The Destructor was born of the post-Clan War need by the Federated Commonwealth for more powerful designs to face the new threat. Companies from Defiance to GM submitted many deisgns to the AFFC, among them was one submitted by Johnston Industries. the Destructor.

     The Destructor was designed in response to an RFP submitted in late 3052, while there was a lot of interest in the RFP, many of the FC's preimer mech producers were occuiped with their in house designs responding to other proposals. The only competitor was Johnston, who, had never taken on an Assault 'mech design before. Johnston knew it had a real challenege on it's hands.

     The first thing the R&D staff at Johnston did was pore over all the BattleROMs and AARs they could get their hands on from the Clan War, and used it to create one of the most detailed Clan combat models to this date (in fact, the tool has stood the test of time, and is used to this day in both the AFFS and LAAF in helping Battalion and Reigmental staffs evaluate likely Clan responses to OPLANs). The model was then mated with a evaluation program that looked at all current known Assault mech designs and looked at what worked. The results of both studies were, after a year of work, mated and turned into a design.

   By 3053, the Destructor had gone from idea, to prototype, and had even gotten an improptu combat test against a Capellan raid on the Johnston test range on Novalya Zemlya. The mech scored two kills, and an assist on a Battlemaster.

   In 3054, two pre-production models were sent to the Clan front to be evaluated. Details are sketchy, but in a raid on a Black Earth by the 4th Davion Guards, the 'Mech acquitted itself well, other examples were field tested by the Assault Guards. All in all, the mech passed her combat tests with flying colors.

   The first production mech rolled off the production line on Talon, March 5th, 3055. It was produced initally at a low rate, as there was three other competing Assault Mech Designs, all from Steiner space, and the production of a Davion deisgn had some associated political problems.

   In service, the mech proved to be a solid, respectable design that did well in a fight. It's biggest problem was that it ran hot, which led to quite a few variants with alternate armament schemes to attempt to rectify the problem. It has served with distinction in the Marik-Liao Invasion, Operation Bulldog and Serpeant (several Destructors of various makes went with the 1st Kathil Uhlans) and examples were seen on both sides in the recently concluded Civil War.

     The Destructor remains a capable design that is popular with it's users and will remain in production for some time to come.

The Destructor was designed from the outset to be a mech optimized to be the very best in Inner Sphere technology to date. Everything about the mech was new, and much in the way in Star League technology was utilized in the design.

   First, an extra-light engine, with it's associated risks, was chosen due to the superior power-to-weight ratios available with the new power plant technologies. The mech has only average speed for an assault mech, but it does it for less weight, and a set of Hildco Jump Jets improve's the mech's mobility.

   The weapons fit is a bit controvertial, namely due to the fact that the heat generated bythe mech in an alpha strike could be crippling, but when one sees the weapons as packages to be used at given ranges, the weapons fit makes sense. The Gauss Rifle and the two large lasers are meant to be the mech's long range punch, with the Pulse Lasers and the SRMs for when the range closes. The LRM rack is in case of loss of the Gauss Rifle.

The Destructor has been a heavily modified mech, most of the modications have been either to reduce the heat load, or to improve the mech's already copious firepower.

   The 8D model replaces the Medium Pulse Lasers with standard models, and add Triple Strength Mynomer and ammunition is added to the SRM and LRM racks.

   The 9D model replaces three of the Medium Pulse Lasers with standard models, The Gauss Rifle is replaced with an Ultra AC/20, a Double Heat Sink is added, an SRM-4 Streak replaces the SRM-6 and the LRM-5 is fitted with Artemis.

   The recent 10D model is a hybrid of the previous two. All 5 Medium Pulse Lasers are replaced with standard models, and a sixth is added in the Head. A RAC-5 and a Targeting Computer replace the Gauss Rifle, and as with the 9D, a SRM-4 Streak replaces the SRM-6 and Artemis IV is added to the LRM-5 launcher.

The mech serves with a variety of Davion regiments and Davion affiliated Merc units.