One mercenary squadron operated harriers and sea harriers during the First utopian war. Because of this, the military leadership saw the great possibilities of VTOL aircraft. even before the war ended, they had bought an YAK-36, an YAK-38 and an harrier for testing duties. When the Freedom Forces were formed, The first idea was to buy the YAK-141, but the development was stopped. The JSF was out of the question, because the USA would not sell it, and it did not match the requirements of the FAF, so the only choice became an own design.
the requirements were an low supersonic (mach 1.2) aircraft that could operate both from ships and from land bases, could battle fighters, take out tanks and carry an reasonable bomb load. Of the tested planes, the harrier came the closest, but it was not fast enough. It was chosen as the base for the new aircraft.
this new aircraft, officially called VF-1, but most of the time called ‘vertfighter (1)’, looked much like an harrier from afar. The aircraft used an twin Pegasus engine, with afterburning aft nozzle. To ensure (part of) the safety when one engine failed in hover mode, the fans were linked together. So when one engine failed, 3 of the 4 nozzles kept working, while the aft 2 nozzles were close to each other and the centerline. This doesn’t helps when an engine is on fire or something like that, but it made possible to use this twin engine configuration safely.
Specifications:
Top speed: mach 1.2
Cruise speed: mach 0.8
Range: 2800 km
Combat range: 550 km
Ferry range: 3200 km
Arnament:
4 hardpoints, which can carry (for example):
- Gun pod
- Drop tank
- Unguided missile pod
- 3-pack light multirole missiles*
- Katana 0 AA missile
- Light multirole missile
*can only be equipped on the inner 2 pilons.
On paper, this aircraft is an highly capable unit that would give the FAF an power that could not be matched by many. The reality was different though: the fact is that this aircraft came years too late. It was operationally used in china in 2009 by the 66th special squadron, which got some astonishing results, but it was outclassed by air defense systems and by enemy aircraft. it’s project moved on though, and created the VF-2, which became operational in 2010. More about that one later on.
The 66th special squadron used the vertfighter 1 from 2005 till 2017. No other squadrons (apart from testing squadrons) used the aircraft, but on some special missions the aircraft was used for an short time.
