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M211 Ferret Fighter

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Description

The m/211 Ferret (F-211) aerospace superiority fighter. Fast and manouverable, it can perform both interception and light strike missions, though space superiority is the primary purpose of this craft. The craft is equally at home in the cold void of space and dense atmospheres.

Length: 14.5m
Span: 15m
Speed (atmospheric max. [1atm]): mach 6.5
Speed (max. rated sublight in vacuum): 0.2c
Speed (Alcubierre FTL): 1000c, 100LY
Speed (Hyperspace FTL): 10000 x sublight
Armament: variable: two integral gun mounts; ten external hardpoints and two internal munitions bays with four slots each. Maximum armament is 9 000 kg of ordnance.
Internal bays carry light bombs and short-range anti-craft missiles, while exterior hardpoints carry fuel pods or heavier ordnance.
Occupants: 1
Max Cargo Capacity: 500kg or two cubic meters
Endurance (full burn): 20h
Acceleration (max. airframe limit): 80 G
Acceleration (max. engine power): 40 G
Thrust (full burn): 3.43 MN per engine
Sensor range (max. effective): ten light seconds
Empty weight: 25 000 kg
Loaded weight: 32 000 kg
Max takeoff weight: 40 000 kg

The primary core of the fighter consists of a small fusion reactor, providing enough power to run all the equipment in the craft for one day, or life-support only for one week. The reactor is housed in the rear module and it can be ejected in case of emergency. Should the primary core be ejected or shut down, the craft has several fusion cells that provide enough power to life support, communications and basic avionics for 72h.

The primary engines consist of four dual fusion-torch nacelles, where the nozzles are articulated to max. 85 deg vectoring on both the horizontal and vertical planes.
The engines are also gravitically enhanced, meaning they are part of the craft's anti-gravity systems. The AGS consists of a mass-enhancer core and various field emitters, which affect the craft's mass and its interaction to exterior gravity fields.
During exo-atmospheric flight the wings are opened in order to spread the engines for enhanced stability. Any external ordnance are mounted on the lower wing.
During atmospheric flight the wings remain closed, forming a traditional inverted-sweep airfoil. The forward nozzles close down (the magnetic cowls are retracted) and they are covered by ablative shutters, enhancing the aerodynamics of the craft. Thrust vectoring is restricted to rear engines at 30deg each. Most manouvering is handled by the canards, ailerons and flaps on the airfoil. The craft can perform any and all modes of take-off and landing.

Armament consists of two gun mounts, usually a 20mm triple-barreled mass-accelerator and a heavy blaster gun. The armament can be swapped within 10min in a maintenance pit, but the armament in most cases is a combination of energy and kinetic guns. Both systems consist of an ammunition reservoir that is refilled by an on-board autal (AutoAlchemist). However, the required blaster gas is not only the sum of the elements put into it, but it has to be refined exactly the right way so as to not cause barrel wear or catastrophic failure. So an autal-topped blaster gas reservoir is to be used in dire emergencies only. Slugs are easier to replace. The kinetic ammunition reservoir is 800 slugs, with the autal replacement speed of six slugs per second. But since the main kinetic weapon has a rate of fire of 5000rpm, the pilot still needs to conserve ammunition. The internal weapons bays can handle max. ten weapons mountings. The internal bay can also hold fuel tanks.

Pilot survivability is paramount in the design of this craft, so the cockpit is fully armored and pressurized, and during ejection the cockpit functions as a lifeboat. A small consumable supply is located under the pilot's seat, along with a zero-g toilet (which feeds recycling systems and a simple autal).
When the pilot needs to eject, full harnesses kick in (strap harnesses during flight, gravoharness during sharp manouvers and ejection), and the cockpit "tub" is explosively ejected. The "tub" immediately starts broadcasting an SOS and secures the black box. The tub has air, water and food for three days. The tub can survive planetfall and contains a standard BiSSKit (basic survival/shelter kit).
The cockpit modularity also allows a multitude of species to use this craft in a pilot capacity (different sizes, sensory requirements, life-support requirements, etc.).

This craft is too small to mount FTL-sensor units, but it can interface with bouys and relays that do have them. The standard non-FTL sensor unit can correlate any and all information into real-time data from a 10 light-second radius. Though the craft can sense objects up to three light-hours away, such information will have little, if any, real-time use. The main sensors are located in the forward cone, and include RADAR, LADAR, GRADAR, UV, IR, enhanced visible and multiple other active and passive sensor systems.

In order to collect and sort all the data within and without the craft, each is factory-installed with a Limited Synthetic Intelligence. These intelligences serve as a "spirit" of the fighter, making sense of all that happens within the sensory sphere of the craft, and giving the most vital information and advice to the pilot. They also serve as autopilots in case the pilot is incapacitated.
Though each starts with basically no personality, very little beyond a military software protocol, many veteran pilots bond with their Lucies (a common nick-name as most LSIs have a "female" persona). At some point some even gain partial sentience, during which the pilots and the entire maintenance crew basically try and keep their Lucy sane. If the program remains loyal to the pilot, the crew and the military, it is spared a wipe, and allowed to be a true team member. Alas, such attempts at bonding and comraderie are sometimes lost on the synthetics, who were made solely to "haunt" a machine of war. Indeed the success-rate of such "therapy" is only 46%.
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Comments2
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LtCWest's avatar
I can see multiple inspirational sources for this craft (based on design).
X-Wing: "S-Foiles", Cockpit canopy, nose cone, "torpedo tubes"
Nomandy SR-2: Engines
SA-43 Hammerhead or F-302 Interceptor: Wings
But correct me if i'm wrong.
Its still an awsome fighter, nice work.