Source: Technical Readout 3025
Mass: 65 tons
Frame: Wakazashi III
Engine: Shinobi 260
Armament:
1 Shigunga Long Range Missle 20 Rack
1 Diverse Optics Type 10 Large Laser
2 Diverse Optics Type 20 Medium Lasers
1 NCK "Thornbush" Short Range Missle 4 RackManufacturer: Wakazashi Enterprises
Communications System: Duoteck 100
Targeting and Tracking System: RCA Instatrac Mark XI
Overview:
The SL-17 Shilone is a medium fighter used throughout House Kurita's armed forces. Unusually large for a medium fighter, it carries an impressive array of weapons and is better-armored than most aerospace craft of its weight class. The Shilone is affectionately known as "the Boomerang" by its pilots, who often boast of their craft's capabilities.
Capabilities:
Though the Shilone is better-armed than some smaller heavy fighters, its defensive armor and tonnage put it in the medium class. The nose-mounted Shigunga LRM rack and Diverse Optics Type 10 large laser give the fighter real punch at distances most aerospace weapons systems cannot reach. At shorter ranges, the wing-mounted Diverse Optics Type 20 medium lasers add to the hitting potential of the Shilone's nose-mounted weapons. To the rear, the Shilone can fire its NCK "Thornbush" short-range missile rack to keep opponents at a distance.
Early models of the Shilone suffered from one major structural defect; they experienced severe wing rippling and other stress damage during high-powered atmospheric flight, which led to a number of fatal crashes caused by wing joint separations. After extensive tests, Wakazashi Enterprises rebuilt the wing joints with a new duroplastic alloy that provided the necessary resilience. By 2802, all operational Shilone fighters were refitted with these new wing joints and the problem has not recurred.