Valkyrie FAST sets:
Super - Extensive bolt-on external armor appliques and powerful dorsal engine pods with built-in 'micromissile' launchers. Increases maximum acceleration by ~10mps^2 and more than doubles delta-v, along with decreasing pitch/roll/yaw times thanks to added RCS thrusters. Can fly in an atmosphere. Barely.
Ultra - Essentially a redesign of the Super set which trades most of its delta-v for atmospheric streamlining and additional 'intake' thrust. Compared to a clean VF-1, it increases mass by about 75%, but doubles thrust and more than triples wing area, while also adding maneuvering canards and other agility enhancements. Atmospheric performance is limited by aerodynamic factors (ie, the airframe's 'never exceed' speed), and the pilot's ability to withstand G-forces. (Meta note: It should look, overall, a bit like a cross between the YF-21 from Plus and the VF-0D from Zero.)
Weasel - A set of high-maneuverability pods based off of the Ultra design, which add relatively little armor and firepower but an extensive complement of sensor and electronic warfare gear. Mission is known as Suppression of Enemy External Defenses.
Strike - Another modification of the basic Super set, this time by removing the inner pair of missile launchers and replacing them with a pair of MSL-2 laser weapons and adding twenty-seven(!) fuselage hardpoints along the outer surfaces of the booster pods, legs, and shield. This set is usually flown with an XQ-1 heavy beam gunpod in place of the standard GAU-11.
Specific bits of jargon -
The MSL-2 is the medium-sized laser weapon you usually see on Defender set desdroids. Likewise, the XQ-1 is a Tomahawk arm.
The GAU-11, my sources tell me, is actually a real weapon - specifically, it's a four-barreled modification of the real world's GAU-8 (aka, 'that BFG on the Warthog'). Seems like it'd be an apt choice for something with the VF-1's mission roles - aircraft vaporized, ground targets maimed, anything you like, delivered.
I remain unconvinced as to whether the full-armor series would be valuable enough to be worth developing, from the point of view of a government. However, it occurs to me that if the SDF-1 had an onboard VF factory but only a limited supply of desdroids, something like them might get whipped up as a field expedient, then polished in the post-war years when the desdroids were phased out as no longer neccessary.
Character names are good to go, BTW!
Oh, before I forget, what about the Daedalus and Prometheus?
Ja, -n
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"V, did you do something foolish?"
"Yes, and it was glorious."
Super - Extensive bolt-on external armor appliques and powerful dorsal engine pods with built-in 'micromissile' launchers. Increases maximum acceleration by ~10mps^2 and more than doubles delta-v, along with decreasing pitch/roll/yaw times thanks to added RCS thrusters. Can fly in an atmosphere. Barely.
Ultra - Essentially a redesign of the Super set which trades most of its delta-v for atmospheric streamlining and additional 'intake' thrust. Compared to a clean VF-1, it increases mass by about 75%, but doubles thrust and more than triples wing area, while also adding maneuvering canards and other agility enhancements. Atmospheric performance is limited by aerodynamic factors (ie, the airframe's 'never exceed' speed), and the pilot's ability to withstand G-forces. (Meta note: It should look, overall, a bit like a cross between the YF-21 from Plus and the VF-0D from Zero.)
Weasel - A set of high-maneuverability pods based off of the Ultra design, which add relatively little armor and firepower but an extensive complement of sensor and electronic warfare gear. Mission is known as Suppression of Enemy External Defenses.
Strike - Another modification of the basic Super set, this time by removing the inner pair of missile launchers and replacing them with a pair of MSL-2 laser weapons and adding twenty-seven(!) fuselage hardpoints along the outer surfaces of the booster pods, legs, and shield. This set is usually flown with an XQ-1 heavy beam gunpod in place of the standard GAU-11.
Specific bits of jargon -
The MSL-2 is the medium-sized laser weapon you usually see on Defender set desdroids. Likewise, the XQ-1 is a Tomahawk arm.
The GAU-11, my sources tell me, is actually a real weapon - specifically, it's a four-barreled modification of the real world's GAU-8 (aka, 'that BFG on the Warthog'). Seems like it'd be an apt choice for something with the VF-1's mission roles - aircraft vaporized, ground targets maimed, anything you like, delivered.
I remain unconvinced as to whether the full-armor series would be valuable enough to be worth developing, from the point of view of a government. However, it occurs to me that if the SDF-1 had an onboard VF factory but only a limited supply of desdroids, something like them might get whipped up as a field expedient, then polished in the post-war years when the desdroids were phased out as no longer neccessary.
Character names are good to go, BTW!
Oh, before I forget, what about the Daedalus and Prometheus?
Ja, -n
===========
===============================================
"V, did you do something foolish?"
"Yes, and it was glorious."