Aurora

"Designed for a new age in technology, the Aurora is equipped with the latest in technological advances, starting with its leading compact VTOL engines and ending with the firestorm machine cannons on each wing. Deployed in the most extreme of battles, the Aurora is best used when you want more than a disabled target, you need there to be nothing left."

The Aurora is a VTOL attack aircraft in service with the Steel Striders Air Force.

Summary
Armed with small and large Active Radar missiles, as well as a quartette of rocket-boosted glide bombs, the Aurora's behavior is somewhat self-contradictory.

She performs traditional bombing runs over her target, which is a reasonable course of action against smaller opponents, but which leaves her vulnerable against the close-range AA weapons of larger and more resilient units. At the same time, her target prioritization card is set to favour thick-skinned opponents with high firepower ratings. Her armament consists entirely of active-radar missiles, which tend to go for the largest target in sight.

Notably, all of her missiles are unguided, relying solely on their homing heads. Although this would be expected to cause issues for the small missiles due to the reduced sensitivity of small-diameter seeker heads, the LWCs for the small missiles and the glide bombs are set to fire only at 1,4 and 1,7km, respectively. At such close ranges, even the small missiles have a decent chance of attaining a lock against fighter-sized targets.

General Characteristics

 * Length: 47m
 * Wingspan: 63m
 * Height: 17m
 * Mass: 1'400t
 * Weight: 52'585kg
 * Powerplant:
 * 1x Otto-engine, 3,8k Power (stable)
 * 4x S15 gas turbines, 24'092 kgf
 * 4x S13 gas turbines, 34'511 kgf

Performance

 * Maximum Speed: 124m/s
 * Endurance: 1hr at top speed (Not including resource consumed by weapons).
 * Service Ceiling: 300m

Armament

 * Guns: None


 * Hardpoints: 6 (4 underwing + 2 internal) with provisions to carry a combination of:
 * Missiles
 * 24x S3-AR
 * 2x  L14-AR (16s thrust duration)
 * Bombs
 * 4x  L6-AR glide bombs (4,2s thrust duration).

Trivia

 * Although the Aurora is designed with VTOL capabilities, the lifting fans are located well forward of the CoM, and will cause rapid changes in pitch when used to hover the aircraft.