Firebird

Description
The Firebird was built on Capella as an early, Age of War-era aerospace fighter design. Underpowered and lightly-armored, it did not fulfill the expectations of the CCAF. Though it carried enough fuel to achieve good velocity in space, it was not very maneuverable. Its low speed and sluggish handling in atmospheric flight combined with its weak rear armor and lack of aft-mounted weapons made it easy prey for even the lightest conventional fighters.

With the rapid development of aerospace technologies, the Firebird quickly became obsolete and was taken out of CCAF service and scrapped in 2420. The Taurian Concordat used some units captured during the Rim War but retired the last of them in 2437.

Weapons and Equipment
Realizing their design could not handle dogfights, the developers equipped it with long-range weapons to stay as far away from enemies as possible. Two Zeus LRM-10 launchers mounted in the wings and an Imperator-D light autocannon in the nose, each with one ton of ammunition, met those requirements and gave it a potent punch for hit-and-run strikes.

Variants
Due to its short service life, no variants were known to exist.