Talk:AFOH/@comment-14850713-20141021140436

IC: The last 2 battles have pointed to 2 realizations:

1. Our super warships have gone the way of the battleship in WWII.

2. Our most important weapons system are our Cobras and we need new weapons and tactics to protect them and maximize the damage they can do.

(OOC: We can make flying ships but still rely on piston-engined planes...)

So a top-secret crash program was launched to develop a Cobra escort. Enter Durandal, a large, stealthy, heavily-armored, supersonic air superiority fighter. Its 2 Mk 45N ("N" for navalized) cannons, the largest guns ever mounted on a plane, fire beehive shells with IR-homing skeets to punch through enemy formations and clear the way for Cobras to deliver aerial mines. It also has a secondary surface attack capability against escort-sized ships and ground targets. Because high-performance engines are dedicated to Cobra production, however, the Durandal uses older technology and is thus not as fast as the aircraft it is meant to escort.