Old Excaliburs, New Tricks

F

F4U Corsair

Spaceman
Wing Commander Secret Opps, what a trip down memory lane, Proxima, Aunt Ella, and the old school fighters. Why are Excaliburs, and Thunderbolts still in service? I half expected to see a Longbow. Granted they were my two favorite fighters in WC3, but with all the new fighters they had coming out (E.G. Bearcats and Dragons, plus the WCP fighters) why are those still in service? I would think a pilot that strapped into one of them was suicidal, I played one mission where you go into battle with three other wings, two of which are the local base's Excaliburs and Thunderbolts, one Thunderbolt came back. Watching them fight, it only took a few hits for the Nemphilians the bring them down. Why are they still in service? It dont make sense.
 
Because Excaliburs and Thunderbolts are the primary space superiority fighters of the confederation at that time. They were invented just at the end of the Terran Kilrathi war, so they are relatively new designs(look at the service dates of most of the confederation fighters - most types were in service for decades). Those new designs invented for Prophecy and SO came just online, so there's only a very significant number at that time. They don't pop out magically from nowhere, they take time to be designed and produced. And since it was peace time just before the Nephilim came, the new fighters weren't even ordered in high numbers since it would be to expensive to throw money away when there's no opportunity to use them, the older confed fighter designs could do the jobs like pirate killing and such just as well since even the older confederation designs outclass most pirate craft and the rebellious Kilrathi clans and factions use older cast-off designs as well. I suspect even Longbows, Arrows and Hellcats still serve at least in confederation reserve squadrons and InSys Security.
 
Not only all that, but we have to remember that the Midway was the new top carrier flagship of the TCN, so she had only the new top fighters and bombers, unlike other CVs and such. Not how the IR missiles get upgraded along the game. All brand new shrink wrapped stuff.
 
Edfilho said:
Not only all that, but we have to remember that the Midway was the new top carrier flagship of the TCN, so she had only the new top fighters and bombers, unlike other CVs and such. Not how the IR missiles get upgraded along the game. All brand new shrink wrapped stuff.
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What about that Vesuvious class carrier in SO? She had the new fighters too... right before she was destroyed... does anyone know what ship that was BTW? Was it Vesuvious or St. Helens? Or a diff one.
 
It was the St. Helens. The Ves was destroyed in wc4 by Blair.

The St. Helens had new fighters because she was also a large new fleet carrier and hence would receive new fighter types as they came out. Ships like the Victory were at the end of the list during the war and used whatever could be afforded to them. The supply system probably has a degree of hierarchy to it and as such older ships might not get the newest fighters until they are even a bit old.
 
We also occasionally see the "safe" systems patrolled by slightly older fighters throughout Wing Commander. It makes sense, you'd want your more effective weapons in decent supply where the problems are (bandits on the fringes and whatnot). So when the Nephilim jump deep into Confed space, we see older fighters that weren't as numerous where the Midway was operating during Prophecy.
 
I don't think the public would like seeing their armies flying with a craft that was thought out and used by a massmurderer as terror weapons.

Plus the shhip would be extremely expensive to produce because of the advanced technology it used. And they weren't too practical either; remember those things are BIG, it's easier to hit than barn door.
 
Lynx said:
I don't think the public would like seeing their armies flying with a craft that was thought out and used by a massmurderer as terror weapons.

Plus the shhip would be extremely expensive to produce because of the advanced technology it used. And they weren't too practical either; remember those things are BIG, it's easier to hit than barn door.
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Thats not very fair. I mean other fighters were used for the same thing, heck the same could be said for the Vesuvious class
 
F4U Corsair said:
Yet the Excalibur in its infancy was sent to the Victory? And they were even given the first squadron of them too.
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That, I believe, is also because of the operations of the Victory. The Excalibur was needed to drop the T-Bomb on Kilrah for it is the best ship to use in the terrain. Why the test ship was sent there, I don't know.
 
I don't think the public would like seeing their armies flying with a craft that was thought out and used by a massmurderer as terror weapons.

Plus the shhip would be extremely expensive to produce because of the advanced technology it used. And they weren't too practical either; remember those things are BIG, it's easier to hit than barn door.
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That's a good point about the use as a terror weapon, but I figure that the cost was probably the biggest factor. All of the Dragon's features probably just didn't jibe with a peacetime budget, sorta like Seawolf-class SSNs.

On an aside, Lynx, I sent you a PM a while back about using an image you created for the Gettysburg-class DD? Do you have any problems with that?
 
Stockholm said:
Besides, if Excaliburs hadn't been assigned to the Victory, we wouldn't have been able to fly them.
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Sure we would have... they would have been newhere Blair would be... ESPECIALLY IF THE CONCORDIA HAD SURVIVED!
 
Yet the Excalibur in its infancy was sent to the Victory? And they were even given the first squadron of them too.
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The first squadron of Excaliburs was officially assigned to a Covert Operations unit on the TCS Eagle. Paladin ordered them to the Victory after the Eagle failed to reach Kilrah... but it's not like the old light carrier was the intended first deployment of the expensive new fighters (G)

As for Lances and mass production - the simple fact is that we don't know. It's possible that Confed has active squadrons with ordinary non-'Black' Lances... we just haven't seen them.

As for Thunderbolts and Excaliburs - remember that we see recon variants of Excaliburs as early as the 'Washington' story in the ICIS manual... and that, according to Secret Ops, the Midway has a squadron of Thunderbolts.
 
F4U Corsair said:
Sure we would have... they would have been newhere Blair would be... ESPECIALLY IF THE CONCORDIA HAD SURVIVED!
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The Concordia took a lot of hits in BoT without a very LONG refit she was destined for backwater or the scrapyard no matter what. At least she went down fighting and crashed in a rather beautiful setting.
 
Backwater... BAH so was the Victory until Towlyn got his hands on her, besides that was Towlyns ship, I doubt he'd let that happen, plus I doubt she had been fully repaired, I offer the theory that they didnt have the time or resources to Refit her that much after such a despirate battle. Plus think about it, if what you said was true, then no one really would have cared all that much when she was lost, but everyone thought it was a Terrible tragety.
 
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