20 Sept 2020, 10:19

Aftenposten


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Vardic Air Corps Fields The F-14 Scorpio After 3 Years of Research and Development


Møller Air Base, Ericsund, Vayinaod
September 20th, 2020 1030 GMT +2:15

After three relatively calm years of research and development, the F-14 Scorpio was officially fielded by the Vardic Air Corps total at Møller Air Base. The issue fielding comes after the Air Corps confirmed the Scorpio met their operational requirements, and successfully completed all necessary testing to begin entering initial production earlier this year. The first fifteen aircraft, known as Block 1, will be stationed at Møller Air Base.

Research and development while generally considered calm, was the child of multiple failed attempts at the program, one of them being a temporary attempt to field the T-19 as a full-fledge multi-role fighter to postpone the program instead for a sixth generation program.

The F-14's fielding comes as the the last set of F-12 Lupus received a midlife upgrade to sustain a longer service life in either Vardic Service or sold as surpass aircraft internationally. The VF-X program has thus far avoided being consumed into the scandal surrounding the failed F/A-19 bid and midlife F-12 upgrades that is plaguing the First Konsulate over corruption, bribery, and conflicts of interests of various defense contractors. While the initial report from the Inspector General has yet to be released, many are expecting First Konsul Henningson's prior employer, Accelererad Mikroarkitektur Design, to be named as one of the companies. Training F-12 Lupus' will be the first to retired, as they were the oldest aircraft as well as not receive any mid-life upgrades due to only having a training role.

Ten of the aircraft will form the newly established 43rd Fighter Squadron as a geographically separated unit from the 3rd Fighter Wing (Yngvar Air Base, Strondheim, Vayinaod), which until more aircraft enter service will attack as the first tactical squadron and help bolster initial transition for many pilots. Five of the aircraft will form the 5th Test Squadron under the 1st Test and Research Wing (Møller Air Base). This initial grouping of aircraft is to help centralize maintenance and pilot training as more of the Air Corps transitions from older F-12s and F-10s.

The F-14 is a stealth multirole centric aircraft intended to complement and overtime replace the F-12 Lupus. Currently the Air Corps does not intend to field a two-seat variant of the F-14 for pilot training or other purposes relying instead on more virtual based training to complement pilots transitioning to the aircraft, as well as expand its fleet of T-19 Raven trainer aircraft to bolster F-14 squadrons. Both aircraft were developed by Kron Industries, and the company has committed to a new version of the Raven with Scorpio-focused systems to enhance pilot training.

The F-14 was designed with the ability to supercruise (the ability to sustain speeds past Mach 1 without the use of afterburner). with a top speed expected by sources to be around Mach 2. The requirements for the VF-X program were only a max requested speed of Mach 1.81, however analysts noted the FE300 engines designed for the F-14 would surpass that in a two-engine configuration with the size of the aircraft. The aircraft's 10 external hardpoints, and integrated weapons bay will allow it to surpass the F-12 Lupus in terms of weapons capacity when not operating in a full stealth aspect.

Most importantly, the sensor integration with the 'DRADIS' combat systems both the naval and land based dyad will allow the F-14 unprecedented information about the battlefield and allow it complete information fusion to the benefit of the pilot, those at the command post, and those on the frontlines.

With the ability to produce the fighter largely domestically, Kron Industries managed to obtain the government a total cost of 43 Million Krones (70 Million Euros) for the initial block of F-14 fighters. The First Konsulate expects this to drop below 30 Million Krone by Block 3.

(((((OOC: Some aspects of this article are no longer canon due to updates within the war system, picture was adjusted to reflect some RP continuity. Article will remain unchanged for transparency's sake.)))))