Dworkins Tips and Tactics: F-32D Scimitar Class Medium Fighter

Sylvester

Vice Admiral
Introduction

Good morning people, I'm Lieutenant Colonel Joshua "Sylvester" Dworkin.This guide has been published with the goal of instructing the Confederation's brightest new pilots on operation of the venerable F-32 Scimitar Class Medium Attack Fighter. I spent most of my early career in these sturdy gun boats and I'm here today to share that knoledge with the best and brightest in the fleet.

Ships History:

The original CF-105 Scimitar is a fighter dating from the mid 26th century. For its time, it was the most advanced fighter in the Confederation's arsenal and served well in planetary defense squadrons up to its eventual retirement in 2606. When the Kilrathi declared war in mid 2634, Confederation Strategists realized that the venerable F-21 Hurricane class attack fighter was no match for their Kilrathi equivalents. The Space Forces began a design program to create a new Medium Fighter that would be on par with Kilrathi models.

Research into previous designs was conducted and when the team stumbled upon the airframe of the CF-105, they realized it was a perfect platform to base their new medium fighter on. Taking the original frame, they replaced the lasers with the newest gun technology availible, the Mass Driver Cannon. These cannons, coupled with a load of five missiles made the fighter the most formidable ship of its size in service at the time. The team placed a large amount of armor on the fighter, designed to stand up to attack runs on Kilrathi Battleships. This increased armor made the new design very strong but limited its top speed and manuverabilty. Newer engines were installed to compensate but the top speed was still only 335 kps. It was decided that the fighters could be adequetly defended by fighters like the F-29 Wildcat.

The ship officially entered service as the F-32A Scimitar on 2635.032. Frontline commanders reported that the ships served admirably in combat and had drastically increased Capital Ship kill numbers for carriers in operation. Through the Enyo engagement of 2639, the ships were the best in their class. However, by 2642, Confederation commanders believed a new design was needed and commisioned. The F-38 Talon entered service to replace the Scimitar. The result was disasterous. The armor plating severely taxed the fighters underpowered engines and limited afterburner speed to a mere 1000 kps. This proved a death trap for Confed pilots. The Talon was pulled and the Scimitar re-entered production with new engines as the F-32C.

In 2648, the last model, the F-32D entered service with new engines that increased top speed to 360 kps. By this time the fighter was showing its age. Most Kilrathi models were faster and better armed. Since no new medium fighters were on the drawing board, command kept the ships in service until mid 2654. By then the brand new F-44A Rapier entered service. It outclassed the Scim in every way, The Scimitar was officialy retired from active service on 2655.032, after exactly 20 years of faithful service. Most vessels were scrapped or sold to other factions, some still se service today in 2669, almost 35 years after entering service.

Specifications:

Here are the specs for the latest Scimitar model, the F-32D.

Length: 23 Meters
Mass: 17 Metric Tonnes
Max Velocity: 360 Kps
Cruise Velocity: 150 Kps
Afterburner: 1120 Kps
Acceleration: Good
Y/P/R: 60/60/70 dps
Armament: 2 Mass Driver Cannons, 3 Javelin HS Missiles, 2 Dart DF Missiles
Shields F/B: 60/50 cm
Armor F/B/S: 85/80/65
Crew: 1
Jump Capable: No

Tactics:

Offensive: Use the heavy armament of the fighter to your advantage. Attack an enemy head on and wither away his shields and then use the long range of your missiles to nail them when they turn. Use quick bursts of afterburner to make up for your speed loss and try to stay behind an enemy where all your weapons can come to bear. When attacking Cap Ships, stay roughly 250 m distant from behind and fire both dumbfires, followed in quick succesion by a full Mass Driver Salvo.

Defensive: Always keep moving. If necessary, use tactics such as the sit and spin in order to bring your guns to bear on a tailing enemy. Never get into a turning fight with a Scimitar. Use your armor and armament to gain the upper hand.

Conclusion:

I hope this guide has been helpful to you. Look forward to seeing more guides in the future and happy hunting!

Lieutenant Colonel Joshua "Sylvester" Dworkin
 
Nice work, much needed info on the Scimitar. Could you read over my story, Hell's Unicorns, and check over the parts involving Scimitars in action? Just to make sure they're not superfighters or anything of the sort. Thanks. :)
 
I've read your story Eric and I say that you have recreated the Scim experience perfectly. I like the constant refrences to them as pigs. :)

And overmortal, thanks for the support. :D
 
Heyo,
Good idea. Just got to nitpick the history.

I don't think there's any indication that the CF-105 referenced in the Confederation Handbook and the Scimitar seen in Wing Commander are different fighters.

To 'explain' that they're different when no proof exists would seem to detract from the original intent of the TCH reference, wouldn't it? After all, there's no real grounds for such an explanation, save that we feel funny about a fighter being so old. There's no 'Scimitar II' reference or clear age defining source. Keep in mind that the front line Hurricanes and Wildcats in Action Stations were said to be of a similar vintage - it stands to reason that another fighter around at the same time (per WC1) would be borne of a similar era.

You might want to go into some of the history, such as the laser-armed trainer version seen on Academy and the heavier missile armaments seen in Super Wing Commander.

The Talon reference is weird, given that Talons serve with militia units in Privateer (2669).
 
Bandit LOAF said:
The Talon reference is weird, given that Talons serve with militia units in Privateer (2669).
Sylvester is just going by something mentioned on the Standoff page, which I guess means I should explain (since I wrote the Talon profile for Standoff)... we felt that, given the Talon's huge numbers, it must have originally been a military fighter (a fighter designed specifically for the Militia probably wouldn't have been mass-produced in such large quantities). This meant that we had to explain what its role was, and why it didn't serve any more when some of Confed's fighters serve for so long. Of course, there are many ways this can be explained, but we happened to like the explanation that its low afterburner speed resulted in the ship being pulled from the front-lines and eventually getting sold off to the Militia forces.
 
Mmm, I don't know - that just doesn't sit properly with me. If it was a failure in the forties, why are there so many of them around in 2669-70? I know they appear in the continuity as far back as the mid-fifties... but there's got to be a reason so many of them were built, and "got slaughtered easily" doesn't seem like a very good one. :)

Plus, if you're going to come up with a crazy back-story for the Talon, it absolutely has to involve the Gratha. (G)
 
Well, any fighter that's supposed to replace the Scimitar must be produced in pretty huge numbers... and I think Sylvester overstates the results a bit. The idea wasn't that Talons were slaughtered (their armour and guns were still pretty good), just that they were more vulnerable to missiles than most other Confed ships (a problem that wasn't immediately obvious - it usually takes the enemy a bit of time to work out the best way to engage a new fighter) - so, if you were a Talon pilot, you were more likely to die than, say, a Raptor pilot, but it wasn't like you were going out to a certain death.

(hehe, it would be fun to get that Gratha in there somehow, but... how? :))
 
Very good stuff.
There is a lot of writing that is going to be needed in RG and I could really use your assistance in writing some of the fiction: mostly guides like this for the BWs variants of certain fighters--vindicators, rapier2s, and several more (just not the Banshee or the avenger because these are going to be written by two of the main characters).

I will send you one or two of these ships in a few days, if you want to write the tips and tactics of these variants of course.
 
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