Following reports in the technical press the DDS have admitted that the fleet of (now 12) Pulsar cruisers has been repositioned as the cornerstone of the greatly increased DDS strategic forces. Two Pulsars have secretly received what is known as the Strategic Assault System (SAS) update and the rest of the fleet will be updated before the summer. SAS includes improved weapon bays for the storage of greater numbers of nuclear and biogenic space-to-ground missiles (in lieu of TPMs), monitoring equipment for the warheads and improved targetting systems. SAS updates take 3 weeks to perform. The programme began last year because of the looming Utrek threat but has been accelerated because of the Zone attacks we understand.
Each Pulsar in strategic mode will carry enough firepower to render a planet wide civilisation to ruins. In simulations flights of 3 Pulsars have been able to utterly devastate a planet wide civilisation the size of Terra in 64 minutes.
With the Quasar ILU programme underway and the Panther expected next year the Pulsar will slip down the list to third best in the DDS arsenal until the life extending update planned around 2115. Thus the DDS hope to best use the Pulsar in the strategic role, protected by the other 2 ships though still a potent warship in it's own right.
