NationStates Jolt Archive

..::Except from SSNN.com::..

Through contacts in the Imperial Air Force and the use of private industry photo satellites, it has been learned that the air force is working on a secret spacecraft, probably for use in military operations. One possible, and even probably use, for these craft is to take out manned and unmanned orbiting weapons platforms. It has been suggested that if this is indeed the primary purpose then the fighter is likely to carry four solid-fuel nuclear missiles similar in design to the Longhawk missile and two small free electron lasers. It has also been suggested that this aircraft will make extensive use of stealth technology in order to conceal itself during takeoff and landing. If both suggestions are indeed fact, the estimated price tag of such an aircraft is in the billions of dollars. Although the actual photograph is not available for publishment, we have a three dimentional rendering that is extremely similar to what was actually taken from the satellites.

http://img56.photobucket.com/albums/v172/NSFlags/PhoenixFlight4-5.jpg

[Wow, tough crowd, I would have expected this to get some reaction.]

Thats an interesting idea you have there - is it future/modern?

Well, you haven't exactly told us a whole lot about it.

OOC: I would expect that it could be detected on take-off just from the exhaust, as the Blackbird recon plane is radar-avoiding and still detectable by exhaust plumes alone, IIRC.

[Phoenixius: It's horribly expensive modern tech. I think I'm going to have each fighter cost 3.5 billion.

Brandoniats: True, but the first post was to spark interest. I'll be posting later to officially confirm its existance.

Starblaydia: They use cheap rocket boosters to get into space and part of the stealth tech I'm using for this aircraft will be plasma stealth. Oh and this aircraft isn't exactly slow, it's as fast as the Blackbird and just as hard to shoot down.

Oh, and a note to everyone: Please mark your posts OOC if they're OOC]

OOC: Ah, well then I may just invest in some. Possibly.

OOC: THAT is a cool pic. Did you make it?

[Phoenixius: I won't be selling these, only seventy-six exist at this point and that's all that are going to exist at any point in time.

Wormia: No, I didn't, I was just lucky to come across it and the idea behind the aircraft in the pic.]


..::Official Press Release Concerning XSF-31 Phoenix::..

We would like to take this time to officially acknowledge the "space fighter" recently reported by the Scandavian States News Network. The offcial designation for this aircraft at this point is the XSF-31 Phoenix, although once the aircraft becomes fully operational it will be the SF-31 Phoenix. While we cannot give details on the technology used in this fighter, much of that is still classified, we will say that they were right about the price, each aircraft costs 3.5 billion to construct. This price is mainly due to the extreme price of the technology used and is not the result of corporate price gouging. If there are any questions, please forward them to the Joint Technology Development Group (JTecDevGru).

OOC: You know, this reminds me of Scellia and his space tech. He started a space station (Terra) with several nations. He actually sold some fighter craft and even destroyers. I bought some from him.

[This may be space, but all technology used is possible in the here and now.]

“Maneuver thrusters.”
“Check.”
“Main thrusters.”
“Check.”
“Thrust Vectoring.”
“Check.”
“Weapons.”
“Lasers check. Missiles check.”
“System Check.”
“All systems go for launch.”
“This is Phoenix 6, report in.”
“This is 5, we’re good.”
“4, ready to rock.”
“3 sir, ready for action.”
“2, let’s go introduce ourselves.”
“1, we got ourselves an appointment for a noon shootout.”
“Control, this is Phoenix 6, we’re go for launch.”
“Roger that Phoenix 6, starting countdown now. T-minus ten, nine, eight, seven, secondary thrusters engaged, four, three, two, one, we have liftoff. Godspeed, gentleman.”

Captain Raidon Sato, commander of Phoenix flight, was pushed back into his seat as the disposable lift vehicle pulled the three gees of vertical thrust necessary for the fighter and its booster to exit the atmosphere. Twenty seconds into the flight the booster jettisoned and weightlessness began. Raidon rolled his fighter belly down relative to Terra and the shortly engaged his rear left nose thruster to correct a slight flaw in the path of the spacecraft. He than turned on the radio to a secure frequency and said, “Phoenix flight, form up on me.”

Five clicks answered him and he eased the throttle forward just short of halfway, which equaled about one kilometer a second or a little over Mach 2.9. The five aircraft followed him and he turned to his own crew, “RIO, arm the cluster missiles and cycle them to a firing position. EW, I want you watching for any enemy radar or lidar and if you catch anything premature turn the plasma on.”

Both acknowledged his order and he relaxed against his chair for the next ten seconds while his fighter came to just under the horizon of their target, a large orbital weapons platform. “Sir, our camera has a visual identification of the station, but we don’t have a lock on lidar yet.”

“Listen up people, this is six, let’s climb to a position above the stations own relative position and roll our bellies up, we don’t want him to get cute with an early lidar lock. Let’s make this one count; otherwise everyone on the ground is fucked. There won’t be a second flight.”

Phoenix flight did just that; its topside paint coat was a mixture of radar absorbent paint and special prisms that dispersed light into the pitch-black paint. It wasn’t much use against high-energy lasers, but it could make it a difficult proposition for lidar to get a solid lock. Once the fighters came complete over the horizon their nose mounted lidar achieved an almost instantaneous lock and four missiles per aircraft were released. The STS-1 Morningstar missiles looked like a hybrid between the navy’s supercavitating torpedoes and its sea-launched cruise missiles, the former donating the forward and the latter donating the thrust-vectoring aft section but with a solid fuel engine instead of an air-breathing scramjet engine. The missiles took full advantage of their maneuverability by swerving every which way like some of the more interesting of the world’s surface to air missiles would. Despite that, fully half of the twelve missiles were taken out by point defense weapons, it was difficult to tell if they were small HELs or rapid-fire mass drivers. What missiles did survive detonated at a kilometer, creating a criss-crossing grid of fist sized “ball bearings” that tore into the thin skin of the platform. Large pieces of the station fractured and drifted away from the main body, but the station was for the most part still whole. Suddenly, the aircraft designated Phoenix two tumbled wildly and then exploded.

“Shit, turn your plasma on, two is down and out,” screamed Phoenix 5.
This every remaining aircraft did while Phoenix 1 took the destroyed fighter’s place in the formation. “SAR beacon?” 6 asked.

“Negative, but the ion field is going to disrupt any radio signals.” 5 answered.

6 sighed and turned back to the objective at hand, which was the destruction of the enemy space station. Phoenix flight cycled to their last Morningstars and fired their missiles. This time only two got through the point defenses of the now alert station, but the warheads were of an experimental plasma variety that had roughly five times the power of conventional high explosives. Fortunately for Phoenix flight, those two missiles angled into the missile magazine of the station and caused sympathetic detonations that completely destroyed the station save for the life pods that were jettisoned the second the explosions started in the magazine.

“Control, this is Phoenix 6, mission is completed. We request SAR for Phoenix 2 and any station survivors as soon as possible. Phoenix flight is RTB.”

“Control copies Phoenix 6, you are cleared for approach. Good job.” Cheering could be heard, but it wasn’t over the comms because the simulation screen had gone blank. Must be from the officers outside, thought Raidon. He turned to his two officers, smiled, and said, “Time to join the party, I owe you two some drinks. Kickass job."

it sounds like a bunch of hogabla to me. :roll:

[Oh? And where's your credentials? There isn't a single bit of technology that isn't possible as of today on that aircraft and only the plasma warhead technology would have required any serious engineering on my part if I hadn't purchased the tech from one of my allies.]

Oh, Scellia wasn't future tech, he was modern. Got several nations to partnership on the project, including Doujin, among others.

Yeah, I was part of that.