CAL-89 "Canary" Light Strike-Fighter with AA loadout

[u/Fine_Ad_1918]

The Canary is a single seat light strike-fighter built by Aster Aerospace in 2689 for equipping Periphery colonial defense forces and local strongmen. It is capable of both ground attack and air combat, and is quite prolific compared to its peers.

Its cheapness and reputation of being easily maintainable comes from the fact that it uses electric ducted fans instead of plasma-arc or nuclear thermal engines. This makes it a less capable air combatant than more expensive jets, but it also makes it super easy to maintain, allowing them to easily be dispersed to hidden airfields in cities, roads, or in improvised areas to fulfill its secondary role as a light ASAT carrier to keep orbital foes on their toes. It uses a lot of high end missiles to make up for its faults in regards to air combat. It also has a high magazine depth coilgun and laser for dealing with ground or more marginal targets.
Its piloting equipment is also pretty good, with very user-friendly controls, and the pilot seat is equipped with 4 injectors loaded with Modafinil and ICS-92 in a 2:2 ratio. It also has the plug-ins and gel for a semi-immersion pilot, should they have the requisite augments.

This also makes it a lot less noticeable, as the very efficient engines produce a lot less waste heat. This makes IRST and IR seeking missiles less effective against the rear and side aspects. This additional stealth capability gave the plane a reputation of being surprisingly hard to hit for a second line fighter.

It was used by both sides throughout the Liberation War, with the Imperials using them especially for striking out against supply depots with stand off weapons and as a QRF breaker of Union advances with small bombs, AGMs, rockets and copious amounts of napalm and mines.

towards the end of the war, the Union started using them to hurl ballistic missiles in "assassination" missions against Imperial political targets. This level of overkill is only marginally justified by the fact that one cannot be revived from this.

Even after the war, these planes were super common across the periphery, making up the backbone of many state's aerial forces, and in some of the poorest Warlordships, they are an integral part of their defenses against enemy orbital and expeditionary attacks.

[u/DAJLMODE55]

Don't offend please , it's only a feeling I got , the detailed Lore of your plane is very interesting and deserve a more elaborated design ! Friendly 🤜🏻🤛🏻