Vayavastra Attack Jet

## Tactical Analysis

* **Strategic Air Control:** The Vayavastra Attack Jet is a surprisingly fast and light bomber; it is almost an attack plane. Generally, it can reach any target fairly quickly. However, its powerful engines cannot do anything about its bulk, and it turns rather slowly. Course corrections mid-run are its bane.

* **Cluster Frag:** The Vayavastra’s payload is a single cluster bomb, filled with anti-tank bomblets that devastate a whole area. Buildings aren’t especially damaged, and infantry are barely affected at all. While stronger tanks can survive the bomblets, they’ll be damaged and prey to other Indian units.

* **The Missile Problem:** The Vayavastra is surprisingly light for its size, and has trouble when things actually shoot back at it. While it can take some flak from the air (and better yet, deal with it by bombing it), interceptors are devastating. The Vayavastra’s poor maneuverability means that it is quickly locked on and fired upon.

* **Difficult Terrain:** Vayavastra's are also used to destroy runways. While not used in open battles, sometimes individual anti-runway munitions are put inside the Varyastara's bomb to break up ground as well as destroy, which means any vehicle not destroyed will have to drive over broken ground.

## Background

"*It’s like Diwali down there!*"

- "Vayavastra pilot on the detonation of his cluster bomb"
It’s apparent to many observers in and outside of the subcontinent that India’s military technology is behind most of the world. Many of its vehicles and equipment are at Cold War levels. This isn’t much of a problem, as many powers struggle to keep up with the cutting edge shown by the Allies. However, when it needs to be, the Commonwealth can spare no expense when it comes to certain, important aspects. In preparation for attacks on Yemen (and then further westward to Somalia, rumours say), the Indian military poured large amounts of resources and money into a new fast bomber plane that would be the envy of the world, and make the Artemis look like a child’s dart.

As it turned out, the **Vayavastra Attack Jet** cost more than the plane’s weight in gold and was fraught with problems. New steel was developed for it, but different grades of steel caused electrolyte corrosion, requiring the plane to be rebuilt again. Eventually, the Indian Air Force cut its losses and stopped development of the equally expensive and high tech weapon systems it was supposed to carry. Instead, they settled on conventional bombs, most notably cluster bombs. While intended to strike at the center of the Soviet Union if need be, now it was relegated to bombing support for the Frontier Corps. When it was unveiled, though, it was still an impressive plane. Better still, it was for a short time the fastest plane in the world. Then the Achilles was given its first test flight.

While it no longer has much need to go nearly as fast anymore, and its current use is a fraction of its potential, this Vayavastra can still turn the tide of battle. Many tank columns have only heard a sonic boom to portend hundreds of bomblets devastating their armour and shattering equipment (though infantry can easily take cover in foxholes, bunkers, or simply mounds of dirt). Indeed, its great speed means it can’t be intercepted while going to the kill box, unless an Achilles went rogue. However, on the battlefield itself dropping bombs at its speed would make the bomb scatter so much as to make it more likely to drop on the Commonwealth base than any enemy. Thus it has to slow down significantly, where it was found out it was quite vulnerable to AA. Due to its shortcomings, the Indian Air Force now wishes it had just bought Artemis bombers instead, but this is protested by Vayavastra pilots, who see firsthand the devastating effect they can have when used correctly.

## Behind the Scenes

The Vayavastra is based on the cancelled WS-110A Project [1], which lead to the equally cancelled XB-70 Valkyrie project.