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[Madman198237]

Alrighty, so, that was successful. Unless we want to go one-on-one for every UFO, we can't take all these down and we need to prioritize. We COULD throw all five at the Middle East UFOs and try to knock all three done, OR we could dogpile the two unescorted Very Smalls and try and wipe them out of the sky.

For a design this turn I'm thinking a new kind of interceptor would be pretty smart. An F-22 Raptor would be amazing compared to the things we're using now, and yet requires no actual designing work on our part. That or I guess we could just invest in the AIM-54 Phoenix or AIM-120 AMRAAM or an ASRAAM or something like that---faster and longer ranged than a basic Sidewinder.

[ConscriptFive]

So two things, interception is immediate so we can't field any anti-air tech for this fight.  We took the casualty on 3 F16's vs. a small, whereas now it's two very smalls.

If we think we're going to field new interceptors next turn, it might be worth risking 2 F16's vs. a very small.  The double payout will be worth the loss of an obsolete interceptor.

[Naturegirl1999]

I agree we should go after the ones without escorts

[Madman198237]

I know that interception is immediate, I'm saying our present interceptors are really not doing so hot and will become steadily worse as time goes on.

Note that we have 24 hangar slots and only use 8 of them at the moment, so new interceptors will be IN ADDITION TO the current ones. That's why I'm saying we ought to make a new one.

The F-16s will continue to respawn until we replace their hangar spots with other things, so we don't really want to throw them away if we can help it.

[Screech9791]

The F-16s will continue to respawn

Since I'm not an asshole GM, any downed aircraft will be (slowly) returned to base and repaired, instead of permanently destroyed. But yeah, I guess they mechanically respawn.

[King Zultan]

The two without escorts sound like the ones to go after.

[ConscriptFive]

Guess we should formally post it then...

Interceptor Plan
3 Condors vs UFO-004
2 Condors vs UFO-005
Thoughts and prayers vs UFO-003

[m1895]

Guess we should formally post it then...

Interceptor Plan
3 Condors vs UFO-004
2 Condors vs UFO-005
Thoughts and prayers vs UFO-003

+1

[King Zultan]

Guess we should formally post it then...

Interceptor Plan
3 Condors vs UFO-004
2 Condors vs UFO-005
Thoughts and prayers vs UFO-003

+1

+1

[Screech9791]

Another turn, another pair of UFOs intercepted. Three condors are sent to intercept UFO-004, and two are sent to intercept UFO-005. After some intense dogfighting, UFO-004 gets shot down over a desert with two condors taking light damage, and UFO-005 gets shot down over the ocean, with surprisingly no interceptors damaged. Our backers have given us 20 credits as compensation for causing the UFO to crash into the ocean.

It is now the Design phase. Design something. The future of humanity depends on it.

Balance: 190 credits

(you can rename the two alien species encountered so far (lizardmen and greys) to something else if you want)

Spoiler: Designs (click to show/hide)

Weapons:
-M16: An assault rifle chambered in 5.56x45mm NATO rounds. Has 20 round mags and questionable reliability since our suppliers either fail to trust us with actually decent equipment, or just hate us. Acceptable for medium range.
 -Low/Infinite/Unreliable
-M9: A semi automatic pistol chambered in 9x19mm with 15 round mags. Compact, but short range.
 -Low/Infinite/None
-Tavor-21: A bullpup assault rifle chambered in 5.56x45mm NATO rounds, and it's compatible with the same STANAG magazines used by our M16s. We've managed to procure a lot of 30 round STANAG magazines, primarily to use with it, but we can also load the 30 rounders into our M16s if we get desperate. The integrated M203 grenade launcher is quite heavy, but we've also gotten integrated reflex sights on these rifles.
 -Below Average/10cr/None

Armor:
-Basic Armor: Surplus armor vests and helmets, worn over surplus camo. It might provide some protection from kinetic attacks, but who knows. Video cameras have been attached to the helmets, for live combat footage.
 -Infinite Supply

Aircraft:
-Condor: A modified F-16, that has been optimized for UFO combat. Various modifications include heat resistant metals being used for plating, larger fuel tanks, and a lighter payload to reduce weight.
 -1 cannon hardpoint, 4 light hardpoints
 -Low/25cr/None
-Blackhawk: A transport helicopter. Has a decent amount of room.
 -Can carry 8 soldiers and 1 vehicle
 -Low/50cr/None

Aircraft Weapons:
-Autocannon: A modified Vulcan 20mm autocannon that's used on our interceptors. It has enough ammo for 300 shots, and shoots quite fast, but it hasn't been tested for anti-UFO usage.
 -Mountable on Cannon hardpoints
 -Low/Free/None
-Sidewinder Missiles: Light air to air missiles. One per hardpoint.
 -Mountable on Light/Heavy hardpoints
 -Low/Free/None

Spoiler: Storage (click to show/hide)

Phase 1 Human Weapons:
-IWI Tavor-21: 8
-Remington 870: 1

Phase 1 Alien Weapons:
-Alien Orange Rifle: 4
-Alien Orange Pistol: 4
-Alien Beam Rifle: 4
-Alien Beam Pistol: 6

Lizardman Corpses:
-2 lizardman guards
-5 lizardman crewmen
-1 lizardman pilot

Grey Corpses:
-4 grey guards
-3 grey soldiers
-4 grey crewmen
-1 grey pilot

Phase 1 UFOs:
-1 Light Scout Wreck
-1 Scout Wreck

Spoiler: Hangar (click to show/hide)

Condor-001: Available | Loadout: 1x Autocannon, 4x Sidewinder Missiles
Condor-002: Repairing (1 turn) | Loadout: 1x Autocannon, 4x Sidewinder Missiles
Condor-003: Repairing (1 turn) | Loadout: 1x Autocannon, 4x Sidewinder Missiles
Condor-004: Available | Loadout: 1x Autocannon, 4x Sidewinder Missiles
Condor-005: Retrieving (1 turn) | Loadout: 1x Autocannon, 4x Sidewinder Missiles
Condor-006: Available | Loadout: 1x Autocannon, 4x Sidewinder Missiles

Blackhawk-001: Available
Blackhawk-001: Available

Spoiler: Operation Sites (click to show/hide)

USA:
 -Crashsite-003: 1 crashed light scout, desert, expires in 2 turns, minimal estimated hostile count

[Madman198237]

F-14 Tomcat
The US Navy phased out the Tomcat fighter some time ago, however there are plenty still around in various services. It is not more agile than an F-16, but it is more heavily armed, by far. Tomcats were designed to carry and use the AIM-54 Phoenix air-to-air missile, capable of being fired at targets over a hundred kilometers away. They can also carry a substantial amount of other ordinance with the more recent upgrades making them incredibly capable ground attack aircraft. We might not usually need the ability to demolish a city block with a single airstrike, but we do need the ability to carry a lot of ordinance up against the aliens. The AIM-54 combined with the Tomcat make for a lethal combination, capable of engaging most alien craft while staying out of range of their weaponry. And if it needs to close enough, the Tomcat is renowned for its toughness and lethality even as a gun platform.

F-22 Raptor
The gold standard of modern fighter aircraft, the F-22 Raptor is a stealth aircraft packing an arsenal of air-to-air missiles and a cannon, with vectored thrust and advanced electronics suites allowing it to eliminate targets with incredible precision, the only downside of this modern beast is its price tag. It can hardly be seen by radar, is hard to detect with thermal emissions, and even if you can't see it, it can most certainly see you, and shortly thereafter kill you. The US military isn't really in any major wars right now, so we're going to ask them pretty please can we borrow a handful of F-22s to defend the entire world against alien threats?

A-10 Thunderbolt II
Also known as the "Warthog", the A-10 is a flying brick, following the Republic company's belief in sufficient thrust. It is nearly indestructible as far as aircraft go, packing a titanium protective "bathtub" for the pilot, redundant critical systems, and the ability to lose entire engines to missile strikes without coming out of the sky. It packs the deadliest gun every put in an aircraft and enough ordinance to make a small destroyer jealous, and with just a little bit of refitting we can make it capable of carrying a whole lot of air-to-air missiles instead of ground ordinance. That puts a monstrously powerful gun and an array of missiles up in the air against the durable alien craft. In addition, if we ever find ourselves unable to take action against a grounded UFO, the A-10's dedicated ground attack capability will allow it to destroy the grounded UFO(s) before they ever take off. While it may not net us much salvage to have an A-10 demolish the crash site, it also won't allow an alien plan to be completed by that UFO.

So here's three suggestions for possible "interceptors", one of which is actually legitimately a dedicated interceptor and one of which started life as the heaviest fighter ever launched from a carrier. The A-10 is not quite a joke, because I figured that while it's not fast it *is* capable of laying waste to anything that gets in front of it, and surviving a frankly absurd amount of damage besides. We don't have alien tech so I don't think its worthwhile to get a greater difficulty trying to engineer something ourselves when we could literally just go borrow some existing aircraft that have substantially better qualities than the F-16.

[King Zultan]

The A-10 sounds like the best one of the lot.

[Madman198237]

It's not without problems. It's absolutely, positively WORSE than the F-22 and probably won't be as good at dealing with aliens as the Tomcat's 6 incredibly powerful Phoenix missiles and superior maneuverability and supersonic capability. However, it is the closest thing in the world to flying an actual tank, firepower and all. That's the only reason I even suggested it, that and because it ought to be cheaper than the other two.

[Man of Paper]

a10 go brrrrrrrt

[ConscriptFive]

Uh, the A-10 is kinda a weird choice.  Yeah, probably dirt cheap 1970's tech with the GWOT cool factor, but doesn't have the speed and ceiling to perform as an interceptor.  It doesn't matter how heavily armed it is, if it can't follow close enough to engage.

The F-22 is my choice.  Unless the GM wants really slow tech progression, the F-14 seems like too short a leap.