Vampire heavy fighter
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The (fictional) F-109 Vampire heavy fighter is a spaceplane in the Wing Commander computer game. It was introduced in the 2680s and proved to be an superb fighter.
The Vampire was a product of an era of military budget cuts; it did not receive many of the features of older fighters (such as auto-tracking guns). However, it did have vertically-articulating engine pod that greatly improved pitch and roll. It was still expensive, however, and could not be widely fielded.
The F-109A was the initial version and was armed with four tachyon cannon and two particle cannon. The legendary missile armament consisted of eight image-recognition missiles, eight IFF missiles and four MIRV rockets that each deployed four IFF missiles. In addition, they could be configured to replace the MIRVs with large unguided rockets; they could also be outfitted for the 'Wild Weasel' role, carrying eight anti-turret missiles and twelve im-rec missiles.
The F-109B appeared to be a small improvement over the F-109A, perhaps fixing any problems initially encountered with the original fighter.
The F-108S "Black" Vampire was an advanced version used in special operations missions. It featured improved shields, speed, armor, missile decoy stores and kill-power. The particle guns were replaced with rapid-firing pulse particle cannon and the missiles were of improved design. This version also saw use as an attack fighter; it carried four IFF and six im-rec missiles, four light torpedoes and 36 short-ranged guided rockets.
Finally, an unidentified variant has been seen deployed in the Krieger system; it carried two ion cannons as well as the traditional quadruple tachyon weapons. Its top speed, maneuverability, defensive rating, decoys and other statistics are unknown.
The Vampire performed superbly in the war against the Nephilim and proved a very flexible design. Squadrons of Vampires were more than capable of decimating many times their number of alien fighters without taking losses. However, the fighter is very sensitive to its controls and insufficiently experienced pilots may overcompensate. Curiously, the Tracker MIRV missiles will not detonate if the rocket hits something before separation -- this is a common complaint amongst pilots.