F/A-352B Longsword

F-352B Longsword-class Starfighter The F-352B Longsword-class Interceptor (designated GA-TL2 in UNSC Air Force service) was the UNSC's primary atmospheric and exo-atmospheric superiority starfighter during and after the Human-Covenant War. The successor to the earlier F-352A Longsword-class Interceptor, The F-352B made a number of major and dozens of minor advances over its predecessor, largely focusing on better adapting to combating the Covenant. A capable multi-role craft with both atmospheric and exo-atmospheric capability, the Longsword, like its predecessor, was able to maintain speed and agility, powerful armament and strong armour in almost perfect balance, making it one of the few UNSC machines able to go toe-to-toe with it's Covenant counterpart and defeat it in battle.

Developmental History
In 2546 a need to replace, or sufficiently modify the F-352A Longsword was identified, as a result of rapidly increasing maintenance and replacement costs. However, it was not deemed to be a pressing requirement, and it was sidelined in favour of resource-intensive programs more essential to the ongoing war effort. It was not until 2554 that the need was re-evaluated, resulting in the introduction of the F-352B Longsword in 2561. The F-352B was designed for use with its own shield generator, however project budgets prevented this being included in the final production model. The Longsword saw numerous upgrades throughout its service life; the most major on its performance being the addition of a shield generator in the class' 2566 upgrade (which also included updated electronics systems). In 2569 the entire class saw an upgrade to its inertial compensation technology, whose effect was essentially reducing the Longsword's weight by 7%. In 2578, the F-352B saw its 50mm cannons replaced with XM5502 Railguns in a lethality upgrade program, and additionally an upgrade to the craft's engines. The F-352B, through both its versatility and consistent upgrades, was not retired from front line action until well into the 27th century.

Operational History
The F-352B, as a result of its widespread nature throughout UNSC forces, participated in virtually every battle after its introduction, generally perfoming well against Covenant forces even when outnumbered. Longswords in particular played a major part in rapidly securing air supremacy for UNSC forces invading Bellerophon, allowing orbital reinforcements to quickly seize the planet.

Role
As a Fighter, the Longsword was a craft that primarily focused on attacking and defeating other air/spatial targets, such as aircraft, exo-atmospheric single ships and enemy capital ships. While it was capable in a secondary role of ground attack, and was just as capable as its predecessor in this role, in reality it leaned more towards an air/space superiority starfighter, whose role it was to defeat enemy air/spacecraft and attain air superiority. This was resultant of its ground attack abilities being secondary to air-to-air combat, as the F/A-361 Scythe-class Interceptor was more focused on ground attack (but was similarly multi-role). The F-352B Longsword's primary role was engaging and defeating Covenant single ships, in both atmospheric and exo-atmospheric conditions. In addition to this, it could as a secondary role directly attack enemy warships and ground targets with reasonable success, lending itself to a multirole fighter designation. Most commonly deployed to directly counter Covenant spacecraft such as Seraphs and Banshees, its powerful and variable loadout, coupled with its compromise between speed and armour plating, enabled it to be used against a more diverse group of targets. As a result the Longsword was also tasked with ground attack missions, acting in support of allied ground units to defeat armoured threats. With a variable weapons loadout, the Longsword could be deployed against Covenant naval ships, usually after destruction of its single ship defences, using high yield conventional or nuclear munitions. This was particularly useful in downing a hostile vessel's shields, ahead of follow-up attacks by more capable UNSC assets. The Longsword was also regularly deployed as protective escort to either warships heading into a battlezone, or smaller craft assaulting a planetary body or hostile capital ship.

Layout and Flight
The F-352B, like its predecessor, featured a highly unconventional airframe dominated by its' arrowhead shape. Protruding from its highly backswept leading edge was its cockpit section, where the three crew were positioned. From the rear of the craft protruded two oversized engines, on either side of a large tail. With a large surface area, the Longsword featured dozens of control surfaces which, in conjunction with RCS points (Reaction Control Systems) and intuitive fly-by-wire systems, maintained the large craft as an agile one too. While the exterior of the Longsword was virtually identical to the F-352A, its interior was entirely different. The 120mm ventral cannons and their ammunition stores of the were removed, and replaced with two internal, retractable hardpoint bays. The formerly expansive interior corridors, cryo tubes and weapons lockers were all removed, the space instead used for improved reactors, internal shield generator, Covenant-derived intertial compensators and additional space consumed by the internal weapons bays.

The Longsword's highly unconventional airframe lent it a 'relaxed stability' in flight, meaning it was less stable than more traditional designs. The Longsword was unstable to a point where computerised 'fly-by-wire' or FBW systems were necessary to keep it in flight. The FBW system artificially created stability in the Longsword's flight using precision adjustments, allowing it to remain stable despite its inherent instability. The advantages of this instability were extreme agility in both high speed (hypersonic) and low subsonic speeds. The FBW system was quadruple-redundant, preventing catastrophic incidents stemming from FBW failure, and was highly intuitive in simultaneously following the pilot's inputs and maintaining a controlled manoeuvre. As a result of this system, the F-352B was notably more agile than its Covenant counterparts both in and out of atmosphere. The effectiveness of the craft was markedly increased when an Artificial Intelligence was present, as it functioned as a sort of interface between the pilot and fighter (more efficiently than the FBW interface did).

Armament
The F-352B Longsword's primary armament was a pair of M9109 Autocannon, which were similarly employed with the F-352A. These large calibre, high rate of fire cannons were surprisingly effective against Covenant shielding and armour and could be used to good effect against most targets including fighters, dropships and ground targets. These cannon typically carried 5,000 rounds each, and were used against close and medium ranged threats in relative terms. As the Longsword was designed for modularity from the start, these cannons could be removed and replaced for another calibre, such as 30mm, 90mm or 120mm, which involved changing the gun itself and its ammunition feeds. A larger calibre gave the Longsword more firepower but reduced rate of fire and the amount of ammunition it could hold, while the reverse was true of smaller calibres. Swapping out this armament was time consuming and not a routinely undertaken task. Later on in their service, the Longsword saw their cannon replaced by the same calibre railgun, which dramatically increased the range, accuracy and power of the F-352B's main armament.

Replacing the F-352A's 120mm ventral cannon, the Longsword's secondary armament was a variable load of guided munitions. These were carried in two large hardpoint bays that stored missiles in a cylindrical fashion, and retracted into the ship's hull when not in use. These could usually store twelve standard-sized missiles; its exact capacity varied according to the size of the munition, as the hardpoints could be configured for all standard UNSC ordnance. The hardpoint bays took up the empty space in the ship's hull created by removal of the 120mm cannon. The bays could hold a total of eight ASGM-12 Antiship Missiles, which had a devastating effect on enemy warships, ten Scorpion Air-to-Ground Missiles for assaulting ground targets, sixteen Medusa-II Missiles, which could defeat most single ships in one strike, or a mix of ordnance according to pilot preference or mission requirements. The Longsword could also carry a maximum of one Shiva-class Nuclear Missile, which lent it an optional extreme offensive capability against Covenant vessels and installations.

Shielding and Hull
The F-352B was designed relatively shortly after the Human-Covenant War, and not long after the Sangheili agreed to share technology with the UNSC. As a result it was one of the first mass-produced Human-designed vessels to feature Covenant technology, featuring protective shielding and inertial compensation systems. Although cost initially prevented the Longsword from receiving shield generators, a later update provided this among other upgrades. While not comparable in strength to the shielding employed by larger warships, its strength was on a par with that of the Covenant's Seraph, protecting it from a fair volume of fire before actually exposing the Longsword to harm. The shield envelope conformed tightly to the ship's hull, minimising surface area and therefore maximising strength.

Engines and Powerplant
The main engine of the F-352B was a dual nuclear fusion reactor. Here, atomic nuclei fused to form a denser nuclear, accompanied by a net gain of energy. These reactors jointly provided energy for the ship's systems; additionally the fueled the engines by expelling confined plasma at super-high velocities, producing thrust. These engines had exceptional thrust and acceleration, though the craft's top speed of 318,960 kph (Mach 267) was rarely reached in combat. Its speed and agility, though more the former, were substantially affected in atmosphere, although it still maintained its effectiveness. The engines were capable of vectored thrust through numerous control surfaces manipulating the exhaust flow, making up an aspect of the craft's FBW systems and contributing to its agility at both low and ultrahigh speeds.

The Longsword made use of dozens of control surfaces on its exterior to manoeuvre in atmosphere, though they were useless in spatial environments. These, coupled with dozens of RCS points that made the F-352B capable of both taxing manoeuvres and microajustments, helped the Longsword maintain staggering maneuverability for a craft of its size.

The F-352B also operated Covenant-derived interial compensators, which negated the effects of extreme g force on crew and enabled them to perform acceleration and maneuvres previously unheard of. It also effectively reduced the craft's weight somewhat, improving acceleration and other performance characteristics.