be coordinated by an AN/SYG-40 targeting computer for general attack duties against air, sea, and ground targets. The Javelins also doubled as long-range anti-aircraft and even anti-starship weapons, although newer models of the latter were armored well enough to resist them. It was general practice to equip a Nation-class with almost exclusively Machete missiles, with Javelins being delegated to the last row just in case.

This was backed up by 72 Mark XI launch cells, mounted on the superstructure and between the two Mark 73 batteries. These were intended to accommodate much smaller, medium-to-short ranged missiles in order to protect it from aircraft and small boats that would otherwise swarm it, although those on the Nation-class have been modified to also accept a range of anti-munition missiles. Each of these had two spare missile to reload from, fed by an autoloader, which could be accessed manually in the case of malfunction.