Phoenix

The Phoenix Aerospace Fighter is one of the most recognizable designes of Vanguard Aerospace, subsidiary of Vanguard Industries. It is a multi-purpose medium fighter designed for the Rim Worlds Republic that features a good balance of firepower, mobility, protection and reasonable price, ensuring it would remain in production for a very long time.

## Technical Information

### Armament

* 4x Medium Pulse Lasers
* 2x LRM-10s
* 1x Anti-Missile System

### BV

1'317

The Pheonix was the result of Vanguard Industries trying to earn a major defense contract with the Rim Worlds Navy to prop up its newly created Aerospace subsidiary, Vanguard Aerospace. Whether or not choosing the same name as an already extant RWA Mech was a finely calculated PR move to draw as much attention as possible to the design, Vanguard was sued by Krauss-Liemann Incorporated over trademark issues, but managed to successfully argue that a trademarked name for one product type could not apply to an entirely different class of machines in a different branch of the armed forces.

Past the initial legal storm, the Pheonix quickly became a common sight among the Rim Worlds Republic, operating alongside the heavier Vulcans introduced not too long afterwards, and it would be endlessly compared with the Rogue and the Gotha, fairly similar SLDF designs of the same era which would themselves quickly become mainstays of the SLDF. Compared to the heavier and more expensive Gotha, it was slightly faster, as well if not slightly better protected. The Phoenix could not match the Gotha in sheer alpha strike potential, but had better sustainability and heat management. Compared to the lighter and cheaper Rogue, it was slightly slower, and roughly evenly matched in offensive power, but the Phoenix was drastically better armored. It also had slightly lower fuel reserves than both models, limiting its ability for long-range patrols. During the Amaris Civil War, all of these comparisons would get to be tested, again and again, on the battlefield.

Many Phoenixes would go on to survive this conflict and to serve throughout the Succession Wars, where they were greatly appreciated as their relatively simple technology allowed them to endure for a long time before the general technological decline caught up to them and because the masterfully intuitive cockpit layout made them very easy to pilot and to train new recruits with. The destruction of the Vanguard's Apollo factories and the disappearance of Grenze into the deep dark of the Periphery however made it so no new Phoenixes could be built in the Inner Sphere, and those still available to the Great Houses would suffer attrition despite their best efforts.

To the continued mystification of the Lyran Commonwealth, Periphery pirates and independent minor powers somehow managed to maintain full squadrons of Phoenixes when they themselves struggled to, and it was common for the Commonwealth to try and raid the pirates in an comical reversal of roles to 're-appropriate' their fighters. By the end of the FedCom Civil War, with Grenze falling under the control of Clan Ashen Corsac and re-establishing contact with the Inner Sphere at large, a new OmniFighter variant the Phoenix IIC would soon be developed from the venerable line.

## Weapons and Equipment

The Phoenix features a quatuor of 'KurzSchwertz' Medium Pulse Lasers in its nose, allowing it to unleash a withering hail of rapid-fire, short-range laser beams whenever dogfighting or enacting strafing runs, which its 10 'MerhKalt' Double Heat Sinks could keep cool virtually indefinitely as long as the missiles did not also fire. One 'Schutze VS-10' LRM-10 battery was fitting under each wing, each with one ton of ammunition, allowing it to engage far-away targets as it closed in or to harass from afar with an adequate staying power.

Defensively, 13 tons of 'VanSchild FeAl' Ferro-Aluminum gave the Phoenix an amount of protection that was top of the line for its weight class, significantly better than at least half of competing designs, and being only really matched by the SLDF's finest and Royal Division units. Further bolstering this protection was a rear-facing 'Interceptor' Anti-Missile System, to shoot down the missiles of any bandit that manages to get on its tail. It lacked any rear-facing armament to shoot back with, but this was not seen as a problem since Phoenix Pilots were simply instructed to use their superior maneuverability to shake off any hostile in such a disadvantageous position.

## Variants

* **PHX-B**

Introduced as an analogue to the SLDF Royal variants, the PHX-B was for the exclusive usage of Amaris Imperial Divisions. By upgrading to a 'Pulsar-250XA' XL engine and streamlining the airframe design, its speed and agility were pushed to new levels, making it an utterly lethal dogfighter in atmospheric combat, while the 2 extra tons of LRM ammo allowed pilots to bombard their foes even more liberally from afar. Unfortunately, the few surviving crafts have a very bad reputation due to their association with the highly fanatical Imperial Divisions, and many refuse to use them despite their excellent performance. *Cost: 6'302'000 C-Bills, BV: 1'461.*

* **PHX-C**

Never an official Vanguard design, the PHX-C is essentially a field refit by the Great Houses to keep their Phoenixes operational past 2850, where Double Heat sinks could no longer be replaced and Pulses started to grow rarer. The 4 Medium Pulse Lasers are replaced by 5 Medium Lasers, and the number of Heat Sinks - now singles - is increased to 13 in an effort to try to keep up with the heat load. *Cost: 2'738'000 C-Bills, BV:1'340*

## Design Quirks

Phoenixes -A and -C models have the following Design Quirks:

* Easy to Pilot
* Static Ammo Feed [2] (LRM-10s)
* Obsolete [2779-3065]

Phoenixes -B models have the following Design Quirks:

* Easy to Pilot
* Atmospheric Fighter
* Obsolete [2799-3065]
* Bad Reputation