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The Hawk is a 60PSL+ Superiority-type [[Star Fighter]] produced and deployed by the [[Gudersnipe Foundation]] between [[A.Y.]] 5979 and A.Y. 6871, a period of 892 years, making it the second longest-running production fighter in Foundation history, with the [[Condor]] and its 1150-year production period claiming the #1 slot.

==Design==
The Hawk shares many features in common with the [[Condor]], though is not considered a direct descendant. Over 965 years passed between the two, though many features such as dual engine systems were directly inspired by Condor's success.

The Hawk was designed and tested at a remote [[Gudersnipe School]] outbase, by a design team of students. Their assignment was to prodouce a replacement for the aging [[Vulture]]-class of 50PSL+ starfighter.

The requirments for the Hawk were fairly simple: increased speed, increased defensive payload, increased operating window, decreased turnaround. A daunting challenge, until one considers that 256 years had passed since the Hawk was placed into service.

But the Hawk actually looked to much older technology for it's advancments. By borring the elements that made the Condor a success, they developed the next generation of long-production fighter.

===Key Features===
The Hawk uses a single high-efficiency [[Ion vacuum drive]] with a single intake piped to dual outputs for it's primary normal-space drive engine, with four [[Bussard Ramjet]]s for main acceleration, and an FTL drive.

Because of it's five normal-space engines, the Hawk's [[acceleration curve]] actually qualifies it for status as a 70PSL+fighter, but it looses manuverability when traveling faster than 60PSL, this limiting its dog-fighting abilities in the upper ranges. The lack of manuverability is caused by slow responce from the Bussard engines: while excelent at going fast in a straight line, they are useless as a manuvering engine.

In addition, the Hawk's main engine was single-directional, like the ramjets, making it only able to apply thrust in a single direction using any engines beyond it's orbital manuvering system.

==Bird's Teeth==
Where the Harpy trully showed it's teeth was in the 40-50PSL range where [[Ship Roles|capital ships]] generally operated. Though lacking in manuverability at speed, the Hawk was extremly down in the lower ranges. It's utility as a capital ship escort kept it in service for nearly 900 years, when a [[Kami|Kamian]] trap would have doomed it only 118 years later.

==Red-Tale Variant==
A variation of the original design was produced in [[A.Y.]] 6788 that was essentially an entirely different fighter. Equipped with two much more powerful mono-directional [[Ion vacuum drive]]s and a radically re-done OMS, the Red-Tale Hawk was built from the ground up to gain and hold superiority in a combat zone. Like the [[Harpy]], it was a 70PSL+ fighter, and had many Harpy-inspired features, including a [[Hyper Drive|hyper drive]] and matter/antimatter-reactor-based power source. It dropped the clunky [[Bussard Ramjet]]s and relied souly on it's Ion-vacuum engines for propulsion; but unlike the Harpy, the Red-Tale lacked low-observable stealth. It was simply built to be a tough, mean, and aggressive escort fighter.

However, all of these facets worked together to doom the Red-Tale. It had essentially nothing in common with the Hawk line of fighter to which it belonged(aside from being a single-seater), and included relatively few interchangable parts. Further, it was produced and fielded without authorization from [[Central Command and Control]]. Many carriers were mistakenly issued shipments of the new Hawks, and were unable to use them because they lacked spare parts, software support, or trained pilots.

In all, the Red-Tale was a disaster, and very few were actually produced. They saw significant combat in the [[Kamian Succession Wars|Succession Wars]] but were pulled from active service along with the rest of the Hawk-class, the few that remained were sent to [[Gudersnipe School]] for study.

The Hawk and the Red-Tale variant were succeeded by the [[Raptor]] as an esscort-fighter, though the Harpy reigned supreme as the main fighter-bomber.

[[Category:Course Books]]

Hawk - Revision history

FireDirector: 1 revision imported

thirteenyearsoffire.com>CourseDirector at 00:58, 27 December 2018