The Arclight hearlds from the Medium starfighter group, which annals honor the Pulsar and the Arcangel. The medium starfighter is the work horse of the xellnen fleet. The role of the arclight is to provide a craft capable of dogfighting enemy strikcraft, absorbing a fair amount of damage, while being fast enough to run ahead of the fleet to cover point, and still be able to pack enough punch to harass capitol ships with moderate success.
Its predessor, the Arcangel, was starting to lack the ability to properly harass the increasingly larger enemy capitol ships. While the aging Valkyrie fleets were able to handle the large enemy capitol ships, the newer enemy strikecraft were running cirlces around them, much the same way a cat plays with a mouse. So, the design teams needed to create a vessel that packed the firepower to hammer large capitol vessels but also be agile enough to combat the new mosquito like fighters deployed by the enemy fleets.
So, to solve this unquine problem, Xellnen fleet command created what was to be called the "Integrated Joint Design Protocol". The IJDP was basically two or more teams that each produced a fighter along a certain set of guidelines, then when the design was completed, the highpoints of each designed would be fused into one single, supposedly superior design.
Out of the orginal three designs, the chassis of the first team was chosen for its good center of gravity... high mobility... and nice overall weapon and armor attributes. The thrid team had incorperated a gun design that had two modes of fire, gatling and linked. The gatling mode allowed the five barrelled weapon to fire a stream of rounds that are proven deadly to strikecraft. With the large amounts of rounds fired it makes engaging fighters easier. The gatling mode also allows for an increased ground attack capability and harassment skill by allowing the fight to strafe. The secondary mode of fire linked the five barrels simitneously... creating a high powered round ideal for engaging easy to hit but hard to damage capitol ships.
' However the most influencial part of the ship came from the second team. The second team was experimenting with advanced smart fullerinian compisite alloys that had an amorphous solid characteristic qualitity to it. This means that the material is able to change its shape by simple electo-stimulus. This ability allowed for many improvements to the fighter. For one, the gun and missile ports could be covered and sealed without a seem making a much stronger outside hull. It also allows the lower hull to deform itself to simulate landing struts... thus making more room internally.
However the most advantegous advance of this alloy was its inclusion in the pseudo-wings. The wings are now able to change shape and configuration rapidly... making different wing configurations feasible. For silent approachs it can switch into an ornathopter like mode where the wings "flap" or deform to catch as much cosmic radiation as possible. The wings also will "throw" mass rapidly in one direction allowing the Arclight to turn rapidly.
While the arclight has proven to be a highly effective fighter... there are still large gaps in the fleet under the other two roles. While the fleet still lacks a modern light fighter the medium fighter crews are forced to work harder to pick up the gap. Thus Xellnen strikecraft operations are only up to 91% standard efficiency.
Forerunning...
Due to the massive success of the arclight design, the designs for the current Heavy fighter, the HASIS-001 "Mantis", were largly taken from the arclight program.
The SpecOP division even has its own Wing of special arclights codenamed "Hermes Class". The hermes class basically guts the torpedo bay and missile magazines and replaces them with a massive engine assembly. The twin five barreled Energy pulse cannons are replaced by three barreled ones, and Slip Nacels have been hardmounted to the fusalage. As a result, the Hermes Class is the fastest ship deployed by any known fleet.
