Vehicle:Mirage

Mirage is the name of a series of French superluminal strike craft. Named after the Dassault Mirage line of fighters and bombers of the twentieth century, they have seen extensive service in the French Starfleet and French Army since 2721 and have been exported to a number of countries.

Mirage Comète
The Mirage Comète was the first of many delta-wing designs built by the French. It was meant to replace the Aigle, which suffered in mobility and agility with the awkward incorporation of a hyperdrive. A new approach was needed to seamlessly and deliberately incorporate it into the design from the beginning. By 2721, development teams delivered a craft that was agile and quick despite the added bulk. Unlike its smaller predecessor, it had a large body and expansive wings. To satisfy the needs of the French Army, it was fitted with vertical-take-of-and-landing capabilities, though that was removed in later variants that were only used by the French Starfleet.

As an omnirole fighter, the Comète was meant to respond to changing circumstances with relative ease. It could be retooled to carry missiles or bombs of different sizes with few modifications, though they were not exactly interchangeable at the time. Parts needed to be added or removed from the release mechanisms to hold different types of ammunition. This was fixed in later versions of the craft as the French continued to standardize their ammunition and production methods. The Comète 1CV3 was known for being able to seamlessly launch almost every type of ammunition that could be found on the deck of a French carrier, a trait that would later came back in the Comète 2.

Variants
 * Flag of France.png Mirage Comète (2721) - omnirole, hyperspace
 * Flag of France.png Mirage Comète 1A (2729) - omnirole, hyperspace
 * Flag of France.png Mirage Comète 1C (2735) - omnirole, hyperspace
 * Flag of France.png Mirage Comète 1CV (2737) - omnirole, warp (prototype)
 * Flag of France.png Mirage Comète 1D (2743) - omnirole, hyperspace
 * Flag of France.png Mirage Comète 1DU2 (2756) - omnirole, hyperspace

Mirage Comète V
The original design of the Comète came in two variants, the normal one and a highly experimental variant called the Mirage Comète V. Though similar in many characteristics, they differed on one important point: the Comète V was equipped with a warp drive, not a hyperdrive. Only a few hundred examples of this craft were ever produced, assigned to specialized Voltigeur squadrons within the French Starfleet. They were meant to experiment with the then-theoretical Voltigeur drill, which was considered viable by 2760. The Comète V itself, however, was plagued by problems. Its design was specially tailored to the hyperdrive, and was poorly optimized for warp-based travel.

Variants
 * Flag of France.png Mirage Comète V (2723) - omnirole, warp
 * Flag of France.png Mirage Comète V1 (2729) - omnirole, warp

Mirage Comète 2
Though the Comète 1 had been designed to be easily upgradable and for its parts to be changed out as they grew obsolete, the design itself was starting to show its age by the end of the 2740's. Advances in design made the old one look clumsy by comparison. The Mirage 2 brought minute but revolutionary changes to the delta-wing design, making it easier to navigate and control. Over the course of the first half of the 2750's, it replaced the Comète 1DU2 as the French Starfleet's primary omnirole strike craft.

Variants
 * Flag of France.png Mirage Comète 2 (2751) - omnirole, hyperspace
 * Flag of French Andromedan Colonies 2765.png Mirage Comète 2 A (2767) - omnirole, hyperspace
 * Flag of French Andromedan Colonies 2765.png Mirage Comète 2 A1 (2771) - omnirole, hyperspace
 * Flag of French Andromedan Colonies 2.png Mirage Comète 2 B (2779) - omnirole, hyperspace
 * Flag of French Andromedan Colonies 2.png Mirage Comète 2 C (2784) - omnirole, hyperspace
 * Flag of French Andromedan Colonies 2.png Mirage Comète 2 C1 (2786) - omnirole, hyperspace
 * Flag of French Andromedan Colonies 2.png Mirage Comète 2 C2 (2789) - omnirole, hyperspace
 * CometFlagV2.png Comète-M-501 (2792) - omnirole, hyperspace
 * Flag of French Andromedan Colonies 2.png Mirage Comète 2 C3 (2795) - omnirole, hyperspace
 * Flag of France.png Mirage Comète 2A (2770) - omnirole, hyperspace

Mirage Cascabel

 * Further reading: Mirage Cascabel

As the Mirage Roi project progressed, it became clear that it was going to be more expensive to produce than was originally thought, which might impede its performance on the market. The French government decided to collaborate with the Roreinians to produce a more affordable fighter to act as part of a deal to produce a flagship main battle tank for the French army. The French intended to use the Mirage Cascabel as a supplement to the Mirage Roi both on the market and in the French military. When a breakthrough was made in the Mirage Roi project, promising to reduce the cost of the craft greatly, the French left the project to the Roreinians. By that point, a working prototype had already been built, and the Roreinians went on to mass produce it as their main omnirole fighter.

It built on the design of the Mirage 2, and had very similar characteristics to it. Often called the "Poor Man's Roi," it is actually quite different from the Mirage Roi in several ways. At the insistence of the Roreinians, it was optimized as an atmospheric omnirole fighter, less proficient in hyperspace and in open space than it is when in an atmosphere. It is equipped with simple electronic countermeasures and VTOL capability seamlessly incorporated into the craft as to not impede its flight.

Variants
 * Roreinia 2.png Mirage Cascabel (2779) - ''omnirole, hyperspace

Super Mirage
The Super Mirage was a memorable line of heavy conventional strategic and tactical bombers. Though they all carry the same name, the designs actually differ greatly from incarnation to incarnation. It was originally meant to replace the Hydre gunship in the role of fire support in space, though through the intervention of the French Army in the design process, the project took a drastically different turn and produced a superluminal bomber with similar flight characteristics to the Comète, plus added bulk. The French Starfleet fielded the Super Mirage 1 in 2760, though quickly realized that they had little use for a bomber optimized for atmospheric flight. As the Army brought out new Super Mirages in 2770 and 2780, the Starfleet briefly considered adopting them before discarding the idea.

Variants
 * Flag of France.png Super Mirage 1 (2730) - bomber, hyperspace
 * Flag of France.png Super Mirage 2 (2750) - ''tactical bomber, hyperspace
 * Flag of France.png Super Mirage 3 (2780) - ''tactical bomber, hyperspace

Super Mirage V
After the Voltigeur drill was shown to be feasible by the Comète V, the French set out to build a warp-optimized fighter, the likes of which had not been seen since the Hyperspace Revolution. They adopted the Super Mirage 1 as their base design and heavily modified it based on data gathered from the Comète V. The result France's first strike craft specialized for the Voltigeur drill. Like the Comète V, it was distributed to a few specialized squadrons for testing before being generally adopted.

Variants
 * Flag of France.png Super Mirage V (2737) - tactical bomber, warp

Super Mirage 2V
The Super Mirage 2V is widely considered as a misguided attempt to modify the French Army's Super Mirage 2 to operate within the Voltigeur drill by a different team from the one who produced the Super Mirage V. The craft was in many ways worse than the its predecessor. It handled poorly at warp, lacked maneuverability, and tried to incorporate a warp drive that rotated externally so the craft did not need to consistently enter warp backwards and could change its attack vector more easily while executing the drill. In practice, the mechanism was flimsy and was easily torn from the craft. The Super Mirage 2V4 refit attempted to fix these problems, but the problems were intrinsic to the design. A complete overhaul was needed.

Variants
 * Flag of France.png Super Mirage 2V (2758) - tactical bomber, warp
 * Flag of France.png Super Mirage 2V4 (2764) - tactical bomber, warp

Super Mirage A
After having been set back ten years, renewed interest in the Voltigeur project sparked the creation of the Super Mirage A. It was a complete redesign of the Super Mirage to include three seats, taking the strain of the operation off of the shoulders of a single person. It was a lot bigger than its predecessors and a lot more responsive both at warp and in real space. A new firing mechanism, added in the Super Mirage A1, allowed the fighter to perform runs at other angles than directly at the target, reducing risk of collision for the crew. Previous craft required that the craft travel in the direction it wanted the missile to go––directly at the target. If the pilot failed to activate his warp drive in time, or if the warp drive failed, he was likely to collide with his target. Attacking from a slightly offset angle negates this risk.

Variants
 * Flag of France.png Super Mirage A (2766) - tactical bomber, warp
 * Flag of France.png Super Mirage A1 (2775) - tactical bomber, warp
 * Flag of France.png Super Mirage A1B (2786) - tactical bomber, warp

Super Mirage 3

 * Further reading: Super Mirage 3



Variants
 * Flag of France.png Super Mirage 3 (2781) - strategic bomber, hyperspace
 * Flag of South Africa.png Super Mirage 3 D (2791) - strategic bomber, hyperspace
 * Flag of South Africa.png Super Mirage SEAD (2791) - SEAD bomber, hyperspace
 * Flag of South Africa.png Hyper Mirage Attack Ship (2793) - gunship

Super Mirage B
The Super Mirage B built on the successes of the Super Mirage A, incorporating among other upgrades a drive system that could rotate three-hundred-and-sixty degrees within the craft itself. This allowed the Super Mirage B to enter warp from any angle, having been previously been confined to warping backwards.

Variants
 * Flag of France.png Super Mirage B (2790) - tactical bomber, warp

Mirage I

 * Flag of France.png Mirage I (2775) - superlumninal interceptor, hyperspace
 * POTATO Flag.png I-29F Mirage I (2775) - superlumninal interceptor, hyperspace
 * Flag of France.png Mirage IP (2790) - superluminal interceptor, hyperspace

Mirage Roi

 * ''Further reading: Mirage Roi

The Mirage Roi is the pride of the French strike craft fleet. It is one of the best human omnirole fighters, and is considered the pinnacle of the French delta wing design. It is hyperspace-capable and optimized for combat in open space, though is more than capable of handling orbital and atmospheric operations. It can easily be equipped with VTOL equipment, though the base variant does not include that modification.

Variants
 * Flag of France.png Mirage Roi (2780) - omnirole, hyperspace
 * Flag of France.png Mirage Roi (2780) A - omnirole, hyperspace
 * Flag of France.png Mirage Roi Dominant (2792) - omnirole, hyperspace
 * Flag of France.png Mirage Roi Dominant X (2793) - precision bomber, hyperspace
 * Flag of France.png Mirage Roi Dominant X1 (2793) - precision bomber, warp
 * Flag of South Africa.png Mirage Roi D (2793) - fighter, none
 * Flag of South Africa.png Mirage Roi D CAS (2794) - tactical bomber, VTOL
 * Flag of South Africa.png Mirage Roi D Hyper (2794) - superluminal interceptor, hyperspace
 * Flag of Central African States.png Mirage Roi Q (2794) - omnirole, hyperspace
 * Eastafricanflag.jpg Mirage Roi T (2796) - omnirole, hyperspace
 * Flag of France.png Mirage Roi (2796) - omnirole, hyperspace
 * CometFlagV2.png Mirage M-2798 (2798) - omnirole, hyperspace

Mirage Revenant

 * AEAFlag.png Mirage Revenant (2798) - stealth bomber, hyperspace