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UEF T3 Strategic Missile Defense: Nuke Eliminator UEF T3 Strategic Missile Defense:  Nuke Eliminator
UEF T3 Strategic Missile Defense: Nuke Eliminator
Strategic missile defense. Protection is limited to the structure's operational area.[ e ]
Build costsEnergy icon -105000
Mass icon -7500
Time icon 4500
Build rate
Time icon1080/s
Max healthHealth icon 3800
Intel (radius) Vision: 20
Weapon: AntiNuke
Defense - Anti Missile
Anti Missile damage 30
Range 90
Anti Missile cost Energy icon -360000 (-1500/s)
Mass icon -3600 (-15/s)
Time icon 259200 (4:00s)

Cybran T3 Strategic Missile Defense: Guardian Cybran T3 Strategic Missile Defense:  Guardian
Cybran T3 Strategic Missile Defense: Guardian
Strategic missile defense. Protection is limited to the structure's operational area.[ e ]
Build costsEnergy icon -105000
Mass icon -7500
Time icon 4500
Build rate
Time icon1080/s
Max healthHealth icon 3800
Intel (radius) Vision: 20
Weapon: Dissident AntiNuke
Defense - Anti Missile
Anti Missile damage 30
Range 90
Anti Missile cost Energy icon -360000 (-1500/s)
Mass icon -3600 (-15/s)
Time icon 259200 (4:00s)

Aeon T3 Strategic Missile Defense: Patron Aeon T3 Strategic Missile Defense:  Patron
Aeon T3 Strategic Missile Defense: Patron
Strategic missile defense. Protection is limited to the structure's operational area.[ e ]
Build costsEnergy icon -105000
Mass icon -7500
Time icon 4500
Build rate
Time icon1080/s
Max healthHealth icon 3800
Intel (radius) Vision: 20
Defense - Anti Missile
Anti Missile damage 30
Range 90
Anti Missile cost Energy icon -360000 (-1500/s)
Mass icon -3600 (-15/s)
Time icon 259200 (4:00s)

Seraphim T3 Strategic Missile Defense: Ythisioz Seraphim T3 Strategic Missile Defense:  Ythisioz
Seraphim T3 Strategic Missile Defense: Ythisioz
Strategic missile defense. Protection is limited to the structure's operational area.[ e ]
Build costsEnergy icon -105000
Mass icon -7500
Time icon 4500
Build rate
Time icon1080/s
Max healthHealth icon 3800
Intel (radius) Vision: 20
Weapon: Hu AntiNuke
Defense - Anti Missile
Anti Missile damage 30
Range 90
Anti Missile cost Energy icon -360000 (-1500/s)
Mass icon -3600 (-15/s)
Time icon 259200 (4:00s)

The T3 strategic missile defense, SMD for short, are stationary structures launching ordinance to defeat incoming ICBMs directed towards the protected area.

SMDs are built in the same fashion as the SMLs, with both structure and ammunition to be built. Right-clicking the ammunition build button will set automatic building on. Anti-Nukes build faster than nukes, for far less resource investment and a single missile defense can protect against multiple simultaneous nuclear threats. There is a minor factional difference in maximum storage, UEF SMD - 5, Cybran - 10, Aeon - 8 and Seraphim - 7. Because a nuke launched at an ACU will kill the ACU on impact, building a protective SMD lets the commander continue to participate in the battle.

Once loaded, Defense Missiles are launched automatically as soon as a nuke enters range, however it still must be reloaded after use. Nukes launched by the player or allies will not be targeted. Counter-nukes are visible on the map shown as a red no-entry symbol, albeit with no audio cue. This can inform the attacking commander that the target has active anti-nukes in the area.


Multiple defense[]

In non-FA Supreme Commander, one SMD can shoot down two nukes in the time it takes them to go from descending to impact. Thus you will need (number of enemy SMDs * 2) + 1 simultaneously launched missiles (this is the key part - three missiles in a chain won't break through one SMD's defensive perimeter unless it lacks missiles!) to overwhelm enemy SMDs. Aeon SMDs can sometimes get lucky and shoot down three missiles, but this is generally rather rare. It'll probably be more effective to simply overwhelm the enemy with the troops you could've bought with the resources spent on the missiles, though it is a good way of proving a point when you have the resources to spare.

With Forged Alliance, in-game multiplayer tests confirm that a single fully loaded defense is able to shoot down up to 5 simultaneous nukes. The Aeon SMD is by far the best Strategic Missile Defense. It alone can shoot down up to 5 missiles at a time, as can be seen here, in the link below:

YouTube - SupCom FA - 5 nukes against 1 SMD

It is also worth noting that all five missiles in the video were launched directly at the SMD. If the final defensive missile had to travel to the strategic missile because it wasn't aimed at the SMD, the final nuke would likely have landed before interception was possible, given in the referenced video the SMD kills it with mere nanoseconds remaining. The extra time taken for the SMD missile to reach the missile when it is not coming directly towards the SMD would cause this. This is however, unconfirmed. Due to the factional variance in ammo storage limit, even if a SMDs was fast enough to shoot down more than 5 missiles, the UEF SMD wouldn't be able to shoot the 6th missile as it stores only 5 in all.

Tips[]

In the metagame, multiple SMDs can be a valuable defense if heavy use of nuclear armaments is expected. Because SMDs are built and loaded faster than SMLs, alert commanders may often so-called nuke-proof their bases. Furthermore, base size should be considered with building more than one SMDs, so that their range can cover the expanse of the facility; Preventing a shrewd commander from landing a precise strike on outlaying buildings.

The use of multiple SMD's in multiplayer is due to the fact that the enemy will have to take out multiple of these vulnerable buildings, which when spaced apart makes this no simple job. Additionally, as discussed above, it is possible a SMD may be overwhelmed, whereas multiple SMD's can fire simultaneously at multiple strategic missiles. The buildpower of SMD's is very high in Forged Alliance, which means when expecting multiple nukes soon, it's best to have multiple SMD so they can all build missiles. The benefits of this are often outweighed by the cost of building the actual SMD building's themselves in the early endgame.

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