the AvA-Northrop A-09 "Hellraiser" was a project developed jointly by Northrop aviation and the Avistian Aeronautics corporation after the YA-9A was rejected in place of the Fairchild Republic YA-10A (later A-10) in January of 1973 by the US government. on January 25th of the same year, Northrop reached out to the newly developing Avistian air force in hopes to secure a secretive "no name" contract that wouldn't be disclosed with the US. the Avistian military director, Anton Petrov, considered the idea for some time, and on February 3rd agreed to develop an aircraft with another foreign company, but pointed out some changes he and his team of researchers (including several of the 4th company Avistian air strike team) would have to make for the highly experimental military branch to see fit. Anton contacted the Northrop director over encrypted telephone lines and asked that they fly a representative and engineer over, which they accepted. Anton suggested they took elements of the (now in production) A-10 and. combined them with the rejected but still promising YA-9A. this included: 12 pylons, a titanium "bathtub" armored cockpit 60mm thick all around, and a massive 40mm gatling cannon inspired by the GAU-8 avenger. when asked how the 40mm would even work on such a compact airframe without for, with lack of a better term, turning into shreds, Anton asked Northrop to develop a shell based off of existing 40mm autocannon rounds but with a reduced charge. Anton said this would reduce the recoil enough to allow the aircraft to survive gun runs with around 300 service hours before maintenance on the mount was necessary and 800 service hours before the mount and titanium alloy frame had to be replaced. while Northrop agreed, they requested additional funding ($40,000,000 more than previously disclosed) and Anton agreed. the aircraft is fitted with 8 "copycat" AIM-114 F&F AGMs, 2 R-77 air to air missiles and 2 2000lb HE bombs, all fitted on external pylons, and a 40mm rotary