F-47 wins over some critics

The F-47 Light Fighter test programme is now in earnest and the ultra-cheap replacement for hundreds of ageing F-40s has surprised some HCSAF officials and even won over some critics. Early testing has found the simple fighter a very stable platform with excellent low-speed handling capabilities and is easy to fly. Such qualities are perfect for the secondary-world low-intensity operations which the F-47 is intended for (and for which the F-40, a fighter designed to dogfight with the DDS over Cloneworld, is not).

The F-47 is, in many ways, curiously old fashioned being a subsonic jet fighter with twin booms and unswept wings but is it very cheap and easy to fly and maintain and is thus perfect for the many secondary worlds in the CSE where an advanced jet fighter is not needed but something like the F-47 is.

• The Raegris have withdrawn their final RC-1 Rul'Taka cruiser. The old ship had been intended to remain in the training role until 2113 but extensive cracks in the reactor array meant it would be impossible to meet that without a new array and that was not economically viable.