Grand Admiral, First Order Central Command
OUT OF CHARACTER INFORMATION
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Image Source: [Jay Evans - Artstation]
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PRODUCTION INFORMATION
Manufacturer: First Order Naval Engineering
Affiliation: The First Order
Model: ISE/A-9B 'Prowler' Electronic Warfare Aerospace Fighter
Production: Limited
Material: Quadanium Alusteel Alloy Fuselage Construction, Glassteel and Transparisteel where appropriate.
TECHNICAL SPECIFICATIONS
Classification: Electronic Warfare Support Craft
Length: 18.28m
Width: 9.4m
Height: 9.3m
Power Core/Reactor Plant: 2 x Ion Reactors w/ Pre-Charged Deuterium Power Cells
Crew: 1 Pilot, 3 Electronic Countermeasure Officers (ECMO)
Armament: Average
- 2 x SJFS L-s9.9 Fire-Linked Laser Cannons
- 4 x SGM-114 'Retaliator' Anti-Radiation Missiles
- 3 x Directional Multi-Spectrum Wideband Electronic Warfare Pods
Defenses: Very High
- Standard Hull Construction
- Carbon-Nanofilament Armor Plating
- Secondary AR-03 Damage Reduction Component
- Combat-Rated Ray Shielding
- Combat-Rated Particle Shielding
- Combat-Rated Ionic Shielding Package
- Advanced Electronic Defense Countermeasure Package (Chaff/Flares/Passive Countermeasures/ECM/ECCM)
Squadron Count: Very Low - 4
Maneuverability Rating: High
Speed Rating: High
Hyperdrive: Yes
Hyperdrive Class: 1.0 (10.0 Backup)
STANDARD FEATURES
- Standard Torplex Flight Computer
- Standard Astrogation System
- T-Sj1a Targeting Computer
- TAT and BAC Combat System Package
- Ion-Flux Cooling System
- Passive Countermeasure Package
- Military-Grade Sensor Suite
- Subspace Communications and C4I System with Military Encryption
- Hyperwave Transceiver
- Reentry and Orbital Escape System
ADVANCED SYSTEMS
- IFC-DCN (Integrated Fleet Command Data Exchange Network)
- Advanced Capability Electronic Attack System
STRENGTHS
- Electronic Warfare Specialist: Three electronic warfare arrays with dedicated operators give a single Prowler extensive capability to detect, localize, track, jam, and confuse enemy sensor systems, electronic collection equipment, and targeting arrays. The Prowler excels as being a force multiplier for strike craft.
- Precision Strike SEAD: The specialist missile the Prowler carries is expressly designed to eliminate enemy air defenses.
WEAKNESSES
- Specialist Craft: While not terribly underarmed, the Prowler is simply not designed for high speed, high maneuver close range fights against other fighters. It is a large target and has no anti-fighter missiles. This is simply a craft designed for a specific role, not a jack-of-all trades that can mix it up with superiority fighters.
DESCRIPTION
The ISE/A-9B 'Prowler' is a dedicated Electronic Warfare craft in the guise of a trans-atmospheric space fighter with a dedicated secondary SEAD mission, designed to act as a force multipllier and support unit for First Order strikecraft both in space and engaged in terrestrial operations. Designed around a core Qudanaium-Alusteel frame with the proven and extremely effective Carbon-Nanofilament Armor Plating, the Prowler is an unusual shape for a starfighter, a necessity of design to give the craft fully independent reentry and orbital escape capability.
Built-in armament is limited to a pair of Laser Cannons identical to those featured on the ISF-35A Thunderbolt fighter and other First Order strikecraft. While these rapid fire, high accuracy weapons pack a good punch, they exist primarily for defensive purposes, as dogfighting with enemy strike craft is not the planned role for the Prowler.
At its core, the fighter is designed around its three Directional Electronic Warfare Pods, unified via the Advanced Capability Electronic Attack System. Electronic attack involves the offensive use of EM energy, directed energy, or anti-radiation weapons to attack personnel, facilities, or equipment with the intent of degrading, neutralizing, or destroying enemy combat capability including human life. This is most commonly known as 'jamming' but can also invovle the use of anti-radiation weapons, including the specialized SGM-114 'Retaliator' Anti-Radiation Missile, designed alongside the prowler. The Prowler is also capable of providing Electronic Defense for a force (as above, but defensive use of) and Electronic Support (collection, identification, localization, etc).
Beyond Jamming and other Multi-Spectrum Electronic Attack systems, the main offensive weapon of the Prowler is the four large and unusual SGM-114 'Retaliator' missiles. These weapons are detailed in their own submission, but generally require a specialized targeting system to be used effectively, a system which is built in to the Prowler. The ISE/A-9B can launch any or all of the missiles at up to four targets at a time, assuming it can keep targeting lock on all four. The primary seeker system is a semi-active method, which keeps the missile itself as inconspicuous as possible and attempts to draw attention to the notoriously hard to target Prowler itself.
Proper operation of the Electronic Warfare pods and their unifying systems is fairly user-intensive, and necessitates the inclusion of three dedicated personnel in the aerospace fighter. The cockpit is connected to a small cabin behind it which has some space in it as a concession for long-duration missions. In pinch, two ECMO's can operate the system with no noticable loss of peformance over a short period, or one ECMO with significant degradation.
The Prowler can also, unusually for a strikecraft, act as a C2 Platform of IFC-DCN, and can run command and control for squadrons of strike craft in the absence of a capital ship. Alongside the Electronic Support systems, this allows the Prowler to act as the lynchpin of small-scale independant strike units, consisting of several Gozanti Cruisers or FIPV-9 Keraunos vessels for transportation and support, carrying squadrons of light fighters, with a Prowler squadron as backup. This gives the First Order Navy a versatility of long-range strike that the Imperial Navy has traditionally lacked.
A typical deployment involves one squadron of Prowlers running support for a wing of conventional starfighters, with the ISE/A-9B's acting either independently or in pairs to locate and target air defense sites, either relaying that information to squadrons for high-fidelity targeting, or eliminating the sites themselves with the Retaliator missiles. They also perform well at long range patrols and intelligence collection missions, using their advanced EW systems to mask their location and leech from ambient communications, or by aggressively intercepting data.
An expensive and specialized craft, the Prowler has yet to see widespread deployment across the First Order Navy, but where it has been utilized it has made a noticeable impact.
