B-65E Shortsword

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"I love the new Shortswords. I can choose between levelling a whole city block, levelling a whole city or just level that tank over there."

- Captain Wallace Argyle

The is a UNSC Bomber. It can be used for a variety of bomber roles, especially tactical and strategic bombing roles. It has been in service for almost 80 years and sees continued use thanks to constantly being replaced by new versions and updated with new systems.

Description
The B-9E is a intelligently designed bomber aircraft, focusing on being able to go between tactical and strategic missions, including high altitude missions and close range, low support bombing missions. To do this it focuses on a large flight body focused around the forward cabin, bomb bay, two main engines then the wide wings with vectored thrust engines. This format allows it to preform high altitude missions and even travel transatmospherically but also loiter at vary altitudes with some degree of agility.

The frame is constructed from superplastic-formed diffusion-bonded metal matrix composites. These light, oxidation resistant matrix composites are formed from high modulus, high strength gold and chrome doped zirconium oxide reinforced fibres and a titanium aluminide matrix. The skin is formed from four layered plates attached to the frame. The inside layer is a carbon composite bonded to the middle layer of single crystal carbon, which does not melt on reentry and protects the ship and occupants. The third layer is a ceramic outer layer providing themral and oxidation protection. The top layer is a heavy duty composite buffer system, with a depleted uranium mesh insert. The cock pit is situated a in titanium alluminide 'cabin'. These give limited protection against enemy fire. The windscreen is bullet-proof diffusion-bonded stretched-acrylic. The skin is painted with both RADAR absorbent paint and LASER absorbent laminates, which when compounded with its stealth design, gives it decent stealth abilities. It possesses a tail mounted point defence laser capable of fending off some attacking missiles, partially hidden in a small aerodynamic nook to prevent ruining the RADAR signature of the ship or the carefully designed aerodynamics.

The variable bomb bay can take a wide variety of mission selective bomb ordnance, including a wide variety of general purpose, bunker busting, high accuracy, cluster, special objective and high power bombs and ordnance. This gives it the ability to spread untold amounts of destruction in its wake.