[Suicide Junkie]

Only if by "destroys itself" you mean "is destroyed by the enemy weapon".

You might be thinking of reactive armor, where you have an explosive charge in your armor plate to counter penetrating rounds.
Reactive armor is generally simulated by giving the armor a range-1 point defense weapon, with a reload time of 30.

Ablative armor absorbs a lot of energy by allowing its surface layers to be vaporized, leaving the inner layers unscathed.
This is simulated in SE4 by having very small components with good HP; each hit destroys at least one armor plate, but you have lots behind it.

In stock-like games, the repair time is usually irrelevant, since ships are very rarely left alive but damaged in combat, and repair rates are quite high.