ROBOTECH Technical Files
by Pieter Thomassen and Peter Walker


Neutron S Type Super Dimensional Strategic Nuclear Missile.

REF Seal
Neutron S Booster Separation
Neutron S w/ Ikazuchi Fire 
Control Ship
Naval Separator

Names and disposition:

None of these missiles ever received any names, merely numbers.

Ship's complement:


Propulsion systems:

Endurance and mobility limits:

Weapon systems:


Design notes:

Aside from the Robotech Masters' motherships, these vessels were probably the most massive space warships ever built, and consisted of nothing more than a fold-engine, numerous reaction thrusters, and history's largest nuclear weapon.

The forward-most section of the weapon was the warhead itself, to the rear of which was attached a battery of sixteen reaction thrusters for terminal delivery to the target. Aft of the warhead was a large cap lying between the main drive section and the warhead section, to which the warhead mounted. Sixteen aft pointing reaction engines were located on the exterior of the cap. In addition, the cap had a mounting point fitted, where an Ikazuchi-class large cruiser could dock for a non-remote arming of this dangerous missile. The cap was a total of 250 meters long.

Further aft of the cap was the main drive section, consisting mainly of reaction-mass tanks, the fold-drive, navigational computers, main powerplant, and the remaining four main reaction thrusters. To save design and production effort, the Neutron S missiles used salvaged Tirolian fold drives.


The lineage of this weapon can be traced to the mid-thirties, when the Expeditionary Forces and the Invid occupying Earth were locked in a deadly logistics race, to determine who would assert total control over the Earth in the near future. The Expeditionary Forces, considering that they might lose this race by dint of the Invid occupying the one planet with a significant supply of the Flower of Life, created the Neutron-S missile to insure that when the war was over, they would stand victorious, one way or another.

The basic premisse of this weapon was based on reports of modern equivalents of 'fireships' used by the so-called Disciples of Zor. This group on occasion automated one of their larger starships, loaded it with a large number of nuclear warheads, then folded it close to its target, which it proceeded to attack. Unless the ship was intercepted before it entered missile range, the target (invariably a major planet or installation) would be utterly razed. The Expeditionary Forces took this concept and improved on it, designing a vessel for this purpose. The Neutron-S missile used an enhanced-radiation type warhead, and relied more on its size and armor to punch through defenses rather than on missile saturation. The weapon thus became easier to stop, but it was no longer intended to attack without a support fleet, and its final effects were far more deadly.

In all, nine of these formidable missiles were built. To insure complete control of this planet-busting weapon, an Ikazuchi-class cruiser was docked with each missile until the launch of the warhead. When in 2042 a reinforcement attempt of Earth failed due to unexpectedly high numbers of Invid forces, and subsequent reconnaissance revealed that the Invid had, indeed, taken a lead in the logistics race, final construction of these missiles was moved up, and by 2043, all were operational. One of the missiles was then used in a weapons test on an uninhabited, lifeless planet, a test which the weapons system passed with flying colours.

These weapons were brought to Earth in 2044, prior to what was to be a final attempt to dislodge the Invid without rendering the entire planet a radio-active wasteland. The attack went badly, and the missiles were in fact launched. Fortunately for Earth, the Regess had already at that point discorporated her race and proceeded to destroy the missiles, and much of the fleet that had launched them, on her way to parts unknown. Apparently she made the effort (which she could have more easilly not have done) as a moral lesson.

In the years to follow, many of the surviving high-ranked REF Naval officers on Earth who had approved the Neutron S project were tried and several were executed by the new Army-dominated government installed by General Horace Peckenham. However, because of the disappearance of the SDF-3, those charged with the masterminding of the plan to callously exterminate the hundreds of millions of innocent humans on Earth in the process of fighting the Invid, such as Admiral Richard Hunter, remain at large.

See additional design notes.

Return to REF Naval index.

Go to Robotech Reference Guide Home Page.


Content by Pieter Thomassen and Peter Walker
HTML by Robert Morgenstern (