PF-81 SwordFish

"*Enemy in range, target in sight. Fire to the last round of ammunition! Fly to the last drop of fuel! Fight to the last drop of blood!*"
-Last transmission of Captain Haggard, CORE Air Corps 672nd Fighter Wing, Raptor Squadron.

The **PF-81 Sword-Fish** was a fixed-wing, carrier-based, CORE jet aircraft. It carried two massive bombs under its wings which could cause massive damage in a focused area.

## Overview

Despite the SwordFish's technological inferiority to the Scaler's fighter aircraft, SwordFish pilots are more talented and skillful in aerial combat than the average Scaler pilot. SwordFish pilots can take out Scaler "aircraft" but with great difficult due to the latter's superior performance.

The fate of the SwordFish is that those that have survived the war are few and far between, they are most likely scrapped and disassembled after the CORE's "defeat". Most were likely melted down and then refined by the Scaler industry to be converted into weapons or armor in recent years. A few have survived on the *CNV Crusader*  remaining as a tactical air support element for the operations as the CORE is currently launching an attempt to reclaim some territory.

## History

A heavy fighter combining devastating strike potential with a high degree of speed and manoeuvrability, the SwordFish formed the bulk of the *CORE Air Corps* fighter aircraft during the End War and Extinction War.

The SwordFish was a true workhorse, with a rugged and reliable design, beloved of its crews and feared by its enemies. The SwordFish versatile array of armaments enabled it to tackle all manner of missions, making it ideal for dominating the skies as the Corps of Marines landed, and supporting them in battle as they advanced.

The SwordFish could fulfill a range of missions, from hunting tanks and ground strikes, yet its main role was that of an air-superiority fighter, engaging enemy craft in dogfights or hunting down enemy bombers.

Its most famous characteristic, however, was sheer resilience and it was not unusual for a SwordFish to land riddled with damage that would have downed a lesser craft.

## Characteristics

Whilst the Lightning air superiority fighter is faster than the SwordFish, with a better climb and dive rate, it is also a great deal less well-armoured, less versatile in the same range of situations as the SwordFish and far more finicky, demanding a great deal of attention from its maintenance crews.

Like the Lightning, the SwordFish is equipped with a Promethium-fueled rocket engine, maneuvering thrusters and an ablative ventral surface that provides it with a limited trans-atmospheric operations capability. However, this capability was provided only for transportation and deployment from an Imperial Navy starship into a planetary atmosphere and was not intended for space combat, which means the SwordFish is not a true starfighter, a role normally filled by the Fury space superiority fighter.

The rocket engine and thrusters allows a SwordFish to deploy from an Repulik Navy ship in atmosphere into Low Planetary Orbit and can then be used at the end of combat operations to allow a SwordFish to return to its mothership after using its twin air-guzzling turbofan engines to reach its maximum operational altitude.

Because of this operational capacity in a vacuum, all SwordFish pilots are required to wear full, vacuum-sealed flight suits and helmets. The fighter's rocket engine is also used to allow the SwordFish to make extremely rapid launch rail take-offs from its mothership or a ground base. Once airborne using the rocket, the SwordFish engages its turbofans.

Republik Fleet fighter wings can possess a wide variability in the number of aircraft they contain. They normally consist of between 10-20 aircraft or starfighters although some are much larger.

Each fighter wing, in addition to its numeric designator, also takes a name that is usually that of a real or mythological sea creature. There were hundreds of fighter wings in service before the start of the Extinction War. Where strategic raids, Being Outgunned, and constant retreating, has left the Air Corps in disrepair and absorbed into the CORE Army.

## Armament

The SwordFish's main armament is carried in its blunt nose with the gun barrels protruding, and consists of two sets of Three-Linked .50 Cal Machineguns and a set of twin linked 30MM Autoguns on it's forward dorsal area.

The .50 Machineguns are primarily used in the fighter's ground attack role to punch through the heavy armour of enemy vehicles, whilst the Autoguns are the weapons of choice for strafing enemy infantry formations and dog-fighting.

The heavy fighter can also carry six tactical bombs, four air-to-surface Hellstrike Missiles or six air-to-air Skystrike missiles on its external wing-mounted hardpoints, without sacrificing the use of any of its main weapons, whereas the lighter Lightning fighter must sacrifice a weapon to carry external hardpoints, usually its single Autocannon.

A SwordFish already has an unusually long operational range for a heavy fighter, but when the situation or mission parameters call for it, a SwordFish can be outfitted with external Promethium fuel drop tanks for increased range.

## Design

The SwordFish has a heavy, rectangular fuselage rather than a more streamlined tubular body, which is flanked by a thrust tunnel containing a large, turbofan jet engine on either side of the aircraft. The wings are mounted on the thrust tunnels and very slightly forward-swept.

The angular cockpit is set about halfway down the fighter, with the remaining back half dominated by the tail section, complete with two tail-planes and a single tail-fin. The whole of the SwordFish is armoured with 45 mm of Keramicheskie armor plate.

Being a larger and heavier airframe than the Lightning, the SwordFish is slower and less maneuverable. However, it is considerably more durable, capable of taking damage that would destroy a Lightning outright. The SwordFish also has greater range, thanks to its more powerful engines and larger fuel tanks.

## Role

SwordFishs are most commonly used in an air superiority role, where they intercept enemy aircraft and engage in dogfights with them. SwordFishs are especially effective against enemy bombers as the SwordFish's large weapons array can punch through bombers' usually heavy armour, and SwordFish armor can withstand -- to a degree -- the withering fire of bombers' multiple turret guns better than its counterpart Lightning fighter.

Because of its versatility, the SwordFish is also deployed as close air support for Astra Militarum or even Space Marine units.

The SwordFish can attack enemy armour or infantry on the ground using Hellstrike Missiles, its Lascannons for penetrating the armour of enemy vehicles and its Autocannons for strafing enemy infantry positions.