[COLLABORATION BUILD W/ FRANZPETERSIEGFRIED]

A heavy fighter based on the F/A-18E, and designed by FranzPeterSiegfried. Comes in the VFA-156 “Blackbacks” livery.

Armament:
6x Guardian SSAAM
14x Interceptor LAAM
4x Bomb 50
2x Cleaver LACM
1x Minigun

Grouping:
1 - Arresting Hook
2 - Missile Arming
3 - NAV/Anti-Collision Lights
4 - Wing Folding (VTOL DOWN)
5 - Weapons Bay (VTOL UP)
6 - Thrust Vectoring (Pitch, Yaw)
7 - Jettison Fuel Tank
8 - Formation Lights

Fictional Backstory:
This aircraft is a collaboration betweenness FPS Aviation and Gründer Industries. The USN wished to have a possibility for an upgraded F/A-18E/F, and tasked FPS Aviation and Gründer with building and testing a prototype. In order to test it, both Gründer and USN Test pilots signed up, as well as members from VFA-156. Development went smooth, aside from a few incidents listed below:

1. A group of engineers went rogue due to initial lack of progress, and took an F/A-18E into a hanger and locked it up. Security initially wanted to go in and get them out, but the flight leader and lead engineer, both amused by this, told them to let the rogue engineers be. After a few days, they emerged with the fuselage effectively sawn in half and the wings cut off, with the leader shouting “ARE YA HAPPY NOW?!” All engineers were punished, but continued work knowing that they at least helped progress the project.
2. The flight lead of VFA-156 snuck into the hangar with the first prototype (the Gründer prototype, the FPS prototype was in a separate hangar at the time), and over the course of one night, painted the Blackbacks livery on it (How, we are not sure). While this went against OPSEC, it was permitted to keep, as it boosted morale in the group. All the pilot said about the incident was “It was getting boring here, so I took it into my hands to make life more interesting here.” He was grounded for a week, then continued testing the aircraft, arguably better than before.

The aircraft was released to the public in the late 2010’s, and entered service in the early 2020’s. A pilot’s favorite due to the fact you can pull a cobra sideways, and then the aircraft will keep turning even after you let go of the stick.

Unit Cost (RP):
$105,000,000

Available Livery:
U.S.N. VFA-156 “BLACKBACKS” - Here
U.S.N. Naval Demonstration Team “BLUE ANGELS” - Link
E.A.S.A. Prototype (FranzPeterSiegfried) - Link
E.A.F. 156th Tactical Fighter Wing “YELLOW” - Link

Notes of the Aircraft:
Though this aircraft is a bit unstable, it definitely can recover from its instability. Experimenting with a new form of thrust vectoring, and it works pretty well. As said before, it can turn automatically, you just need to get it to pull a cobra, which it loves more than anything.