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AAM Viper - Civilian (Vanilla)

Developed as a replacement for the second-generation Hawk, the Viper is the Confederation's preferred carrier-based interceptor. The principle form of carrier employed by the Confederation is the escort carrier -- a light, fast, relatively inexpensive vessel that can deploy a small number of compact fighters in defense of more valuable craft, military or civilian. Protecting shipping in the outer reaches of the Solar System is a vital concern for the Confederation, as its economy is heavily dependent on trade with neighboring polities. Fighters aboard escort carriers provide a reliable defense against lightly armed raiders, and the Viper is the chief of these in the U-Con's arsenal.

As an interceptor, the Viper's role in combat is to engage bombers before they come into range of their targets, and its design is built around this mission. Its forward acceleration is powerful enough to reach maximum velocity in just over six seconds, allowing it to rapidly adjust its vector to intercept targets or evade fire. Twin gyroscopes give it nimble attitude control, in addition to ensuring redundancy. Six gatling guns provide the principle armament, and these are complemented by a pair of sequenced rocket launches in the nose to allow it to engage hardened targets. An optics/lidar suite enhances target acquisition. In addition to the primary carrier configuration, the Viper also has an atmospheric version. This iteration of the design is primarily used as a garrison craft for remote outposts on moons with a thin atmosphere.

Both the spaceborne and atmospheric versions come with a secondary loadout, which replaces the wing-mounted gatling guns with hardpoints for large, armor-penetrating missiles. This configuration was developed to give escort carriers a response to larger, heavier pirate vessels. While this modification does not make the Viper a substitute for dedicated bombers, it does expand the options available to commanders employing it; flight crews can typically convert a fighter from one variant to another within half an hour. Ironically, this configuration also makes the fighter well-suited to interdicting commerce itself.

Due to its role as an interceptor, the Viper's armor across the entire frame is minimal. Prolonged engagements with heavier craft are discouraged. The fighter's compact dimensions also necessitate that pilots bring their own oxygen supply with them; however, as the fighter is not intended to operate independently for prolonged missions, this is not an issue.

Taking advantage of the Viper's popular reception in the media, AAM has also released a civilian variant. While this version lacks the armament of the original design, it is capable of operating in both space and a planetary atmosphere, and is rated as an SSTO transport. Pilots leaving Earth are advised to make their ascent as vertical as possible until speed begins to drop below 75 m/sec at the fringes of the atmosphere, at which point the nose may be gently tilted forward to allow the ventral thrusters to assist in mainting a steep angle of ascent. Orbit may be reached around other celestials bodies by a simple vertical ascent.

The development of the aerospace version has led some to ask why AAM has not created an all-environment version for the military. AAM's response has been that the performance of the craft in combat in each environment would be impaired by systems not needed in that context. This has not prevented private security firms from retrofitting the civilian variant for combat duty, with mixed results.

(PS: please note that the missiles carried by the b and d variants currently have no guidance system yet due to the changes made to the programmable block. I will implement a fire-and-forget version as soon as a reliable one using the new camera raycasting feature is developed.)

Mass: 22,131 kg
Powerplant: 9 MW [18 small reactors]
Gyroscopes: 2
Time to max velocity: 6.2 seconds
Acceleration: 16.1 m/sec^2
Armament: 6 gatling guns, 2 rocket launchers
Length: 11.25 meters
Width: 7.5 meters
Height: 2.5 meters