Cyclops AEWC Aircraft
| Cyclops Airborne Early Warning and Control Aircraft | |
|---|---|
| |
| Specifications | |
| Developer: | Tulani-Soro-Ramandu Industries |
| Crew: | 4-7 |
| Length: | 26.2m |
| Wingspan: | 83.2m |
| Height: | 5.25m |
| Loaded Weight: | Up to 170,000 kg |
| Propulsion: | 5x Naro P.6700 afterburning turbofans, developing 120 kN each. |
| Maximum Speed: | 1000 km/h |
| Range: | 24,000 km |
| Armament: | 12x flare and chaff dispensers |
| Electronics: | 1x Oracle Systems YS7Q advanced AESA radar Fire control and guidance computers |
The Cyclops is a new class of airborne early warning aircraft in service with the Inutoland Air Force. It is designed to supplement and at least partially replace the Roa-class airships which have served as the primary airborne early warning aircraft of Inutoland.
While the Roa-class have been successful by some lights, they are large, slow, vulnerable aircraft, and their survivability has been questioned in a battlefield area. For this reason, it was felt that a more survivable AEWC aircraft was necessary, able to perform AEWC duties a lot closer to a battlefront than the Roa-class airship. Thus, a tender for a new AEWC aeroplane was put out to bid. Tulani-Soro-Ramandu Industries won the contract, with their flying wing design based on their experience building the TSR-9 Mastodon bomber.
The centrepiece of Cyclops is its advanced active electronically scanning array radar system. The Oracle YS7Q radar unit is a 3D scanning pulse-doppler radar unit housed in a large radome atop the aircraft, and tied into an onboard battlefield information centre which can provide firing solutions to fighters and/or missiles as well as receiving information from remote radars. One Cyclops AEWC aircraft is usually deployed together with two or more Nightbat UAVs as remote sensing platforms.
The onboard battlefield information centre, crewed by two to five electronic warfare officers, has enough telemetry and data linkage capacity to handle up to six dedicated remote radar uplinks simultaneously. This greatly increases not only the accuracy of the radar picture built up, but also increases the radar coverage provided. Increased radar coverage means that the Cyclops does not need to approach active combat areas quite so closely, which increases crew and hardware survivability.
The flying wing design allows for a very efficient flight profile; the minimal-drag silhouette is highly fuel-efficient, and the Cyclops has quite a large range. This allows AEWC to be quickly deployed to needed areas of the world, especially compared to the slow, but high-endurance airships. The Roa-class are being retained by the Air Force, but will be restricted to defensive cover of Inutoland airspace rather than being deployed to combat zones.
 Aircraft of the Inutoland Air Force
|
|---|
| Modern aircraft: |
| W-20 Fer-de-Lance · TSR-19 Ghost · W-18 Hummingbird · TSR-17 Cladosictis · W-16 Tandu · W-15 Tamaris · TSR-14 Teratorn · W-13 Stormblade · TSR-9 Mastodon · TSR-7 Condor |
| TSR-21 Iluwatan · Cyclops AEWC · Roa-class Airship · TSR-9Y Stegomastodon · Landu-class Airship |
| Later Cold War aircraft: |
| W-15 Tamaris · TSR-12 White Spider · W-11 Bathawk · W-10 Chasmaporthetes · TSR-9 Mastodon · W-8 Aggressor · TSR-7 Condor · W-6 Stormfalcon |
| Early Cold War aircraft: |
| Soro Vulture · Tulani JetHammer · R-1 Serpent · T-2 Glaive · P-3 Battleaxe · SR-4 Vigilant |
| World War 2 aircraft: |
| Ramandu Cyclone · Tulani TwinHammer · Waris Sunhawk · Pauro Stingray · Tulani Trident |
| Soro Victory · Soro Valiant · Waris Sealion · Peerless-class Air Carrier |
| Inter-War aircraft: |
| Pauro Stormbird |
| World War 1 aircraft: |
| Ramandu Linsang · Pauro Feathered Dragon · Soro Shadow · Oequiyau Spanker |
| Overlord-class · Majestic-class · Echelon-class |
