[Vulture droid fighter] (Vulture-class starfighter)
Vulture droid fighter is undoubtedly the most installed robot fighter in the galaxy. This fighter is designed and manufactured by Haor Chall Engineering Corporation, a subsidiary of Trade Federation. It is 3.6 meters long and has a wing length of 6.96 meters. It is an ultra-light fighter.
The cost of building this kind of fighter is very low. Each one only requires 40,000 credits, which is equivalent to one-third of other fighter jets in service during the same period. If you add in the factors of navigation robots and pilots, it is extremely cheap.
However, because of this, the combat AI carried by Vulture droid fighter is not considered smart, and their combat behavior is very mechanical and rigid most of the time. However, the huge number makes up for this. Vulture droid fighter generally uses large formations to fight. Each formation has 10 to 20 fighter jets to overwhelm the enemy with intensive attacks.
Another big advantage of Vulture droid fighter is that their deflectable wings can be used as four legs in land mode, allowing them to walk on the ground. Don't underestimate this, it means they can take off in almost any environment.
Fourth Civilization introduced Vulture droid fighter very early, and later introduced a production line for fighter jets and produced them by itself. For a long time, Fourth Civilization's air combat mode used a large number of Vulture droid fighter to cooperate with Wraith fighter, and the ratio of the two was about 1:5. All along, the number of Vulture droid fighter owned by Fourth Civilization has been more than 200,000.
Up to now, although Vulture droid fighter is no longer serving in the first-line navy of Fourth Civilization, it still exists in large numbers in the escort fleet and Planetary Defense Forces. Their advantages of being cheap, high-quality, large in quantity, and requiring little airport support make them very popular. You can even hide them in caves, hang them outside cargo ships, or even stuff them into cargo holds.
Like the B-1 combat robot, the main reason why Vulture droid fighter continues to be in service without many modernization changes is that the current performance is sufficient. Although continued improvement can improve combat capabilities, it will also increase costs and is not appropriate.
Now, with the large-scale uprising in the galaxy breaking out, more of the rebels in Fourth Civilization will face Vulture droid fighter, and the notoriety of this fighter will continue.
[Hyena-class Droid Fighter/Bomber] (Hyena-class Droid Fighter/Bomber)
Hyena-class Droid Fighter/Bomber is an improved model made by Hall-Char Engine Engineering Company on the basis of Vulture droid fighter. This fighter-bomber is 12.48 meters long in flight and is much larger than the Vulture droid fighter, but it is still a light aircraft.
Hyena-class Droid Fighter/Bomber was originally designed to cooperate with Vulture droid fighter in combat. It is equipped with Concussion Missile, Proton Torpedo and heavy laser cannon to make up for the lack of firepower of Vulture droid fighter.
They have indeed done this very well. Not only are they powerful in firepower, but combat AI has also been greatly upgraded. They know how to use Vulture droid fighter as a shield to cover themselves and fly to the weak points of enemy ships to carry out unexpected attacks. At the same time, when encountering enemy fighter jets, their good maneuverability also gives them certain air combat capabilities.
Hyena-class Droid Fighter/Bomber can also split its wings to walk on four legs, which allows them to take off and land on most terrains and is very flexible.
During the Clone Wars period, Hyena-class Droid Fighter/Bomber caused very serious damage to Galactic Republic in the few battles he fought. But why the 'minority' fighting?
Because the cost of Hyena-class Droid Fighter/Bomber is as high as 120,000 credits, and it also inherits the fragile structure of Vulture droid fighter, it will suffer huge battle losses every time it goes into battle, which makes it difficult for Confederacy of Independent Systems, who is financially strapped, to bear it.
Fourth Civilization also introduced Hyena-class Droid Fighter/Bomber, but without introducing a production line. There are still thousands of such fighters still active among the defense forces of some important planets.
[Droid tri-fighters]
Tri-fighter is an advanced air superiority robot fighter designed and manufactured by Colicoid Creation Nest. This fighter is 5.4 meters long and is a light fighter that was put into use in the late Clone Wars.
Tri-fighter is specially designed to hunt enemy fighter jets. It is equipped with Concussion Missile and laser cannon. At the same time, its combat AI is also very advanced and has extremely high autonomy. What's even more valuable is that the cost of this fighter is the same as the Vulture droid fighter, only 40,000 credits.
However, Tri-fighter was not used on a large scale as Confederacy of Independent Systems, mainly because in the late war, they no longer had the ability to lay too many production lines.
Fourth Civilization introduced Tri-fighter and its production line, but not many were produced. So far, only a few thousand are in service, mainly used to protect Hyena-class Droid Fighter/Bomber.
The reason why there is no mass production is because compared to the Tri-fighter, which is specialized in air defense, the Fourth Civilization military and local defense forces prefer the Vulture droid fighter, which can complete tasks both in the air and on the ground.
It is worth mentioning that after the collapse of Confederacy of Independent Systems, the production lines of Tri-fighter were lost, and now they can even be seen in some Rebel Alliance troops.
[F-99 Unmanned Combat Air Vehicle]
Unlike robot fighters, the 11.7-meter-long F-99 Wombat UAV is not an autonomous unmanned fighter jet, but a remote-controlled fighter jet. This kind of drone is produced and built by Halo Weapon Systems Corporation, a subsidiary of Fourth Civilization.
Compared with Vulture droid fighter, the maneuverability and ammunition carrying capacity of the F-99 Wombat UAV far exceed that. As an integrated surveillance and combat drone, it performs better on battlefields with harsh electromagnetic environments. After all, Vulture droid fighter has a record of being hacked by hackers on the battlefield and then turning his gun around to attack friendly forces.
At present, the Fourth Civilization military uses F-99 Wombat drones more for reconnaissance operations and to harass the opponent after achieving results. It does not expect this drone to establish much advantage on the battlefield. Therefore, although the production of Wombat UAVs is not large, almost all Fourth Civilization Navy warships will carry some for reconnaissance missions. In order to meet the needs of reconnaissance, Fourth Civilization scientists also installed a hyperspace engine on the reconnaissance aircraft, allowing it to perform short-distance hyperspace jumps.
[Acolyte series drone] (Acolyte)
Acolyte series drones are drones produced by Fourth Group. These drones adopt central computer centralized remote control mode, so they can be deployed in groups.
However, in the early wars, the Fourth Civilization military preferred Vulture droid fighter, while Acolyte drone's status was more embarrassing. Later, after Fourth Group upgraded and built Acolyte II drone, it faced competition from Swarm Drones produced by Protoss. Therefore, the orders received by the Acolyte series drones were very limited. The only advantage range was in situations where Vulture droid fighter could not be handled and there was no need to specially mobilize Swarm Drones.
However, Fourth Civilization still has many drone motherships in the military, and Fourth Group has no plans to give up on this demand. They are preparing to launch more advanced drones to meet the requirements.
[Mining Drone] (Mining Drone)
If we want to say that the first drone equipped by Fourth Civilization is actually this mining drone.
The mining drone is developed and produced by United Mining Group. It has a simple structure and is basically an unmanned mining machine with four robotic arms more than 30 meters long. But it has always played an important role in United Mining Group's deep space mining field.
It can be said that a large part of Fourth Civilization's initial industrial production capacity came from the accumulation of a large number of mining drones.
[Swarm Interceptor] (Interceptor)
Fourth Civilization The real king of air combat is not Sabre-class fighter, nor Wraith fighter, but Swarm Interceptor - an unmanned fighter jet built by Protoss.
There are currently two models of Swarm Interceptor. The Swarm I is 1.5 meters long and has been basically eliminated. The currently equipped Swarm II is 3 meters long.
Like the Acolyte series drones, the Swarm Interceptor adopts a centralized remote control mode and can remotely obtain energy and shields directly from the mothership. This technology allows the Swarm Interceptor to use almost all of its volume on those two sets of engines. The result is that Swarm Interceptor looks like a telescope.
But unlike its strange shape, this weapon built by Protoss has very terrifying combat capabilities. It is fast, flexible, powerful in firepower, and very intelligent in maneuverability. Currently, no air power in the galaxy can match it.
But the only drawback is that Swarm Interceptor can only be controlled by the Force. Because they were originally designed to be used by Protoss's High Templar, who use Psionics to drive battleships and control drones. Therefore, in this universe, using the Force is the only option.
At present, Swarm II Interceptor is not the complete version built by Protoss, but it has brought great pressure to the operator. Now only Consul-class aircraft carrier has the ability to use this drone. On Consul-class aircraft carrier, some Dark Jedi Knight captured by Fourth Civilization were connected to the central computer, and they were made into 'wetware' to control Swarm Interceptor.
Now, according to the introduction of Phase Engineer from Protoss, if you want to put the complete version of Swarm Interceptor into battle, you can only let High Templar of Protoss personally control it, but this also means that High Templar needs to go deep into the front-line battlefield. At present, Protoss has not yet made up his mind whether to get involved so deeply in this war.