Designation: F-207 Sylphid (A,B,T) Fighter

I. Dimensions:

II. Type:

• (A,B) One seat air/sub-orbital multi-purpose fighter.
• (T) Two seat air/sub-orbital fighter/trainer.

III. Service History:

• F-207A: Served with the Southern Cross' Tactical Air Force from 2021 until the Invid invasion.
• F-207B: Began to replace the F-207A in 2029 and served until the Invid invasion.
• F-207T: Served with the Southern Cross' Tactical Air Force from 2021 until the Invid invasion.

IV. Propulsion:

• (A, T variants) 2 x Rolls-Royce FF-3001 fusion turbines, max. output 131 kN each.
• (B variant) 2 x Rolls-Royce FF-3031 fusion turbines, max. output 146 kN each.
• Fuel Capacity:
  • 16 standard canisters of protoculture,
  • 9.8 liter D₂0 of reactant for fusion engines.

V. Performance:

• Maximum speed : 3200 kph @ 15 km (Mach 3)
• Service Ceiling : 40000m
• Powercell endurance: 250 hours continuous use

VI. Electronics:

While the electronics suites of these vehicles differed with their respective dates of operational service, all electronics were regularly updated, and during the Second Robotech War the following standard was in use:

Radar tracking:

• Westinghouse APG-145 X-band pulse-Doppler omni-directional radar.

Optical tracking:

• Phillips AllView II multi-band omni-directional digital camera system, for medium range all attitude infra-red imaging, optical and ultra-violet band detection and tracking
• Thomson LT-5 multi-frequency laser ranger and designator.

Tactical Electronic Warfare System (TEWS):

• Elettronica Radar Warning Receiver (RWR)
• OlDelft Infra-red Warning Warning Receiver (IRWR)
• Selenia Sky Warrior active/passive sensor jammers
• Chaff dispenser
• Flares.

VII. Armament:

Cannons:

• 2 x Oerlikon E-18-1 ion pulse cannons. These cannons fire ion annihilation discs with a typical burst energy of 5 MJ. The cannons are mounted on the hull.

Hardpoints:

4 hardpoints are mounted on the lower hull. Each hardpoint can typically carry:

• 1 x Python missile, with a range of 75 km and a speed of Mach 3.0, with active-passive radar/home-on-jam and IIR guidance.
• or 1 x Carapace missile container, containing three missile tubes, each of which can contain two Diamondback or Lightning missiles, or four Hammerhead missiles.
• or any other military load, such as ECM pods, cargo pods or recon pods.

Typical Payloads:

• Anti-shuttle attack: 4 Python missiles.
• Air superiority : 2 Carapace containers loaded with 12 Diamondbacks, 2 Carapace containers loaded with 24 Hammerheads.
• Ground support A : 2 Carapace containers loaded with 12 Lightning missiles, 1 Carapace container loaded with 6 Diamondbacks, 1 Carapace container loaded with 12 Hammerheads.
• Ground Support B : 2 Python missiles, 1 Carapace container loaded with 6 Diamondbacks, 1 Carapace container loaded with 12 Hammerheads.

VIII. Armor:

The skin of the Sylphid is composed of an advanced titanium-steel alloy. The skin stops all small arms fire, provides fair protection against heavier infantry weapons, such as a 12.7mm machinegun round, and poor resistance to light mecha-mounted weaponry, such as the Zentraedi 22.3mm HE autocannon round. The Sylphid provides full protection from nuclear, biological, and chemical hazards, using an overpressure cockpit environment activated by radiation and hazardous chemical sensors, or manually when biological warfare conditions are anticipated. The internal consumables supplies can provide atmosphere for one day maximum.

IX. Development:

The Sylphid was the primary tactical airborne mecha of the Southern Cross' Tactical Air Force. Developed under the same government drive to limit the defense spending by producing non-transformable planes rather than Veritechs wherever they was not clearly needed, the Sylphid was a pure jet aircraft.

Developed in 2018-2020, the Sylphid was a typical Robotech Fighter of that area, with two engines blocks mounted alongside an armored hull. Missiles or missile pods could be attached to four fixed hardpoints on the lower hull, and two energy cannons were located near the nose, next to the cockpit. The engines were fusion turbine designs, to increase the tactical flexibility by doing away with range restrictions, and also enabling the plane to be effective at very high altitudes. This also increased the thrust, and with the highly capable Southern Cross electronics package, the Sylphid was also competent as a ground assault aircraft, though it never fully replaced the Executioner in that role. The end result was a plane that was almost the equal of the Valkyrie and the Lightning, save for sustained airspeeds.

The Sylphid entered service with the Tactical Air Force in 2021, and remained in service with this unit until the Invid invasion. In 2029, a new engine was installed, and the new variant built around it, the F-207B, immediately began to replace its predecessor, though the conversion was not completed before the Invid arrived. The two variants can be distinguished by the fact that the FF-3001 fit had three sub-nozzles per engine, and the FF-3031 had four.

This plane was shown to be less than successful against the Robotech Masters, partly because its bases kept getting shot up, but mainly because as a fighter it was completely overclassed by the Assault Carrier, against which it could not mount heavy enough weapons to be fully effective. Against the Invid, the Sylphid was only effective during the initial invasion. After the ground bases were overrun, the Sylphid was effectively obsolete, for its non-VTOL design made the plane useless for resistance fighters.

See additional design notes.

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