Zipper

### Experience Value

Juhziz: 25, 33 (Veteran), 44 (Elite), 58 (Heroic)"Deathstrike": 35, 47 (Veteran), 63 (Elite), 84 (Heroic)

### Experience Required

"Deathstrike": 105 (Veteran), 142 (Elite), 188 (Heroic)

### Air Attack

Juhziz (at stock): 465 (primary), 116 (secondary)Juhziz (upgraded): 775 (primary), 233 (secondary)

"Deathstrike": 8

### Damage Radius

Juhziz (at stock): 30 (primary), 60 (secondary)Juhziz (upgraded): 40 (primary), 80 (secondary)

"Deathstrike": 1

### Range

Juhziz (at stock): 125Juhziz (upgraded): 150

"Deathstrike": 300 (minimum 30)

## Introduction

The **Zipper** is a suicidal aircraft fielded mainly by General Rodall Juhziz, it attacks enemy aircrafts by crashing into them.

## Overview

The Lockheed F-104 Starfighter is one of the earliest supersonic interceptors developed by the United States and has found its way into the air forces of multiple USA allies, thanks to its excellent performance and Lockheed's backdoor dealings. The speed of the F-104 earned it various nicknames such as "missile with a man in it" and "Zipper" or "Zip-104".

After finally being decommissioned in the early 20th century, many F-104s originally under the service of various Middle-Eastern and African countries such as Pakistan or Jordan found their way into the hands of various GLA warlords, whom after suffering heavy losses from Chinese and American air strikes, become determined to develop their own air force to counter the dragon and the killer eagle.

General Mohmar "Deathstrike" originally planned to operate the F-104s as how they were originally operated: as interceptors. Lacking in supplies of air-to-air missiles meant that the GLA pilots had to use the plane's dual 20mm M61 Vulcan cannons to engage enemy aircraft—a highly ineffective tactic in a world of advanced radars and BVRAAMs. The lack of quality spare parts and lack of training combined with the F-104's hard to control nature further increased accident rates. The jet's high accident rate is starting to show and the morale of GLA's fledgling airforce is falling: dying in battle against the evil oppressors is glorious and honorable, but dying meaningless deaths in accidents is an end nobody wanted to meet.

This is when General Rodall "Demo" Juhziz came up with a simple yet brilliant solution: if the F-104s crash all the time, why not crash them into something valuable? Thus, Juhziz began to train his fanatical army of suicide pilots to fly these aircrafts like manned missiles, loading them with explosives and ramming them into enemy aircrafts. This tactic turned out to be far more effective and a nasty surprise to both the Chinese and the Americans. After losing numerous cargo planes and bombers to these suicide pilots, both nations began to provide escort for these large, sluggish aircrafts with interceptors. Even that didn't prevent the Zipper pilots from scoring a hit once in a while.

The Zipper is a suicide-interceptor aircraft that is shaped like a rocket with wider wingspan instead of an actual plane. It flies with an old jet engine and is only equipped with two vulcan cannons to take down unsuspecting aircraft. However - if ordered - the plane can be loaded with various explosives and persuade fanatical pilots to ram the plane directly to a target. More violent explosives can be used instead for more damage.

The Zipper functions unlike the two other interceptor units in Contra, the MiG-31 Foxhound and the F-22A King Raptor, as the Zipper is single-use only, however, the Zipper is considerably cheaper than the more advanced Chinese and American counterpart, and more can be produced from the same airfield after the first batch of jets has been sent airborne. This means that as long as Juhziz doesn't run out of funds, he can easily keep a fleet of Zippers in the air, fending off strike fighters, helicopters and general's power deliverly planes. It can also be used to disrupt the USA's supply line by attacking the supply gathering Chinooks, however, more than one Zipper is required to destroy a Chinook.

One thing that a GLA commander should bear in mind is that the Zipper can only attack aircraft and therefore highly vulnerable to ground based AA units, therefore it's advisable to have a few L-29 Dolphins flying alongside the Zippers to fend off enemy AA vehicles.

## Upgrade

**AP Bullets ("Deathstrike" only)**

* Increases the Zipper's damage output by 25%.

## Variants

General Mohmar "Deathstrike" can produce Zippers from his own airfields, these Zippers are not suicidal but instead uses onboard autocannons and toxin sprayer to intercept enemy planes. These jets do not need to rearm at any airfield just like the suicidal Zippers.

General Huchum can also gain three Zippers through general's powers anywhere he desires, however, these Zippers have limited fuel and can only stay airborne for around 3 minutes.

Prince Kassad can call a suicidal Zipper with his "Destroy Radar" power, this Zipper can destroy all stealth detectors in the target area, but somehow damages nothing else.

## Assessment

Pros:

* Fast, hard to intercept.
* Does not need to worry about airfield space.
* Very cheap for an aircraft.
* Effective at intercepting aircraft, especially strike fighters and helicopters.

Cons:

* Can only attack aircraft, helpless against ground units.
* Being a suicide unit, it can only be used once, unlike the MiG-31 and the F-22A.
* Ineffective against heavily armored aircraft such as Helixes and Pave Lows.

## Trivia

* The Zipper's cameo shows it armed with two missiles, however, that's not the case in the game.

## Gallery

Two Zippers circling the battlefield.The F-104 in real-life.