F/A-77A Kovas
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| F/A-77A Kovas Definitive Air Superiority Fighter | |
|---|---|
| Design details | |
| Type | Multirole fighter |
The F/A-77A Kovas is a multi-role fighter aircraft [officially in service as a ‘definitive air superiority fighter’] designed primarily by Dat’ Pizdy Aerospace [and Space Union Defense Industries] for the Air Forces of the Armed Republic of Soviet Bloc and Space Union [AFAR; SUAF]. Enshrouded in a fair amount of secrecy, few people in the Armed Republic, let alone the world, know it exists, primarily because it is not front and center in the Air Force’s arsenal, instead supporting the current air superiority fighter, the F-63K Tengriy.
Development
Throughout their history, Dat’ Pizdy Aerospace had a tendency to go on a tangent with their projects, producing airframes for which there was no contract nor official interest and most of the time costing billions [if not trillions as indicated by the Tengriy project] in research and development. Dat’ Pizdy Aerospace enjoyed massive government subsidies and assistance, not to mention steady export sales resulting in trillions of United States Dollars in revenue, which enabled them to do things which most other corporations couldn’t contemplate: to go ahead and design something regardless if there was a true need/contract for it. They had done it numerous times in the past, the most recent and mind-blowing being the F-63K Tengriy of which they actually designed and test flew two separate designs [the other being the F-67K Zhar Sokol], one serving as a cover-up. Their trillion-dollar gamble paid off and the government, which miraculously did not know of the project in any capacity except the cover-up project [the host corporation, Dat’ Pizdy, also did not know of its subsidiary’s project], scrambled to secure production rights. The airframe would eventually see substantial export sales, the only limiting factor preventing sales from being stellar would be the fact it was a protected government asset and only authorized for sale to allies.
Dat’ Pizdy Aerospace was not about to let the Tengriy become the final word from the Armed Republic’s aerospace industries and set out to improve, refine, and outclass their preceding design. This new project required no cover-up as it was unfathomable that Dat’ Pizdy Aerospace would [or could] design a whole new aircraft immediately following such a respectable design, especially one that saw few competitors, the only competitors really being from nations deemed friendly to the Armed Republic. Regardless, Dat’ Pizdy Aerospace set out to ensure their absolute domination of the domestic combat aerospace market with their latest production, fully designed, tested, and flown enshrouded in secrecy which nimbly surpassed that of the Tengriy. Development moved from the prestigious Cormorant Complex to another, newer facility further north, in more inhospitable terrain, the recently constructed Gaila Aerospace Research Center. The Gaila Center proved to be a much more secrecy-friendly facility than Cormorant, and provided unparalleled security from the government, the corporate offices of Dat’ Pizdy [as DP Aerospace correctly assumed that if their trillion dollar ‘pet projects’ were discovered, they would be readily cancelled and the Aerospace division would find itself reintegrated into the host corporation], and above-all, other nations.
The F/A-77A, even before its proper introduction to the Armed Republic, would already arouse controversy. The prime example of this being Dat’ Pizdy Aerospace’s ‘guerilla advertising’ against the Armed Republic’s Air Force when two of the developmental aircraft, so far only known by their airframe call signs, Zarja and Zora, and piloted by corporate test pilots, were informed and directed to a test range where they would faux-battle with several corporate-flown F-63Ks using “electronic missiles and gunfire”. Their instructions would be to utilize the mountainous terrain immediately east of the test range to surprise their opponents in which case they would attempt to achieve air superiority in the quickest form possible. The two aircraft, however, were not informed that the test range was in full reality an Air Force of the Armed Republic temporary test range and was currently being used as a war game range for several squadrons of Air Force F-63Ks operating in mass air superiority drills. The Air Force was not informed of Dat’ Pizdy Aerospace’s venture and the two test aircraft which emerged from the mountains were assumed, incorrectly, to be F-63Ks participating in the war games. Four mission-killed F-63Ks later and they found out wrong. Eleven minutes later, and before the Air Force could divert air superiority assets into the region to face their unidentified foe, air superiority was achieved with two aircraft flying sentinel above the buttes and plateaus below, the rest ill-informed that the two remaining aircraft weren’t a part of the war games, and were returning to base to refuel. Six minutes after that and the two pilots were radioed from the Gaila Center informing them they had just downed fourteen Air Force fighters with no loss, the two aircraft were then escorted to the nearby Astana Air Force Base via armed government F-63K escort. Their pilots were led from their aircraft via gunpoint and detained. Neither spoke a single word in detention, but as directed by Dat’ Pizdy Aerospace in their after-battle radio congratulations, provided their captors with a sealed envelope that had been hidden in their flight suits. Each contained a simple message: F/A-77A Kovas Definitive Air Superiority Fighter.
Dat’ Pizdy Aerospace’s incredibly risky gamble at getting the Air Force’s attention paid off and was, unsurprisingly, incredibly effective. Although the corporation was publicly derided by the government and the Air Force for their complete disregard for war game engagement rules, lack of informing the Air Force of their intent to participate, and their apparent disregard for safety, the government simultaneously authorized the purchase of the aircraft, officially adding it to the list of protected government assets. And thus, the F/A-77A Kovas found its way into the Armed Republic’s arsenal.
The prohibitive cost of the aircraft, however, would only see it being purchased in moderate numbers, just enough to cover production costs. Dat’ Pizdy Aerospace is attempting to pressure the government into adopting the F/A-77A over the Tengriy by threatening to cut off Tengriy production and support. So far the government has ignored Dat’ Pizdy attempts and will likely continue to do so until there is a proven threat against the Tengriy already in service.
Government Informational Release
Early in the aircraft’s production schedule, during initial low level production, a government release was issued to defense analysts and their associated literature, providing for a limited statement of the aircraft’s capabilities.
“…Work on the advanced electronics set, codenamed Veles is nearly complete beyond the preliminary systems used on all prototype and test bed aircraft. The threat detection suite will boast an enhanced PEDR suite [Photon Emission, Detection, and Ranging Suite; Basically LIDAR but does not measure light intensity, instead an angle-angle-range timing of the flight of the photons to the target] along with a wholly new radar set. The ALRQ/R90 Vertically Integrated Active Electronically Scanned Array Radar will prove to revolutionize current aerial warfare. The radar array will provide up to four times the capability of current, in-service AESA-type radars in every measurable attribute except range [which is already near maximum potential in the currently fielded electronically scanned radars] and promises to nearly nullify the effectiveness of stealth and countermeasures. Beyond this, the radar set will also serve in an additional role beyond traditional detection and targetting, allowing the F/A-77A to compromise an opponent's own threat detection [by several means] and advanced communications/data sharing capabilities at an extended range, effectively neutralizing the opponent beyond traditional missile ranges and allowing for the F/A-77A to get within range, uncontested, and destroy the opponent. The F/A-77A's own intra-flight communications will be impervious to tampering. An advanced, additional electronics warfare set is under development to handle specialist roles. Additionally, IRTS and electro-optical sets are being renovated and enhanced to provide marginally better performance over their predecessors, particularly streamlining them into a new electronics structure.
However, due to the perceived threat-free environment for the F-63K Tengriy, the F/A-77A will only be awarded a complimentary status and may or may not serve in its own units.
Additionally, the F/A-77A, while still under final development, is under consideration to be used as the base airframe for a specialist aircraft designed for "deep air superiority" where the aircraft will operate independent of all support aircraft and ground forces, designed to seize airspace in advance of strike formations and/or ground forces. This modified airframe will be sufficiently different to warrant a new designation and class, so far yet to be determined. A new wing structure, greater fuel capacity, and a modified powerplant will be the primary differences…”
Nonetheless, intense speculation still exists on several pieces of technology utilized in the design, especially if Dat’ Pizdy will continue to use their highly finicky powerplants and how the F/A-77A intends to revolutionize aerial warfare.
Beyond the official government release on the aircraft [which included most of the information included in the Development section], little is known on the aircraft due to intense information crackdown by the government. It is expected that full informational disclosure will occur when all of the aircraft’s potential bugs are discovered in initial flights and when low level production ceases and full production begins.
