Fiction:France/French Army/Aerospace

Gunships
French gunships are typically built to act as intermediaries between forces in orbit and forces on the ground. As a result, all French gunships have the ability to descend from and ascend into orbit of medium-density planets without help from other craft. They all field light shield generators, though these serve more to protect them from damage during reentry than from enemy fire.

Hercule
A massive, hulking craft which deserves its name, the Hercule's primary purpose is to deploy vehicles on to the battlespace while under fire. Its weight is held up by four enormous engines which allow it to make the journey into the atmoshpere and back unaided. It is difficult to fly, hardly maneuverable, and slow to land or change direction, but it can take a beating. Unlike other French gunships, its shield generator, armor, and mainframe are strong enough to take several hits before failing, typically giving the gunship enough time to dive into cover.

An IPAS autocannon rests below the main cockpit to provide the ship with some protection, though the Hercule should not under any circumstances be mistaken for a combat gunship. Some may choose to equip the frame for combat, but the French prefer to let it stay within the role of a transport ship.

A variant of the Hercule called Hercule BOAM operates as a rapidly deploying forward operating base, carrying supplies, trucks to deliver them, and a protective forcefield into the battlespace to support the troops.

As Volant Series
The As Volant's constitute France's attack gunships, built with the sole purpose of supporting ground forces. Prized for their ability to hover and to quickly lock down entire portions of the battlespace, these field advanced fire-and-control systems, decent ECM equipment, and maneuvering software that allows the pilots to utilize the full range of the frame's maneuverability.

The series is divided into the older As Volant I, no longer in service in the French Armed Forces but still on the market, and the As Volant II, its successor. Both are decent gunships, though the As Volant I carries older and thus less reliable technology, along with a design flaw that resulted in many accidents in combat situations: the weapons rack places the rear of missiles within the path of the engines' full range of motion. When executing complex maneuvers, the engines have been known to knock off warheads from racks, or even to set them off in unfortunate explosions that resulted in the deaths of those on board. The design itself is cheap to obtain from the French, easy to field, and boasts a low unit price due to its simplicity relative to the times.

The As Volant II is far more expensive to acquire from the French, but also far more effective in combat. The design updates the gunship's navigational and fire-and-control systems along with moving the weapons rack to a less problematic position. A slower-firing and larger caliber IPAS 2790 autocannon replaced the old one. Furthermore, a pair of canard wings were added to the nose to aid in navigation during atmospheric entry. The As Volant II is much harder to hit from the ground, much more maneuverable, fires its missiles much more accurately than its counterpart, and has an exorbitant per-unit price to match.

E-16 Agamemnon Industrial Shuttle
A collaboration between Corsica and France, the E-16 Agamemnon Industrial Shuttle is a versatile piece of engineering. It has been modified to carry out thousands of tasks in the civilian world, including police work, search and rescue, interstellar travel, light freight, courier work, and so on. Within the armed forces, it is just as adaptable, capable of serving as an ATGM carrier, attack gunship, personnel carrier, scout vessel, colonial transport, and so on. While its flight qualities and durability leave something to be desired, it can easily be modified to hold a hyperdrive, allowing it to travel short interstellar distances.

Swallow
Imported from America, the Swallow low-altitude SEAD craft take on some of the most difficult and dangerous missions in the French Army. Their job is to move in ahead of an airstrike or an airborne landing to find and destroy enemy anti-aircraft vehicles and positions. Thanks to their advanced American electronic countermeasures (ECM), the best on the market, they are able to maneuver through enemy anti-air fire to close with their targets and take them out with cluster bombs or bursts of strafing fire. They are expensive craft to build and outfit, however, but their performance and maneuverability makes them worth every penny.

Cloud Hawk
Also an American import, the Cloud Hawk high-altitude SEAD platform is used in tandem with the Swallow, flying high above the battlespace and using targeting data from Swallows and other elements of the French Army to pick off enemy anti-air.

The French version of the craft is different from the American version in several ways. Firstly, the French version sports a different wing design which, unlike the POTATO version, does not slant downwards. Secondly, the French switched out the POTATO nose-mounted quad-autocannon and replaced it with a dual-autocannon which many think serves no purpose, since the Cloud Hawk tends to avoid confrontation rather than engage targets directly. Thirdly, the shape of the cockpit was changed to better fit the standards of the French Army.