Raptor

The Raptor is a 70-PSL+ superiority star fighter designed at Gudersnipe School, under the direct observation of Instructor Gailen(Then Admiral Commodore Gailen). Though it saw little use outside of Gailen's theater of conflict, it eventually gained widespread acceptance and replaced the Hawk-class of fighter.

History

Beginning in A.Y. 6798, Gailen started planning a counter-offensive against the Kamians. Not just a simple attack, he wanted to turn the tide in the entire war, and force them into a defensive-stance, which he felt they were ill-equiped to handle(as compared to the Foundation, who had effectively held what ground they did thanks to carefully-planned defensive tactics).

The Raptor is often described as "A Harpy that isn't actually a bomber", and the description is fairly accurate. The fighter-fuselage resembles a flying-wing, with two Harpy-engines. The design meeting for the Hawk also began with Gailen saying "Take a Harpy, chop of the bomber-part, and make me a fighter." And then according to eyewitnesses he kicked a chair out from under one of the project leaders, spat on the wall, and slammed a door behind him while shouting "and get it done fast!" although that last sentence may just have been a stream of profanity.

The problem, as Gailen saw it, was not with the Kamian capitol ships. Harpies could easily rip their capitol ships to shreds. The problem was Kamian fighters, escorts, and corvettes, which aside from being extremely manuverable and easily able to evade point-defenses, had a tendancy to go kamakaze when they realized their support fleet had been destroyed.

While the Harpy was fast and maneuverable enough to win a dog-fight, it was designed as a bomber. Its weapons issue from bomb-bays, and it was intended to carry the N2 missile, which was expensive and wasteful when fired on an enemy fighter. It had limited projectiles. In all, it was effective enough as a bomber not to need fighter escorts, but not very efficient at actually killing enemy fighters.

But Gailen's calls for a dedicated fighter fell on largely deaf ears. Harpies had been in production for centuries by then, and in combat no Harpy had ever lost a fair dogfight. The Blind Consul and the rest of the divisional commanders saw no need for a new fighter.

So Gailen used his more direct influence at Gudersnipe School to have the Raptor designed and built(he had the privilege to do so, just not the authority to order the new space craft deployed to combat regions outside of his command.

Design

The designers began with a Harpy, more specifically it's revolutionary 30/100 engines. By using identical engines, crews could easily swap parts between the two spacecraft.

The Raptor was also designed with the same wingspan in order to use the same sensor array and similar calibrations. However, it was also only about 1/3rd the length. The severely reduced mass of the Raptor meant it could accelerate much faster. While the top speed was still the same, the raptor could excert more delta-V and thus change vectors extremely rapidly.

Raptors also employed low observable stealth, also like the Harpy, but this feature was made less efficient by the weapon systems.

Weapons

Instead of a missile bay, the Raptor carried up to 36 kinetic missiles mounted on hard-points along the wings. This contributed signficantly to it's observable radar silhouette, but based on it's purpose as a close-in fighter, this was deemed acceptable. The Raptor, Gailen said, was not meant to be a stealth fighter.

Trivia

The fighter that Hunter Jusenkyou pilots in The Sun Also Rises from The Path to Ascension is a Raptor.