Kalistani Major History

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Months into new LWF program, KALMILINCO halts EF-18 research
Fundamental Design Flaws said to be primary culprits
Sulari, Suldanor
March 31, 5098


Speaker for Republican Aeroengineering division of KALMILINCO briefs reporters following briefing

At a public press briefing yesterday, spokespeople of the Republican Aeroengineering Division of KalMilInCo have announced that they are halting the design of the EF-18, which was to serve as the backbone of the newly reformed Kalistani Regular Airforce.

“As of today, we are halting the Experimental Fighter Program,” said spokesman Todd Gold, of the RAD. “We have a solid afterburner, which will meet our specs if we ever pick the project up again, but structural design flaws in the jet fighter will need to be addressed to make the craft serviceable at any speed, let alone the speeds we need to get anything close to what the Defense Ministry is looking for.”

Several scale models based on early blueprints disintegrated in recent wind tunnel simulations long before they should have. “Our aerodynamics produce a wild sheer along the fuselage that prevents the plane from remaining in tact at subsonic speeds,” said Gold. “Under no circumstances would the current design ever serve as anything more than an extremely expensive crop duster, and then it is likely that the stress on the plane would still be too great even then.”

Kalistani efforts to build a new fighter craft were initially met with fairly wide skepticism by a few of the world’s powers, and treated as a non-event by most others. “We will continue to look for ways to construct an Air Force, though, despite what leaders of the world say or do not say about it,” said Gold. He noted that engineers have uncovered an outdated aircraft similar to the EF-18 being used among a number of nations, most notably Hurori. “We will, within the next few weeks, launch a delegation to Hutori to talk to Federal Party of Hurori, who has long showed a positive attitude toward Kalistan, and who happens to own majority interest in the defense industry that used to build Hurricanes before they were replaced with newer F-35s. If we can make a deal with Horizon Technology that will keep us from having to re-invent the wheel, we can easily restart the experimental fighter program, and shut our critics up good.” Kalistan is also said to be continuing to work on electrical systems for whatever fighter they eventually do build, to include flight controls, targeting, reconnaissance, and communication. “There are literally thousands of systems operating in a single modern military aircraft. We have a handle in many of them from the civilian side, but we will need to actually invent new processes for many others. That is where we will focus our energy and resources for the time being.”

With the shelving of the EF program, Kalistan is set back in its ambition to join the family of nations with modern military equipment. But Kalistan remains undeterred. “Our strategic goal is to possess the power capable of turning even nuclear armed navies back at sea and to defend our skies from their aircraft. There is no time limit of this project, but we will complete it. We will work with anyone who wishes to work with us. It is a national obsession by now.”