"We have pushed the design to its absolute limit, not it's time for the pilot to push its capabilities. "

The Serevistan F-104V Super Starfighter is the culmination of the F-104s evolution. The Super starfighter retain the lagacy of the old starfighter by being a high speed and high altitude interceptor, but it has been massively upgraded. It now features a stronger radar, increased wing area, new sparrow missile, and better air to ground capabilities. The Super Starfighter was used by the serevistan air forces to defend their homeland in the 1993 war against their neighbor Nontrea.

The Starfighter

The F-104 came into existence after the experiences in the Kartian Civil war. At tha time pilots wanted a fast and high altitude aircraft to better counter the migs flown in the war. Eventually the Ursean came up with the F-104 Starfighter in 1955. The F-104s combination of speed, high attitude performance made it very appealing to the Ursean government and many others. It's performance would be proven in 1956 when starfighters over the island of Fortena together with the remnants of the Charnian republic airforce managed to hold back Communists Charnia from taking the island, ensuring the survival of the Charnian republic. Seeing this many nation would gobble up F-104s. One of this nation was Serevista which would purchase 100 example of the starfighter in 1961.

Serevista And The Starfighter

Serevista is a medium-sized nation located in the continent of Oceanus. It had only gained its independence from the Gretanicans in 1949 together with many other nation. The nation is situated at the tip of the island of Laureka, with its capital located at the southern most point of the landmass. It has many islands in its borders, while most of it is uninhabited they are still key to EEZ and territorial claim.

The purchase of the starfighter was initially very controversial as it was seen as to big of an investment for such a nation of its size. Rumours circulates about possible bribery and illegal dealings. These theories would later be proven as true in the 1970s. Nevertheless Serevista already got their F-104s and now had to deal with it. The initial purchase was made up of primarily the F-104G variants. These aircraft were produced in Ursea but later on maintenance and spare parts production would be set up in Serevista as well. These f 104G had great intercept capabilities and strike abilities making them quite well suited for the small island nation.

In the early 1980s Serevista's neighbors begin receiving newer and newer aircraft, in particular its closest neighbor Nontrea. Nontrea had gone on a large spending spree with mig-23s, su-22, and most concerning the mig-25. With this the Serevistan government began looking for a way to counter these new purchases. They would eventually purchase F-5 and A-4 to bolster their air power agains the mig 23s and su 22. But the problem of the mig-25 was still unresolved. Initially the option was either the F-15 or the F-14, these were eventually ruled out due to their very high cost. Finally an idea was put out to upgraded their existing F-104 fleet. While not the the most effective counter, it would still give them a good chance to stand again the foxbat.

Modernization would begin in 1984 for the first 12 aircraft. These effort would involve a corporation with Intralia, Lockheed, Carnedia, and Austrela. This corporation eventually lead to the Starfighter league, a cabal of F-104 users trying to keep their starfighter alive. This group would develop many starfighter variants such as the ASA-M and CF-104, but their greatest feat would happen in Serevista. The aircraft that came out of the factory was very different from the old F-104s everyone had. This F-104 was something more, something super.

Design

The ultimate F-104 would be the F-104V Super Starfighter. It would feature rebuilt J79 engines allowing the same speed as the older versions. The airframe was lengthen to accommodate newer weaponry and more fuel. The wing were reinforced and made slightly longer to handle more load. The wingtip fuel tank now houses ECM and RWR components allowing to be far more useful. The plane now can fire the AIM 7 sparrow family of missile. Newer chin pylons were mounted to allow more magazine depth and chance to kill. And finally a new IRST system to allow detection of heat signature and allow laser guidance of munition. These new Super Starfighter would began entering service in 1988 after a lengthy overhaul.

Service

By the 1990s with the introduction of the F-5 and A-4 the starfighter fleet would need to be soo big. The fleet now Consists of just 36 combat aircraft, far fewer than what it had been in 1960s. These 36 aircraft would be split up into 3 squadrons. They would defend the nation as the most capable aircraft in Serevista's arsenal, being capable of interceptions and even limited but quick ground attack. These capabilities would later be tested to their absolute maximum in the 1995 war with Nontrea.

The War

After a regime chance in 1994 the new Nontrean government is deemed a high risk to the Serevistan. With Nontrea's alignment with Arsenia it could potentially received new breaker and mantis aircraft, which would throw the balance of power into Nontrea'a favour. Tension would rise due to the many incidents that happen throughout 1994 to early 1995. These would eventually culminate in the explosion of the Vayatuba munition facility in Nontrea, while the explosion would later be determined as human error, the public of Nontrea into further anger. The Serevistan deemed that war is inevitable and launch a preemptive strike against Nontrea on 22nd of may 1995.

In the early hours of the war F-104Vs would be providing CAP for the A-4 and F-5 Strikes agains Nontrean facilities. Mig-25s would be scrambled and immediately wrecked havoc amongst the Serevistan. Their quick ambushes and long range missils prove to be quite a challenge. Even with the early strikes, Serevistan ground forces would be quickly steamrollered by Nontrean superior ground force. The Serevistan would mostly be performing stikes and patrol, they were on the back foot, not being able to properly destroy the armored push and not being able to seriously destroy Nontrea's airforce.

The wars devolve into a back and fort between the two nations. Mig-25s would launch ambush attacks on A-4s and F-5s before being perused by F-104s. In turn Serevistan F-104s would frequently launch hunting parties to find and destroy Nontrean Migs. The super starfighter would play many key parts is Serevistan success, from escorting ground pound missions, mig hunting groups, escort for naval strikes, quick strike bombing missions, and radar hunting mission later on in the war. The true importance of the super starfighter would be its ability to effectively fight against the foxbat. Being quick enough to tail a foxbat, advance enough to carry AIM-7 Sparrows, and agile enough to fight it in a dogfight.

In the latter end of the war the super starfighter began launching bombing raids on the Nontrean capital of Noreta. These strikes were enabled by delivery of AGM-88 Harms from Austrela. By launching these attacks they managed to reduce Nontrean public outlook on the war, even with Nontrea's success in the ground war. The final days of the war sees Nontrean ground forces enter Serevista's capital of Rovea. Simultaneously Noreta would be firebombed by F-104s, creating mass panic and mass public outcry through Nontrea. Nontrean ground forces never did take the city, urban fighting, fierce bombing campaign, and the attrition from fighting through the whole island has severely depleted their ranks, by the end of August they had only been able to hold their position in the outskirts and suburbs of Rovoe. Like wise the firebombing of Noreta had only cause light damage thought the city. But most importantly these operations managed to turn the people of both government to push for an end to the war.

Finally on the 1st of September 1995 a temporary truce was established brokered by the government of Austrela and Indronesia. These were followed up by a peace agreement in November that officially ended the war. In the aftermath Nontrea would see a land increase on the mainland but in return they lost several islands to Serevista. Both nation would receive aid and support from many nation to help rebuild their nation. Nontrea would be help by Indronesia and Serevista by Austrela, the conflicting effort of these two larger power would in the end see another war for the region in the 90s.

The war would see large losses on both sides. Nontrea lost almost all of its mig-25 fleet from 24 craft to just 3, major losses on their mig 23 (36 to just 19) and su 22 (18 to 11) fleet, and large amount of damage to their logistics and support infrastructure. Serevista on the other hand would also see almost all of their 18 A-4 Skyhawks destroyed with only 2 airframe surviving the war, either by ground fire or mig attacks. Their F-5 fleet didn't fare much better, they lost more than half of their original number of 18 down to 7. The super starfighter through would actually largely survive. From the original 36 from the start of the war only 7 of them would be loss, this would be attributed to their powerful ECM pod, better RWR and their overall speed and acceleration advantage. After the war Serevista would keep their remaining F-104V in service up until 2010 when newer F-14Gs arrived.

Controls

Pitch, Roll, Yaw, landing gear, Throttle are normal
Trim and VTOL doesn't do anything
Activate group doesn't do stuff

Weaponry

Air to Air
4x AIM-9M sidewinder
2x AIM-7M Saprrow
1x Vulcan Rotary
64x Countermeasures

Air to ground
2x AIM-9M sidewinder
4x 1000lbs dumb bomb
1x Vulcan Rotary
64x Countermeasures

SEAD
4x AIM-9M sidewinder
2x AGM-88 Harm
1x Vulcan Rotary
64x Countermeasures

Notes

No cockpit this time (i got lazy)
When taking off the plane will try to go right, I don't know why but just fight it with the yaw
The speed and missile performance might not be the best
I have been quite busy these last few months so sorry for the lack of uploads