A new series that explains the mechanics of battleships that appear in the rebooted Space Battleship Yamato series, from Yamato 2199 to REBEL 3199. The fourth installment covers the Cosmo Tiger II, the main fighter of the Earth Defense Force, which Susumu Kodai also piloted in Chapter 2, Red Sun Sortie. How far has it evolved from previous carrier-based fighters such as the Cosmo Falcon? We’ll take a closer look at its performance.
Commentary by Yuka Minagawa
A: Specifications and performance
Model: Space fighter attack aircraft
Name: Cosmo Tiger II
Length: 16.6m
Height: 2.9m
Width: 8.8m
Main engine: 2 composite radial Cosmo engines
Crew: 1
Armament
8 x 30mm pulse laser cannons (inside the wings)
10 x 12.7mm machine guns (nose)
6 x missiles (anti-ship, anti-aircraft, anti-surface missiles; change depending on the mission) (under the wings, left and right fuselage)
B: High mobility unit
The high mobility unit of the aircraft deployed on the Space Navy ships in 2207 has been changed from two under both wings to one in the fuselage. Although there are no changes to the appearance, it has been improved, and one unit provides the same mobility as the mass-produced Cosmo Tiger II of the early days.
C: Kodai’s aircraft
The aircraft deployed on the Asuka-class supply carrier Asuka has a red-painted vertical tail. Lieutenant Colonel Susumu Kodai, who transferred from Yamato to Asuka, rejoins Yamato in this aircraft.
D: Air Force specifications
The ground-based Cosmo Tiger II has a composite radial Cosmo engine and various adjustments have been made to operate in atmosphere.
E: Initial deployment aircraft
Mass-produced and deployed from 2202, it has been used in various fields even after the end of the Gatlantis War. There is no difference in the appearance of the aircraft deployed to each ground force.
The Cosmo Tiger II was officially adopted as part of the Earth Federation Defense Force’s CT Plan (next-generation main carrier-based tactical fighter attack aircraft plan), which was devised as part of the Wave-Motion Gun fleet concept after the end of the Garmillas War. CT stands for “main carrier-based tactical” = Cosmo Tactical, but engineers and test pilots are said to have applied the nickname “Cosmo Tiger.”
The CT Project required an aircraft with high maneuverability and versatility. Several aircraft were developed as prototypes, and the Cosmo Tiger I was no exception. However, the handling characteristics were described as extreme, and the biplane design was used to carry as much armament as possible, which made the aircraft large, raising questions about its operational performance as a carrier-based aircraft.
Unlike its competitors, the Cosmo Tiger II was completed as a very well-balanced aircraft. The required maneuverability was achieved by installing a high-mobility unit as standard equipment. The high-mobility unit was optional on previous aircraft such as the Type 052 Space Carrier Fighter Cosmo Zero. This gave the Cosmo Tiger II a combat performance far superior to that of the Type 99 Cosmo Falcon, which was officially adopted at the end of the Garmillas War.
In terms of versatility, it was designed to allow flexible operational action, and large armaments were installed on the pylons under the wings as external equipment.
From the beginning, it was also considered that this requirement could be met by developing variant types. The types that were planned included a two-seater attack-specialized type, a torpedo type, an electronic warfare aircraft, a reconnaissance aircraft, and an anti-fortress attack aircraft. Some of these were only conceptual, while others had been designed and some were actually mass-produced and deployed in combat.
The most well-known variant is the torpedo type (Cosmo Tiger II B). The torpedo type was tuned for protective field characteristics, and was made capable of two different missions: anti-ship attacks (torpedoes + anti-ship missiles) and ground attacks (ground missiles + cosmo bombs). The two-seater cockpit accommodates the pilot and torpedo operator, and the powered gun turret added to the back of the aircraft is operated by a single gunner. The single-seater’s nose machine guns were moved to the underside of the aircraft, four guns per gunpod, due to the expansion of the cockpit. Instead, a positron machine gun has been newly installed in the nose.
During the Battle of Saturn in the Gatlantis War, some of the advanced production models were first deployed in actual combat as part of the Andromeda-class vanguard carrier Antares, and were also carried aboard Yamato during the final decisive battle.
Cosmo Tiger II production began in 2202, but due to delays in establishing a mass production system, the Cosmo Falcon was installed on ships commissioned in the early Gatlantis War under the concept of a Wave-Motion Gun fleet. However, after mass production got on track at the beginning of the new year, it gradually replaced previous models as the main aircraft of the space navy. In addition, due to its high operational performance both inside and outside atmosphere, it is also used by the air force and other Earth defense forces as of 2207.
During the Garmillas War, Earth’s space aircraft technology was at a high level, able to compete with the space fighters of the Great Garmillas Empire. The Cosmo Tiger II inherited this and became a highly refined aircraft.