C800 Blackburn Claymore Space Superiority Fighter

The C800 Blackburn Claymore Space Superiority Fighter is a family of United Nations Space Command starfighters and atmospheric aircraft developed by Blackburn Spacecraft in 2553 to supplement the ageing Longsword as a dedicated anti-Covenant starfighter. Its designation as a "space superiority fighter" is something of a misnomer; though it was originally designed purely for anti-starfighter duty, developments in missile technology have allowed it to be pressed into service as a multi-role anti-fighter and anti-capital ship spacecraft. It makes use of a modular design allowing one fighter to be configured for a variety of different missions.
==History==
As the UNSC began the lengthy task of rebuilding its armed forces, they embarked on a modernisation effort to bring their warship effectiveness up to at least technological equality to their Covenant counterparts. Humanity has always enjoyed a tactical and strategic superiority, but the advanced technology the Covenant employ meant certain defeat across hundreds of colonies. As part of this modernisation, the Navy turned to Blackburn Spacecraft to design for them a new multi-role fighter for the next generation in carrier warfare: The Longsword, though effective, was rapidly becoming out of date, and virtually all prototypes of the Sabre-class Starfighter had been destroyed at the Fall of Reach. As a result, Blackburn was forced to start from scratch.
The company had never before undertaken such a project, but with the collapse of Sierra Space Systems, and the devastation of Misriah Armouries' Mars-based infrastructure, there were precious few options. Developed over a three-year period from 2553 to 2556, the result was the extremely agile but short-range Blackburn Claymore fighter. After promising simulation runs, sixty squadrons worth of fighters were completed and deployed to Alpha Centauri, which was designated as the UNSC's new dominant military centre, housing the Stanley-Abernathy Naval Shipyards in 2556 for working up with the UNSC's new Glorious-class Carriers. 
Participating in Operation: BAGRATION, ten squadrons of fighters participated in the raids on numerous Blood Covenant supply and refueling outposts, their fighter support and command-and-control capability with the Carriers Majestic and Verdant coordinating the rapid strikes on sensitive targets. By 2560, another five Glorious-class Carriers had entered service, boosting the UNSC Navy's fighter support capacity significantly, while flights of Claymores were attached to Frigates and Cruisers, and dozens of unattached squadrons defended less-important UNSC systems. Dozens of Claymore squadrons participated in Operation: FURY in 2560, and two squadrons-worth were attached to Battlegroup Retribution during Operation: LAMENTATION in 2561. They still remained formidable combatants during the Second Great War, despite New Covenant technological advances, striking deep into enemy territory using their Shaw-Fujikawa drives, attacking enemy warships in fleet batttles, and boosting friendly missile defence with their Thanatos interceptor missiles. They remain the UNSC Navy's premiere starfighter.
==Design==
===Airframe===
The Claymore is designed around a titanium alloy airframe. Eight centimetres of the UNSC's incredibly strong and heat resistant MITHRIL ceramic armour is welded to the airframe, faced with two centimetres of titanium carbide laminate for additional strength and heat resistance. This is plated with the Tarnhelm anti-radar metamaterial, and painted grey for camouflage. The cockpit sits within the airframe, surrounded on all sides by eight centimetres of MITHRIL.
===Defences===
The Claymore's defences lie around eight centimetres of the UNSC's incredibly strong and heat resistant MITHRIL ceramic armour, welded to the airframe. This is faced with two centimetres of titanium carbide laminate for additional strength and heat resistance. This is plated with the Tarnhelm anti-radar metamaterial, a lightweight, maintenance-free ceramic that absorbs radar, as well as ultraviolet and infrared suppressive paints.
In terms of active defence, the Claymore carries a number of AIM-445 Thanatos interceptor missiles in revolving launch tubes, which can diffuse and break up plasma torpedoes by deploying a thick cloud of ultra-fine ferro-titanium dust, but can also serve equally well as an anti-fighter or anti-missile weapon with a magnetic accelerator warhead, and can be used to thicken a fleet's missile defence. The fighter is also equipped with BLINDER countermeasures, which deliver bursts of strobing jamming to force targeting computers to lose their targets, and SPARTOI countermeasures which dramatically increase the number of targets with fake signatures, drawing off missiles and targeting computers.
===Propulsion and powerplant===
The Claymore makes use of four Gas Core (Closed-cycle) Nuclear Thermal Drives ("Nuclear Lightbulbs"). Uranium hexafluoride in gas or plasma form is injected into six fused quartz reaction chambers within the engine until there is enough to start a nuclear chain reaction. Hydrogen (derived from the water ice in slush form stored in the wings) is then injected from the engine walls around the chambers where it flash heats into plasma and is forced out the exhaust nozzle, allowing for relatively fast interplanetary travel at speeds of 50,000 kilometres per minute. Compared to open-cycle gas core nuclear thermal drives, no intensely-radioactive Uranium fuel escapes in the exhaust, and the drive is therefore safe to use near inhabited planets. Compared to a similarly-sized open-cycle drive, however, the exhaust velocity is halved. The engines also serve as a method of generating electricity; the engine coolant is used to drive turbines which in turn drive generators, and photovoltaics in the engine's walls can be used to generate power. In the event of an emergency, the Claymore also carries one gas-cooled XRMF113 Fission Reactor, which can provide enough power to keep the life support and navigation systems online.
For FTL travel, the class carries the XM930 Miniature Shaw-Fujikawa Translight Engine, the smallest Slipspace engine ever developed by Humans or Covenant, which uses derived Covenant technology to allow Slipspace travel at 890 light years/day with incredibly precise navigation. This is slower than most modern UNSC capital ships, however, and for this reason fighters are transported in carriers for major fleet actions, and only usually make use of their Slipspace drives for retreat if their carriers are destroyed or if they are on a raid deep into enemy space.
===Sensors and countermeasures===
The Claymore carries a large number of passive and active sensor systems, among them the AN/APS-626 AESA Radar, a type of phased array radar whose transmitter and receiver functions are composed of numerous small solid-state transmit/receive modules. AESAs aim their "beam" by broadcasting a number of different frequencies of coherent radio energy that interfere constructively at certain angles in front of the antenna. They improve on the older passive electronically scanned radars by spreading their broadcasts out across a band of frequencies, which makes it very difficult to detect over background noise. AESAs allow ships and aircraft to broadcast powerful radar signals while still remaining stealthy.
The AN/ASS-515 Electromagnetic Sensor covers nearly the entire electromagnetic spectrum: LIDAR systems are used for range-finding. These emit a laser pulse that is reflected off a target, and provides range information. The receptor's computer will only recognise the frequency of the laser pulse emitted by its LIDAR, meaning that this system is unable to be interfered with using dazzling laser pulses. LIDAR frequencies are altered in a random pattern after every pulse. The LIDAR system can also be used to emit dazzling laser pulses to blind enemy LIDAR and cause permanent blindness in enemy crewmembers making visual scans. However, since it operates on the principle of phased-array lasers, the LIDAR system can not be destroyed in the same way. Passive long-range infrared sensors detect heat sources, and the sensor also includes passive and active ultraviolet sensors, radiation sensors, which detect active nuclear reactors, thrusters, or Cherenkov Radiation, and optical sensor systems used for visual inspection, which incorporate polarising filters that darken to prevent damage to components or the eyes of operators by enemy laser dazzlers. The AN/ASS-767 Gravimetric Sensor is a passive gravimetric sensor, which detects changes in a gravitational field caused by artificial gravity systems, or stealthed ships in a system's gravity well. The AN/ASS-879 Slipspace Radar is a long-range active FTL radar, with an optimum range of twenty million kilometres.
The hull is plated with the Tarnhelm anti-radar metamaterial, a lightweight, maintenance-free ceramic that absorbs radar, as well as ultraviolet and infrared suppressive paints. When stealth is required, the fighter's radiators are drawn in and heat is transferred to internal heat sinks, where liquid nitrogen is stored at near absolute zero to absorb heat. These have a life span of two days before cooling is required. The engines are rarely used except during combat and course changes, so there is no risk of tailfire from the engines being detected by IR sensors during stealthy approaches. Electrostatic discharges on the hull create a sheath of ultra-cold plasma around the ship, rendering it totally invisible to EM radiation.
The fighter is also equipped with BLINDER countermeasures, which deliver bursts of strobing jamming to force the primary search radars of targeting computers to lose their targets, and SPARTOI countermeasures; decoys which dramatically increase the number of targets for enemy fighters with fake signatures, drawing off missiles and targeting computers.
===Other systems===
The Claymore carries the UNSC's standard inertia damper, which works on the principle of "utility fog"; a swarm of nanobots, each with extending arms reaching in several different directions, and can perform three-dimensional lattice reconfiguration. Grabbers at the ends of the arms allow the robots (or foglets) to mechanically link to one another and share both information and energy, enabling them to act as a continuous substance with mechanical and optical properties that can be varied over a wide range. Each foglet has substantial computing power, and is able to communicate with its neighbours. When the damper is in use, the swarm of robots is widely spread-out, and the arms loose, allowing air flow between them. In the event of a collision the arms lock into their current position, as if the air around the passengers has transformed into a fluid equal in density to the body, which causes buoyancy forces to act counter to any acceleration. This allows the craft to achieve acceleration and movements unheard-of for even Covenant craft.
The Claymore's life support systems and food and fuel supplies allow it to operate on its own for up to five days.
Tactical data is viewed both on screens and is projected straight onto the faceplates of the crews' helmets. External cameras offer an extraordinarily detailed view, and incorporate flash suppressors to protect the crew in the event of attack by laser dazzlers or high-intensity sunlight.
==Variants==
The C800 comes in a variety of designs for different missions. Because of the modular spaceframe, components can be swapped out as necessary to reconfigure a single fighter into a different variant for a specific mission.
===F-134 Shrike===
The F-134 Shrike is the standard multi-role fighter that is well-balanced in terms of electronic warfare, anti-fighter, and anti-ship weapons.
In terms of offense, the Shrike is much more heavily armed than its predecessor, the Longsword. The craft carries two forward-mounted M9109 50mm autocannons, each with 180-degree arcs of fire and a five thousand round disintegrating belt. They have a rate of fire of 5000 rounds per minute. In terms of rear defence, the Shrike carries one aft M9109 gun. They are capable of firing in the vacuum of space due to shells with pressurised atmospheric contents. They each have a maximum range of over six kilometres. Recoil and counter-recoil are controlled hydraulically by means of a piston and spring combination connected to the recoiling parts and operating in an oil-filled recuperator cylinder mounted to the stationary trunnion block assembly, which is connected to the hardpoint. The recoiling parts of the gun include the tube and tube extension, the recuperator piston and piston rod, the lock frame assembly, the driving spring assemblies, and the breechblock assembly. The non-recoiling parts include the trunnion block group, the feed box and feeding mechanism, the recuperator cylinder and bushing, the back plate group, and the manual charger assembly. Each autocannon fires a mix of PGU-22/C Armour Piercing Incendiary rounds, with a projectile weight of about 500 grams, PGU-33/B High Explosive rounds, with a projectile weight of about 460 grams, and PGU/44D High Explosive/Incediary Armour Piercing rounds fired in a 3:2:1 ratio. The PGU-22/C's projectile incorporates a lightweight titanium body, cast around a smaller calibre depleted uranium penetrating core and is capable of blasting through the front of even an M808B Scorpion main battle tank. The High Explosive Incendiary/Armour Piercing round is a "combined effects" round which makes use high explosives to blast a path for the penetrator. The initial collision with the target ignites an incendiary material in the tip, triggering the detonation of a high explosive charge. A second incendiary charge of zirconium powder will also ignite. The remaining element of the round is a tungsten carbide penetrator. This has a large amount of kinetic energy and will penetrate armour as solid-cored armour piercing shot would. This will take some of the incendiary material through the armour and into the target. As a result, a single burst incorporating a mix of rounds is lethal to any approaching fighter.
The Shrike was uncompromisingly developed from the start as an anti-ship starfighter, and therefore it carries large numbers of missiles, developed under Project EXCALIBUR and miniturised for the Shrike's use. For anti-fighter use, the Shrike carries twenty-four AIM-445 Thanatos interceptor missiles in three revolving launch tubes, one facing aft, which serve as an anti-fighter or anti-missile weapon with a kinetic kill warhead. For anti-ship use, the Shrike carries four revolver launchers, each holding three AIM-333 Azrael nuclear shaped charge warheads, and four AIM-443 Neith fragmentation missiles, for a total of twenty-eight offensive warheads. These have a similar range and yield to their Block One ship-launched counterparts, but in order to fit into the Shrike's revolving magazines, their sizes have been reduced dramatically. Furthermore, the number of tungsten rods carried by the Neith has been reduced from fifteen to six. Apart from this, however, they are identical to their counterparts, with the exception of the addition of a miniturised explosively-pumped EMP generator, the XGTZ-4431 Electromagnetic Pulse Generator (the smallest EMP generator ever developed for space warfare use), designed to bring down the target's shields before the missile detonates. Each revolving launcher also carries one AEM-225B Eris Electronic Warfare drone, equipped with BLINDER countermeasures, which deliver bursts of strobing jamming to force point-defence targeting computers to lose their targets, and SPARTOI countermeasures which dramatically increase the number of targets with fake signatures, drawing off point defence to fake targets.
The Shrike is also equipped with one aft Space Mine Dispenser, which can deploy twenty HORNET Nuclear Mines or thirty-six Moray Space Mines for fleet ambushes, naval blockades, or anti-fighter use.
In terms of active defence, the Shrike carries twenty four AIM-445 Thanatos interceptor missiles in three revolving launch tubes, one facing aft, which can diffuse and break up plasma torpedoes by deploying a thick cloud of ultra-fine ferro-titanium dust, and can be used to thicken a fleet's missile defence. They serve equally well as an anti-fighter or anti-missile weapon with an asynchronous linear-induction motor warhead.
===F/E-135 Ferret===
===F-136 Mosquito===
===B-137 Wildcat===
===RE-138 Dragonfly===
===RQ-139 Moth===
==Notable squadrons==
*VFA-153 Black Cats 
*VFA-145 Gold Diggers 
*VFA-156 Red Devils
*VFA-168 Green Goddesses
*VAQ-179 Blue Furies 
*VAQ-225 Flying Scotsmen
*VB-289 Great Whites 
*VB-246 Death and Glories
*VFA-322 Totenkopfs
*VFA-345 Iron Eagles 
*VPQ-321 Hydras
*VPQ-478 Harpies
*VB-456 White Panthers
*VB-479 Star Raiders 
*VB-470 Pterodactyls 
*VFA-511 Blonde Bombshells
*VB-547 Ginger Ninjas
*VFL-555 Sickoes
*VFA-569 Centaurs
*VFL-599 Medusas
*VFA-601 Night Terrors
==Quotes==
*Still haven't got the aircraft designations sorted out, I see...
Category:War of Vengeance
Category:UNSC Aircraft