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Description
Two F-12B Vikings patrol the Diaz straights corridor, New Pacifica, 1991.

F-12B Viking:

Built for the Raehill Republic, the F-12A Viking was developed from the F/A-10 Celt multirole fighter. The Celt and the Viking originated from Raehill's disastrous conflict with the Tanyang insurgency in the 1960s. During that conflict, it took no less than four separate aircraft types to conduct airstrikes in heavily defended territory. This was especially inefficient for aircraft carriers, where a premium is put on hangar space. Further pressure to downsize and combine aircraft roles was due to the general anti-war sentiment and military cuts in the 1970s. As a result, The F/A-10 Celt was designed to provide the Raehillean airforce and navy with maxim capability with a minimum budget.

The Celt's advanced avionics allowed it to replace several dedicated attack and fighter types but it did not completely satisfy the Raehillian Navy's need for a fleet interceptor. Raehill's greatest's political rival, Strojia, took advantage of Raehill's military downsizing and deployed a myriad of long range bombers and cruise missiles that could threaten assets well beyond the range of defending fighters, including the Celt. For fleet defense, pilots found that the Celt's radar range was too short and its top speed was too modest . As a result the dedicated interceptor version, the F-12A Viking was developed.

Designed to intercept Strojian bombers and cruise missiles before they can strike, the F-12A had a redesigned fuselage with variable geometry wings, allowing faster accelerate and top speed. This added weight, required a more powerful engine, which also boosted performance. Most importantly, the Viking introduced an electronic scanning radar, and fire and forget air to air missiles. This allowed the Viking to track up to 20 aircraft at once while engaging 4 simultaneously. This added capability required that a dedicated weapons station officer be added, reducing pilot workload.

Lastly, the Viking's systems were designed to relay information to a greater fleet wide radar network. Radar returns picked up by the Viking would automatically relay to AWACs aircraft, friendly warships and other Viking interceptors allowing large anti-air dragnet to control airspace.

Though a revolutionary design, the Viking was a costly aircraft and received much political push back, up to being threatened with cancellation. Ironically, further F-12 variants were developed to regain the multirole capabilities of the previous F/A-10 Celt. The F-12B added the ability to drop precision air to ground weapons, while the EF-12C provided radar jamming and electronic support to the fleet.

--
My usual bag of tricks: Blender for the model, Bryce7 for the background, GIMP and sketchbook for postwork.

Dimensions
---
Length: 56 ft.
Span: 32ft Swept, 56ft Unswept.
Height: 17ft.

Weights
---
Empty: 43,735 lbs
Max T/O: 73,200 lbs

Performance
---
Max Speed: Mach 2.3

Range: 1,850 nautical miles

Powerplant
---
2 x Saunders Electric F-202 Turbofans. 32,557 combined thrust, 55,012 with afterburner.

Armament
---
2 x 23mm cannon. Up to 10 (12 for B model) hard points. Can carry up to 18,000 lb of stores.

Description
Two F-12B Vikings patrol the Diaz straights corridor, New Pacifica, 1991.

F-12B Viking:

Built for the Raehill Republic, the F-12A Viking was developed from the F/A-10 Celt multirole fighter. The Celt and the Viking originated from Raehill's disastrous conflict with the Tanyang insurgency in the 1960s. During that conflict, it took no less than four separate aircraft types to conduct airstrikes in heavily defended territory. This was especially inefficient for aircraft carriers, where a premium is put on hangar space. Further pressure to downsize and combine aircraft roles was due to the general anti-war sentiment and military cuts in the 1970s. As a result, The F/A-10 Celt was designed to provide the Raehillean airforce and navy with maxim capability with a minimum budget.

The Celt's advanced avionics allowed it to replace several dedicated attack and fighter types but it did not completely satisfy the Raehillian Navy's need for a fleet interceptor. Raehill's greatest's political rival, Strojia, took advantage of Raehill's military downsizing and deployed a myriad of long range bombers and cruise missiles that could threaten assets well beyond the range of defending fighters, including the Celt. For fleet defense, pilots found that the Celt's radar range was too short and its top speed was too modest . As a result the dedicated interceptor version, the F-12A Viking was developed.

Designed to intercept Strojian bombers and cruise missiles before they can strike, the F-12A had a redesigned fuselage with variable geometry wings, allowing faster accelerate and top speed. This added weight, required a more powerful engine, which also boosted performance. Most importantly, the Viking introduced an electronic scanning radar, and fire and forget air to air missiles. This allowed the Viking to track up to 20 aircraft at once while engaging 4 simultaneously. This added capability required that a dedicated weapons station officer be added, reducing pilot workload.

Lastly, the Viking's systems were designed to relay information to a greater fleet wide radar network. Radar returns picked up by the Viking would automatically relay to AWACs aircraft, friendly warships and other Viking interceptors allowing large anti-air dragnet to control airspace.

Though a revolutionary design, the Viking was a costly aircraft and received much political push back, up to being threatened with cancellation. Ironically, further F-12 variants were developed to regain the multirole capabilities of the previous F/A-10 Celt. The F-12B added the ability to drop precision air to ground weapons, while the EF-12C provided radar jamming and electronic support to the fleet.

--
My usual bag of tricks: Blender for the model, Bryce7 for the background, GIMP and sketchbook for postwork.

Dimensions
---
Length: 56 ft.
Span: 32ft Swept, 56ft Unswept.
Height: 17ft.

Weights
---
Empty: 43,735 lbs
Max T/O: 73,200 lbs

Performance
---
Max Speed: Mach 2.3

Range: 1,850 nautical miles

Powerplant
---
2 x Saunders Electric F-202 Turbofans. 32,557 combined thrust, 55,012 with afterburner.

Armament
---
2 x 23mm cannon. Up to 10 (12 for B model) hard points. Can carry up to 18,000 lb of stores.