Hillsborough-class light destroyer

As the dragged on and the rebels slowly gained an understanding of military theory, the  quickly realised how badly their Navy had faired over centuries of peace. Their first response was to naturally replace the ships in their fleet with all-new ones, complete with powerful new weapons and state-of-the-art armour. While this quickly improved their effectiveness, the rapid decommissioning of thousands of ships has allowed the rebels to stockpile a number of large capital ships. Such threats often required the attention of the UNSC's cruisers, yet the significant difference in size and power between a heavy destroyer and a light cruiser meant they had be deployed in a battlegroup to prevent groups of smaller ships from being overwhelmed by such rogue warships.

The Hillsborough-class heavy destroyer (: DD) is Reyes-McLees Shipyards' solution to this problem. Occupying the sizable gap that lies between and, the Hillsborough is a specially designed as a hunter. It's large engine array and unique countermeasures allows it to chase down most smaller vessels, while its heavy weapons can back up its threats. However, it is still a ship of the line, with extremely-thick plating and study allowing it to take hits that would obliterate similar-sized vessels. If all that wasn't enough, it has a variety of unique systems designed to alter enemy formations in its favour. In summary, the Hillsborough is a highly competent vessel which is perfect for replacing a cruiser in low-priority scenarios.

Originally offered to the but turned down because of its high price for its size, the destroyer became a prominent part of the shrinking fleets of the CMA. They supplemented their outdated cruisers, eventually becoming a favourite as their budget grew thinner. However, after the discovery of the, these ships were ordered to defend the. As the backbone of colonial defense armadas, dozens of Hillsborough's were destroyed in battle. As their numbers depleted, strategists would reassign the few ships that remained into long-range assault fleets. Flying alongside, they would attack forward Covenant outposts and supply lines in an attempt to slow their advance.

Layout
Sharing many of the traits of Reyes-McLees' other designs, the Hillsborough is a stark deviation from the other ships of its size, which all tend to be streamlined if not skeletal in appearance. Nearly every part of the ship is encased in a thick, bulky exterior, while those which are built on the outside such as their turrets can be retracted beneath massive sliding doors. This represents the unique emphasis of the destroyer - that of raw power rather than agility.

The bow of the ship is nearly completely flat, with the top half and the very bottom being angled slightly to offer more protection to the redundant fusion reactors and detection equipment. Protruding at the top and running down more than half the ship's length is the MAC spinal mount. The thickest exterior armour is centered around here, with the frigate-sized MAC sitting atop the main MAC. Immediately behind these were the magazines for both their slugs. On both sides are one or more armoured doors which resemble hangar bays. These are the loading bays for the Hillsborough's missile pods on its bow and midsection, which can allow an ammunition ship to reload it in combat with less risk than replacing all the exterior pods manually. In the middle of the ship's front are eleven high-powered but vulnerable AD/DS-45 scanning dishes, which defeat that model's flaw of small area detection by having the independent dishes scan different regions in their field of view. At the very bottom are the primary communications antennae.

Armour and Superstructural Supports
As previously stated, the Hillsborough line of destroyers are sturdier than their size would indicate. This is equally contributed to their multi-layered plating and tough frame. The first layer was the Ceramic-Tungsten plating. Designed to specifically counter the increase of use in railguns and coilguns, this plating is extremely dense and brittle, which helps increase the ability to ricochet rounds away from the hull. Its high density and hardness rating makes it well-suited to repelling a single hit, yet it can be easily countered by multiple explosives or sustained firing. However, having a thick layer of this plating on the outside had one unintentional advantage; it was highly resistant to plasma and pulse lasers.

Their plating is dominated by the standard Titanium-A1 battleplate. A molecularly-engineered alloy made in a strong crystalline structure, Titanium-A1 offers superior resistance against kinetic and explosive weapons by being too dense and hard to blast through, with enough malleability to prevent it from shattering on impact. Unfortunately, Titanium-A1's good thermal conductivity and moderate melting point makes it terrible at resisting the Covenant's energy weapons. Several metres of plating can be stripped within a few seconds of sustained. This remained an issue for it's entire service life, eventually becoming discontinued early enough to not be able to take advantage of new advancements without expensive refits.