NationStates Jolt Archive


Major Changes In Commonwealth Air Force Announced

Rosdivan
08-01-2008, 00:46
Rosdivani Times, front page

Air Marshal Timothy Campbell announced today both the winner of the Improved Manned Interceptor competition and a major restructuring of the Air Force itself.

The winner of the IMI competition is, quite unexpectedly, the F-35A Lightning II. This makes the Air Force the third and final branch of the Rosdivani military to adopt the F-35 Lightning II, the Army and Navy having adopted the F-35B and C models respectively.

The adoption of the Lightning II comes as a surprise to much of the defense world who were expecting the domestically designed XF-133 by Zivka Aerospace and the XF-134 by Devalt Industries to win the competition. According to inside sources, one of the key reasons for the success of the F-35A was its much lower cost compared to the expected costs of the domestic fighters. However, the need for hardware and software modifications to the fighters in order to carry up to six General Dynamics AIM-152B missiles internally may erase this, according to skeptics. Inside sources, speaking off the record, contradicted such skepticism, saying that the modifications would be slight.

The adoption of the Lightning II is accompanied by a major overhaul of the entire Air Force structure. The Air Force now defines its mission as "interception of conventionally loaded long range bombers and cruise missiles in the outer air battle." Pursuant to this, the short range point defense F-132 Zephyr (http://forums.jolt.co.uk/showthread.php?t=526562) is being retired from the Air Force inventory, with approximately twelve thousand models now available on the international market for five million USD each. Targets within seventy five miles of the Rosdivani islands are now to be handled by Commonwealth Army fighters and surface to air missiles. There has been no comment on this by the Commonwealth Army.

The Cyrene II, famous as the long ranged suborbital ballistic anti-aircraft missile of the Air Force, is also slated for retirement. "The threat is no longer high altitude bombers carrying nuclear weapons," explained Marshal Campbell, "but rather low altitude reduced radar signature bombers and cruise missiles with conventional warheads. Such targets are beyond the Cyrene's capability." The projected replacement is, as of yet, unknown, but is highly likely to be a long range air breathing missiles.

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