From what I have scraped together it has:
—2S5 stocks twin M7A laser cannons. Unlimited ammo, superb range, 3k dps. Excellent sniper w/ no reason to upgrade. Much lower power draw than 4S3 weapons, could be what enabled the 2S1 reactor build on this size bird. Attrition 5s offer a 25% increase in DPS, but require more power, which may not be a great trade off. Only experience can tell.
—4S3 x2 missiles, not for scrapping. S3 missile minimum lock range was knocked back from 1km to 1.5km a few weeks ago. Good to 25km. IIRC S3 missiles are seldom found on light and medium fighters. I think the Talon Shrike and Sabre Firebird are the only exceptions. This splits the difference between the Talon 2-missile salvoes and the Firebird 6 missile salvoes. Nice stand-off weapon in a quad pack can eliminate medium fighters with a single salvo. The Shrike can’t do this and the Firebird takes 2 seconds longer to launch, so this is an impressive missile platform. Almost an equal to the enviable Vanguard missile package in a ship with better long range guns. This is the purpose behind the design so if you don’t like missiles, don’t buy this ship. I would rather have had more S2 missiles but I think these are bespoke launchers.
—2S1 reactors means much less power needed and available than for the Vanguard.
—1S2 cooler is weird. Overcooled, smells like stealth. This is a standout we’ll come back to.
—1S2 shield is half the shield of a Vanguard, but sitting in a significantly smaller and probably more agile hit box. Not tanky, but not fragile. S2 allows the ballistics thwarting, power miserly Sukoran, if you can get your hands on one.
—1S2 Q Drive hints to long range
—1S2 scan makes this multi-mission capable. This is a big deal; bigger than most presume. Makes the S3 missile range much more useful than on the Shrike and Firebird.
—rumored to have a bed, head and galley
—rumored elevator cargo storage, to this point found in fighters only on the 300 series
—X geometry is usually amongst the most maneuverable. 1,200+ speed is better than the Vanguard.
—The missile launcher fairings look a little tanky to me, like they’re offering armor. Certainly they seem less fragile than true X wing and variable geometry found on the Scorpius and Vanguard. I’m betting good hull points here.
So, not especially special compared to the other heavy fighters EXCEPT for the oversized cooling and probably the worst view of any fighter. What does this mean?
I’m biased. I hope it means this is a stealth bird. Think a moment about putting an S2 cooler on a 2S1 reactor bird. Max cooling from twin Ultra-Flow S1 coolers is 880 cooling/second. Max cooling for a single S2 Snowpack cooler is 8,800 cooling/second. . .literally ten times as much as normal.
So my guess is stealth design. Especially considering it has elevator cargo storage, this looks like the step up from the 315P.
Ima guessing twin S1 reactors could have trouble powering an FR76 shield, so best choice for this could be a Sukoran, and you get ballistics coverage as a benefit. Also be aware, if ever there were a shield you wanted to power while sneaking, it’s the Sukoran. They generate extremely low EM when powered. Certainly, at the range these missiles have, you’d be tempted to leave a Sukoran on and not worry about shield power up time after a missile launch.
I don’t know any ships that can install 10X normal cooling for 2S1 reactors, so I am as always, hoping for a new stealth bird.
Why did they not give it a single S2 reactor? I can only presume they want you to be able to fly this on a single stealth reactor for minimum EM and power a military or industrial grade reactor when you need shields and weapons. The way to find out is fly it and see if a single stealth reactor provides enough power for full engine performance.
Also note the cargo elevator begs the question whether the tiny Mirai grav bike will fit. Probably depends upon ground clearance. The 300 series sits too low to drive a bike under them.
So is this really a fighter, or is it a Pathfinder?
