SDF-1

One of the best known vessels, if not the best known vessel, of the Robotech Wars is the SDF-1 battlefortress. Originally, this was a battlefortress belonging to the Robotech Masters, but it escaped to and crashed on Earth under orders from Zor. The planet Earth spent almost a decade repairing the ship and learning its secrets, then went to war with the Zentraedi fleets that came to retrieve the battlefortress. During the war, much of Macross City was recreated inside the ship, an amazing feat of creative use of available internal spaces.

The forward half of the ship is made up of the main armament. On the flanks here are some of the Mecha hangars. Behind this is the central hull, command Citadel and the 'shoulders' with additional hangars. At the rear are the main reaction engines and the engineering sections. After its first and only fold in Human service, two naval carriers were attached to the shoulders. The hull could be transformed into something resembling a humanoid shape, with the main gun booms protruding out of the shoulders. The original purpose for this ability is unknown, though speculation runs towards better engineering access for repairs and refits.

As a vessel, the SDF-1 is relatively small and carries few Mecha compared to the main line of Zentraedi vessels. The main cannon can destroy any enemy ship, but only one or two at a time, and it has a lengthy recharge cycle. It is suspected that it is more of a planetary bombardment weapon than an anti-ship cannon. However, its secondary particle beam armament is more powerful than those on Zentraedi vessels. Even so, the crew of the SDF-1 was exceedingly lucky that their opponents had orders to capture the vessel, rather than destroy it.

The SDF-1 served until 2014, when the ship was destroyed in a kamikaze attack by Khyron. Many of its systems were salvaged and used for the SDF-3. A nearly-complete sister ship, the SDF-2, was destroyed minutes before the SDF-1.