Banshee Class Destroyer

Banshee Class Destroyer

Designation: Banshee-Class Destroyer (SDD),  Gremlin-Class Guided Missile Destroyer (SDG)

From the Original TV Series; 
Super-Dimensional Southern Cross ASC
ROBOTECH - The Robotech Masters Saga RDF

ASC/RDF Cheyenne-Class Battle-cruiser and Banshee-Class Destroyer; battle group launches, damaged, approaching moon.

ASC/RDF Banshee-Class Destroyer launches


ASC/RDF Banshee-Class Destroyer bay doors open-hovertank launch


ASC/RDF Banshee-Class Destroyer attacking Robotech Masters-Zor ship


 ROBOTECH Banshee Light Cruiser by leelf also located here Robotech Banshee Cruiser

ASC/RDF Banshee-Class Destroyer

ASC/RDF Gremlin-Class Guided Missile Destroyer, planet Glorie

ASC/RDF Banshee-Class Destroyer, Liberte Outpost

Names and Disposition: The Banshee/Gremlin vessels were named after mythological monsters. The Robotech Defense Forces procured a total of 190 Banshee and 55 Gremlin class destroyers for the Armies of the Southern Cross, and a total of 102 Banshee class destroyers for the Expeditionary Forces. In total, 347 Gremlins and Banshees were produced in the L5 orbital factories, on Moonbase Luna and in the Yarrow aerospace yards from 2013 to 2033. Both classes served with the Southern Cross from 2021 to the Invid Invasion. The Banshee vessels with the Expeditionary Forces served from 2013 to 2045.

Of the Southern Cross vessels, 193 were destroyed by the Tirolian forces in the Second Robotech War, 37 were destroyed by the Invid in their initial invasion or during the occupation, and 15 ships deactivated themselves on various outposts such as the Saturn station and the Lunar bases to avoid detection and destruction by the Invid. These ships are now mothballed in the Tranquillity Sea storage depot.

Of the Expeditonary Forces vessels, 22 were destroyed prior to 2031, another 40 were destroyed by the Tirolian Forces after being send back to Earth in the various Earth Reclamation Force waves, 22 were destroyed in the Invid Invasion; the remaining 18 survived the third Robotech war in second-line duties and were mothballed after the war in 2045.

Ship's Complement:

• Ships' crew (30 men),
• 2 Mecha squadrons (68 (Southern Cross) to 75 (Expeditionary Forces) men),
• Life support limits are for a full combat complement and about 200 supernumaries (circa 300 men total).

Ship's Complement

Dimensions:

• Length: 195.1 m over all.
• Height: 32.8 m over the main hull. 41.4 m from the launch chute to the antennas.
• Width: 51.4 m over the main hull.
• Mass: 39,600 metric tons (Banshee class). 42,340 metric tons (Gremlin class).
• Fuel Mass: 7,500 metric tons, maximum (typical).

Banshee-Class Destroyer Quick Modelsheet mock-up

Propulsion System: 

Banshee-Class Destroyer launching from ALuCE moon base

• Main power system: RRG Mk10 protoculture-fueled Reflex furnace. The powerplant of the Banshee- and Gremlin-class vessels can deliver up to 45.6 Terawatts of power, and can operate for thirty-nine minutes at maximum power before overheat initiates auto shutdown.
• Maneuvering thrusters (cluster) (11): Fusion-plasma reaction thrusters with steerable nozzles. Two are located on each side, six are mounted underneath the hull (with three thrusters each) and one is located on top of the vessel.
• Maneuvering thrusters (single) (12): Fusion-plasma reaction thrusters with steerable nozzles. Five are located on each side of the nose behind blast doors and two are in the side sponsons facing forward.
• Reaction-mass thrusters (3): 
• (Expeditonary Force and Southern Cross vessels pre-refit): 2 x Westinghouse RT-80M fusion-plasma reaction thrusters with protoculture energizer in the rear of the main hull and the sponsons. 
• (Southern Cross vessels post-refit): 2 x Westinghouse RT-80Q fusion-plasma reaction thrusters with protoculture energizer in the rear of the main hull and the sponsons. 
• (All ships) 
• Westinghouse KYDS-4 secondary fusion-plasma reaction thruster with protoculture energizer in the lower center rear of the main hull.
• Anti-gravity system (1): 2 RRG Atlas anti-gravity pods.
• Space fold (1): RRG SHJ-1 spacefold. This system generates a hull-conformal fold.
• Planetary capabilities: 
• The Banshee-class has atmospheric capabilities through its reaction thrusters and anti-gravity system. Five landing legs can extend from the lower main hull and support the vehicle, provided the ground surface can carry the load. If this is not so, then the hull has sufficient structural strength for the ship to make a belly landing on it. 
• The Gremlin class has the same landing leg system, but is not capable of belly landings without crushing the launch chute underneath the ship. Both ships will float in an ocean, but the main access ports in the lower hull will then be submerged.

Endurance and mobility limits:

• The dry stores endurance for a Banshee is one month maximum; after that, she needs to restock. The dry stores endurance of the Gremlin class is four months maximum. In both classes water stores are recycled almost totally, and many Gremlin crews added small hydroponic plants to unused spaces, providing the crew with a smattering of fresh fruits, but this was insufficient to provide for the crew for more than a few days.
• The mecha consumables supplies (mainly missiles) are limited; the destroyer is unable to sustain continuous combat operations for much more than twenty days. The Southern Cross, being less dependent on missiles and operating near Earth almost exclusively, used much of the magazines as additional berthing and storage spaces, and habitually carried supplies for five days of of continuous combat operations. 
• The missile magazines for the ship's own launchers are typically empty after one major space battle.
• The Reflex furnace can function for about 25 years at normal usage levels before an energizer rebuild is necessary.
• At full power, the main propulsion systems can produce up to 1.13 Giganewtons of thrust at a minimal reaction mass efficiency profile, or as little as 19.8 Meganewtons of thrust at a maximum efficiency setting. At lower power levels, these thrusts are commensurately smaller.
• At full power, the Banshee-class can achieve a maximum delta-v of 273 kps at the cruising acceleration of 0.1g, a maximum delta-v of 54.6 kps at the battle acceleration of 1.0g, and a delta-v of at most 15.3 kps at the flank acceleration of 2.5g. At lower power levels, these ranges are commensurately smaller. 
• The Gremlin class has a similar endurance, with a 16.6 percent penalty in delta-v due to the increased dry mass of the ships. 
• Refitted ships of the Southern Cross with the RT-80Q engines have an identical acceleration, but the engines are more efficient, which translates in a 21% better endurance than equivalent non-refitted vessels.
• The maximum sustained atmospheric speed is Mach 3. The maximum hover time on the anti-gravity systems is limited only by the protoculture supplies and maintenance requirements, but the system is too weak to lift the ship against gravities of more than 1.2g without assistance from the reaction thrusters. In fact, even at 1.0g the bottom-mounted maneuvering thrusters are often used to reduce the strain on the anti-gravity systems.
• The maximum sustained atmospheric speed is Mach 3. The maximum hover time on the anti-gravity systems is limited only by the protoculture supplies and maintenance requirements, but the system is too weak to lift the ship against gravities of more than 1.2 g without assistance from the reaction thrusters. In fact, even at 1.0 gravity the bottom-mounted maneuvering thrusters are often used to reduce the strain on the anti-gravity systems.

Weapon Systems:

Banshee vessels completed 2013-2015:

1. ZNPC-01 (Makral Mossil 918) particle/laser cannon (1): These cannons were salvaged from wrecked Zentraedi vessels after the First Robotech War, shipped to the Moon, and mounted on the Banshee vessels as Terran designed weapons of the required size and firepower were not available yet. For centuries this combined particle beam and laser weapon had been the standard medium cannon armament on Zentraedi vessels. Two different beam weapons (variable frequency laser and particle beam cannon) are provided on one mount so that the discharge medium can be chosen as the optimum for the local target and environment conditions. Both weapons have the same yield at the muzzle. The laser can be fired in a low power mode directly before the particle beam fires, this setting is typically used to burn a vacuum path for the particles through an atmosphere. The cannon has an effective range of 300,000 km. Each full-intensity shot has a yield of 1000 MJ, and the cannons can cycle through their firing sequence once every three seconds. One of these cannons was mounted in front of the command tower.
2. RRG AML-10 laser cannons (6) : A somewhat bulky but effective anti-mecha and anti-missile laser weapon firing a 10 MJ pulse every second. Six of these weapons were mounted, two each on the superstructure, dorsal and ventral hull. These weapons and their on-mount sensors are protected by a folding hatch when not in use.
3. Mk.249 MLS missile systems (2): This is a VLS missile system. Each system has three rows of 20 vertical launch tubes. The launchers cannot be reloaded except by lengthy extra-vehicular activity, effectively limiting the load-out for a battle to what had been placed in the launchers. The missiles typically used are the Warhawk and the Spacehawk. These are usually the standard HE, nuclear reaction anti-warship and nuclear reaction re-entry capable versions.

This armament fit was replaced on the production line from 2016 onwards, and existing ships were refitted to the following configuration:

All ships from commissioned from 2016 on wards:

Spacelord SMS-10 vertical missile launch system (3 for Banshee, 5 for Gremlin): A vertical launch system that fires medium anti-ship missiles and consist of two rows with five launch tubes for Spacelord missiles. The launcher is fed from a hull magazine containing 20 reload missiles for a total of 90 missiles. The typical warheads are 150 kT reaction warheads for anti-ship use, a plasma device or a high explosive directed energy warhead.

These missile system are located forward of the upper cannons (1) and firing sideways from the side sponsons (2). The Gremlin mounts an additional two in the lower hull, before the mecha release chute.

Spacelord SMS-10 vertical missile launch system