The Macross Valkyrie Thread

[Seto Kaiba]

Variable Fighter Master File VF-31AX Kairos Plus dropped the other day.

It's actually good, and offers some interesting insights into the origin of the VF-31AX and its technology as well as the concept of the 6th Generation Valkyrie.

[False Prophet]

Has the NUNS or any colonial fleet adopted a bad weapon platform in Macross? One of my favorite hobbies these days is to read about the drama around military weapon procurement, and one theme that keep popping up is terrible weapons being adopted because of group interests, or their development became a mess out of political and bureaucratic decisions. Like, I recently heard a podcast mentioned a passing that the US Army is trying to make a new radio, but the prototypes gave soldiers second-degree burn because the batteries became too hot.

[Seto Kaiba]

Has the NUNS or any colonial fleet adopted a bad weapon platform in Macross? One of my favorite hobbies these days is to read about the drama around military weapon procurement, and one theme that keep popping up is terrible weapons being adopted because of group interests, or their development became a mess out of political and bureaucratic decisions. Like, I recently heard a podcast mentioned a passing that the US Army is trying to make a new radio, but the prototypes gave soldiers second-degree burn because the batteries became too hot.

Not as such, no.

Presumably because the stakes are so much higher, the New UN Government and its various member states seem to put a lot more effort into the development of new weapons and evaluating their practicality before they get put into mass production and formally adopted by the armed forces. That's not to say problems don't happen, but they're usually either caught before production or occur for different reasons:

Stonewell and Bellcom's VF-3000 is known to have been a problematic design, but it never made it past the trial production phase when testing discovered that scaling up the VF-1's airframe had introduced a number of mechanical problems including a tendency of its joints to slip unexpectedly.

Shinsei Industry's VF-19 is also known to have been problematic, though not for any reasons connected to bureaucracy or latent design defects. It cleared every requirement the New UN Forces had for their next main fighter and demonstrated amazing performance and reliability. The problems came when the New UN Forces made the decision to formally adopt the VF-19A as the next main fighter, took delivery of the first lot of VF-19 production units, and started model conversion training with a few squadrons on Earth. A pattern of training accidents linked to pilots losing control of the aircraft under high g-force loads quickly emerged and Shinsei's staff came to the collective realization that the aircraft had never really been subjected to the "Average Joe" test. The VF-19 demonstrated incredible performance in the hands of the finest test pilots in the service, but it had so much power and its handling was so sensitive that average pilots couldn't operate it safely. The New UN Forces halted plans to adopt the VF-19A due to the string of accidents, repurposed the VF-19 as a special forces VF, and subsequently solicited bids from the defense industry for a less-extreme 4th Generation VF design (a competition that would be won by General Galaxy's VF-171).

Shinsei Industry, LAI, and Macross Frontier's YF-29 proved to be an incredibly problematic aircraft too, but only because it was essentially impossible to mass produce. The YF-29's Fold Wave System provides amazing performance beyond any other 5th Generation VF. So much so that later works have attempted to retroactively reclassify it as the first 6th Generation prototype. Where it ran into problems is that it was impossible for its manufacturer to build another one because the only place to obtain fold quartz of the required size and purity was the carcass of a Vajra semi-queen. Master File asserts that this left the Frontier fleet's YF-29 a one-of-a-kind aircraft in practice, that the subsequent YF-29B has lower performance, and that the attempt to make a mass production-worthy YF-29 using synthetic substitutes failed miserably with the Fold Wave System on that model (YF-29C) being able to produce only 1% of the output of the Frontier fleet's version.

Per Master File, the VF-31 Siegfried is another problematic design. Again, not for bureaucratic reasons, but because of a major oversight in the course of its design process. When the Shinsei-LAI-Bharat-Hiotori joint venture Surya Aerospace developed the VF-31 Kairos, they made a number of changes to the YF-30 design aimed at improving its cost-performance. This included switching from molecular bonding to rivets as the method for attaching the armor to the frame. This made the armor plating separable from the frame, improving ease of maintenance and replacement, but adding weight and making the individual modules of the VF-31 less structurally resilient. When Xaos Valkyrie Works modified trial production VF-31As to make the VF-31 Siegfried type used by Xaos's Delta Flight, they revised the function of the Inertia Store Converter to extend the inertia capacitor's operation from the cockpit to the entire airframe. They also changed its discharge mode from a continuous low-level discharge to a higher level dump of g's when the relative g-load on the aircraft hit zero. On its own, this design change to the ISC had the unintended consequence of making the ISC provide less g-force damping in total. It also had an unfortunate and unforeseen interaction with the aforementioned structural design changes made on the production-intent VF-31 Kairos. By switching from molecular bonding to rivets, frame rigidity was reduced because the armor was less able to structurally reinforce the frame of the aircraft. With the ISC's function extended to the entire airframe and dumping spikes of non-colinear g-forces onto the airframe whenever the g-load dropped, the ISC was applying significant amounts of torque to a less-rigid airframe and increasing the rate of structural fatigue. That the Siegfreid type adopted much more powerful engines than the standard only made the problem worse. That's why the Siegfrieds - esp. Hayate's - have a much higher maintenance requirement in the series and why Hayate gets chastised for his flying style leaving his fighter "all beat up".

Again per Master File, the VF-31AX Kairos Plus was a VERY problematic aircraft. Not for bureaucratic reasons, but because it was an improvised repair and upgrade. Master File explains it a bit differently and in far more detail. In its version, the Kairos Plus is a Siegfried improved with hardware developed for a 6th Generation experimental aircraft built on the design of the VF-31 Siegfried codenamed VF-31X. Its various improvements and new technologies were applied in an incomplete and improvised manner when appropriated to repair the battle-damaged Delta Flight Siegfrieds, with the result being an unstable and poorly balanced aircraft with a lot of unresolved design and technical issues. So much so that the VF-31AX units suffered unrecoverable breakdowns after their first and only time being operated at full power and were scrapped.

EDIT: Switched from a list to paragraphs to break up the wall 'o text.

[Seto Kaiba]

Has the NUNS or any colonial fleet adopted a bad weapon platform in Macross? One of my favorite hobbies these days is to read about the drama around military weapon procurement, and one theme that keep popping up is terrible weapons being adopted because of group interests, or their development became a mess out of political and bureaucratic decisions. Like, I recently heard a podcast mentioned a passing that the US Army is trying to make a new radio, but the prototypes gave soldiers second-degree burn because the batteries became too hot.

It occurred to me earlier that there is one clear example of political/bureaucratic meddling mentioned in the development of a particularly important Valkyrie.

In the "VF Evolutionary Theory" article by Masahiro Chiba in Great Mechanics DX 9, it's mentioned that after first contact with the Vajra in 2040 the New UN Government originally considered improving the VF-19 with an Inertia Store Converter instead of rushing into development of a new generation of Variable Fighters via the YF-24 program. It was ultimately decided that, while it was economical to improve the VF-19 with an ISC, new development was preferable for economic reasons and because there was a concern that an upgraded VF-19 would not be able to keep pace with the Vajra's outstanding mobility. This bureaucratic decision led to Shinsei and General Galaxy's codevelopment of the original YF-24 "Camel" prototype that would ultimately be abandoned because the ISC technology was insufficiently mature to achieve the desired result, then Shinsei's revival of the design as the YF-24 Evolution nearly a decade later, Earth's VF-24, and all the emigrant government VFs derived from it including the VF-25, YF-26, VF-27, YF-29, YF-30, VF-31, Sv-262, and Sv-303.

(Technically the VF-31A Kairos also exists because of bureaucratic/political decisions. The economic and mutual-defense pact called the Brisingr Alliance had considerable difficulty growing its economy in large part due to its remoteness and the number of fold faults making it difficult to travel to/from that region of space. Rather than purchase a license to locally manufacture a Valkyrie from a developer outside the cluster, their member governments ultimately decided to have local branches of various developers form a joint venture (Surya Aerospace) to develop a new VF in the cluster itself that could then be sold as an export model to the other NUNG member states that hadn't yet decided on a 5th Generation Valkyrie. That's how they ended up with the VF-31 instead of buying a monkey model VF-24 or VF-25.

[False Prophet]

It occurred to me earlier that there is one clear example of political/bureaucratic meddling mentioned in the development of a particularly important Valkyrie.

In the "VF Evolutionary Theory" article by Masahiro Chiba in Great Mechanics DX 9, it's mentioned that after first contact with the Vajra in 2040 the New UN Government originally considered improving the VF-19 with an Inertia Store Converter instead of rushing into development of a new generation of Variable Fighters via the YF-24 program. It was ultimately decided that, while it was economical to improve the VF-19 with an ISC, new development was preferable for economic reasons and because there was a concern that an upgraded VF-19 would not be able to keep pace with the Vajra's outstanding mobility. This bureaucratic decision led to Shinsei and General Galaxy's codevelopment of the original YF-24 "Camel" prototype that would ultimately be abandoned because the ISC technology was insufficiently mature to achieve the desired result, then Shinsei's revival of the design as the YF-24 Evolution nearly a decade later, Earth's VF-24, and all the emigrant government VFs derived from it including the VF-25, YF-26, VF-27, YF-29, YF-30, VF-31, Sv-262, and Sv-303.

(Technically the VF-31A Kairos also exists because of bureaucratic/political decisions. The economic and mutual-defense pact called the Brisingr Alliance had considerable difficulty growing its economy in large part due to its remoteness and the number of fold faults making it difficult to travel to/from that region of space. Rather than purchase a license to locally manufacture a Valkyrie from a developer outside the cluster, their member governments ultimately decided to have local branches of various developers form a joint venture (Surya Aerospace) to develop a new VF in the cluster itself that could then be sold as an export model to the other NUNG member states that hadn't yet decided on a 5th Generation Valkyrie. That's how they ended up with the VF-31 instead of buying a monkey model VF-24 or VF-25.

So, with the Vajra threat subsided, is there any chance the VF-19 with ISC will return? Or have the VF-24 and its derivatives established such a strong foothold that even anyone who still have a substantial number of VF-19 (as opposed to the VF-171 or drone fighters) will just simply buy the 5th gen?

Also, other than the structural problem, did the Master Archive mention anything more about the expandability of the VF-31?

And has any information about the YF-26 come out?

[azrael]

So, with the Vajra threat subsided, is there any chance the VF-19 with ISC will return? Or have the VF-24 and its derivatives established such a strong foothold that even anyone who still have a substantial number of VF-19 (as opposed to the VF-171 or drone fighters) will just simply buy the 5th gen?

The decision to skip the VF-19 had very little to do with the Vajra (read, nil). Most fleets were fine with upgrading to the VF-171 in their modernization programs. Many fleets would not buy 5th-gen fighters until they needed that upgrade anyways. With lower-than-expected purchases, it wouldn't be economical to spend the development money trying to make ISC work in a VF-19 or deal with the maintenance costs that came with a system that the VF-19 was never intended to use or take advantage of. A fleet may try to make an ISC system work in a VF-19, but it is not cost-effective to do so.

[Seto Kaiba]

So, with the Vajra threat subsided, is there any chance the VF-19 with ISC will return?

Given the sheer size and diversity of the New UN Government, the probability is nonzero... but it's still very unlikely.

The main reason it's so unlikely is that the VF-19 was never widely adopted by the New UN Forces. Its high initial cost and high cost of operation would have made it difficult for many emigrant governments to upgrade to the VF-19 had plans to adopt it gone forward. Earth's New UN Forces scrapped their plans to adopt the VF-19 after the first round of model conversion training resulted in an unacceptably high accident rate and plans for widespread adoption already kneecapped by that decision were terminated outright when the New UN Government tightened arms export restrictions in the wake of the Sharon Apple incident. Between the controllability issues, arms export restrictions, and high price tag, many fleets simply didn't bother with the VF-19 and the ones that did were only able to adopt reduced-capability versions ("Monkey models") in small numbers and with their own proprietary technology filling in the gaps. These decisions regarding the VF-19 being unfit for purpose as the 4th Generation main variable fighter were what led to a second round of design solicitations and the selection of the less extreme and substantially less-expensive VF-171 Nightmare Plus as the 4th Generation main fighter.

The VF-19 effectively got demoted to a Special Forces VF as a result.

Or have the VF-24 and its derivatives established such a strong foothold that even anyone who still have a substantial number of VF-19 (as opposed to the VF-171 or drone fighters) will just simply buy the 5th gen?

So, there's the catch... NOBODY has a substantial number of VF-19s.

The aforementioned difficulties in adopting the VF-19 as next main fighter and its replacement in that capacity by the VF-171 mean that most fleets have few, if any, VF-19s. We're talking single-digit numbers in most of the cases we know about. The Macross Frontier fleet is the one outlier, having 156 domestically-made VF-19EFs between its Round Table special forces unit and its local SMS branch. Even then, those were mainly just built as a way to collect data for the early development of the YF-25 by outfitting them with EX-Gear.

With the VF-171 and the AIF-7 Ghost being the standard, anyone looking to upgrade is far more likely to look at adopting a 5th Generation design rather than a now-decades-old 4th Generation design that needs to be retrofitted with 5th Generation technology to be viable. The 5th Generation designs would also be somewhat more attractive from the perspective that they include design measures that reduce the amount of time and resources needed for maintenance, like abolishing many of the delicate moving parts via linear actuators.

Also, other than the structural problem, did the Master Archive mention anything more about the expandability of the VF-31?

In what sense?

Surya Aerospace developed the VF-31 domestically within the Brisingr globular cluster to be a highly cost-effective 5th Generation main VF. By design, it has as few variants as it possibly can. The ordnance container system is meant to allow the VF-31 to seamlessly transition between roles without the need for specialized variants, making any VF-31 a "jack of all trades" unit and keeping as much of the VF-31's pool of replacement parts as common as possible.

Officially, there's really just the one kind of VF-31. The VF-31A/B Kairos is the production model and there are no others known except for possibly the VF-31D Skuld trainer that's never actually appeared outside of one model kit. The VF-31 Siegfried and VF-31AX Kairos Plus are "aftermarket" customizations that Xaos made by modifying a few of the trial production VF-31As entrusted to them for operational evaluation. The VF-31AX Kairos Plus is an improvised field repair only.

Master File presents a few different versions of the VF-31:

• VF-31 Kairos - the 5th Generation mass-production type intended to become the next main fighter of the New UN Government economic and defense pact known as the Brisingr Alliance. Effectively about on par with the VF-25 for performance.
• VF-31S Siegfried - a 5.5th Generation very limited production Special Forces variant effectively the same as the officially one-of-a-kind VF-31S used by Arad Molders in Macross Delta.
• VF-31AX Kairos Plus - an improvised field repair for Delta Flight's battle-damaged VF-31 Siegfrieds using parts drawn from a 6th Generation experimental VF codenamed VF-31X. Allegedly dubbed "Kairos Plus" and designated VF-31AX after the fact because its poor performance and reliability left the VF-31X's developer unwilling to have it associated with their next-gen project.
• VF-31X - Not actually a VF-31. An experimental 6th Generation VF design that used the VF-31 as a starting point for its design and codenamed "VF-31X" for simplicity's sake. Like the YF-29 before it, basically a huge waste of everyone's time and money that can't be produced in even small numbers because the fold quartz needed just isn't available.

And has any information about the YF-26 come out?

No, partly because the YF-26 never really came out either... it was a failed prototype mentioned in Master File that was developed as part of an inter-fleet codevelopment pact called Project Triangler. The Macross Frontier fleet contributed the YF-25, the Macross Olympia fleet contributed the YF-26, and Macross Galaxy the YF-27. The winning design from this competition was to be adopted by all three fleets... though the Galaxy fleet's participation was in bad faith and they used the program as a way to steal development data from the Frontier fleet's YF-29 to complete their VF-27 and Olympia's YF-26 dropped out of the program, leaving the Frontier fleet's YF-25 as the winner-by-default.

[DragoMaster009]

I don't know if that particular machine has been brought up before on this thread, but what else can you tell use about the VF-31X?

[Seto Kaiba]

I don't know if that particular machine has been brought up before on this thread, but what else can you tell use about the VF-31X?

It hasn't. Long story short, the VF-31X is an invention of Master File's writers for the recently-released Variable Fighter Master File: VF-31AX Kairos Plus. It was introduced to fill in a sizable plot hole in the story of Macross Delta: Absolute Live!!!!!! regarding Xaos being able to not only repair but upgrade their battle-damaged VF-31 Siegfrieds on short notice and while on the run.

Contrary to what its informal designation might imply, the VF-31X is neither a production Valkyrie nor a VF-31. It's an experimental 6th Generation Valkyrie that was developed using the Master File version of the VF-31S as a starting point.

Master File has tried to retroactively reclassify the YF-29 and YF-30 as 6th Generation VF prototypes and address the elephant in the room regarding why such an amazingly powerful design hasn't been produced in numbers by anyone. Their explanation is the obvious one... the scarcity of fold quartz. The YF-29 derives its amazing performance from its Fold Wave System, a dimensional resonance effect system that requires a very large amount of very high purity fold quartz to function. The required size and purity of the fold quartz needed is such that the Frontier fleet was only ever to complete the one prototype because the fold quartz needed is something that can only be obtained from Vajra queen forms. This frustrated the New UN Government's attempts to reproduce the YF-29. Earth's New UN Forces were able to develop the YF-29B Perceval, a unit which is technologically higher-spec than the original YF-29 but still has lower performance because it uses less, and less pure, fold quartz due to scarcity. Even then, fold quartz of the required purity and size was so rare that the YF-29B had a production rate of only a few aircraft per year. Master File also introduced the YF-29C to explain what happens when you try to make do with synthetic alternatives... they built YF-29s using the highest purity fold carbon available, even engaging the services of a jeweler to handpick the very finest pieces, and were only able to achieve approximately 1% of the performance of the original YF-29's fold wave system.

This, of course, was a Problem. The potential of a 6th Generation VF was too good to ignore, but actually mass producing them was a pipe dream.

Surya Aerospace attempted to break this deadlock between material requirements and performance by experimenting with ways to do more with less. Master File reframes the existence of the VF-31 Siegfried that was developed with Xaos Valkyrie Works as a first step towards this goal. It adopted reduced-capability versions of the YF-30's FF-3001/FC2 engines and YF-29's fold wave system using less and lower purity fold quartz. The experiment was nominally a success. The Siegfried's Fold Wave System was economical enough that they could produce multiple units but the performance improvement was only 15% and the reduction in the size and quality of fold quartz made the unit dependent on an external fold wave source for activation. The VF-31X was the next step in that development process. It was an extensively modified VF-31 airframe that adopted a four engine configuration similar to the YF-29's and a number of new technologies and design changes meant to address shortcomings discovered during testing like aforementioned problem of the ISC damaging the frame. Very little is known about it, and the few picture of it are mainly presented as artist's impressions of it. We know that its development hit the same roadblock the YF-29's did... where the amount and purity of the fold quartz needed to make it viable was enough to make it impractical to mass produce. The VF-31AX Kairos Plus is presented as a hasty appropriation of VF-31X parts that were intended to be used to upgrade Delta Flight's VF-31 Siegfrieds to the VF-31X test specification to make them combat-ready again, and that the haphazard application of the upgrades to repair battle damage and omissions of various improvements left the performance so far below the mark and so unreliable that its developer insisted it be designated something else so the defense department wouldn't assume it was representative of the actual VF-31X.

[False Prophet]

So, there's the catch... NOBODY has a substantial number of VF-19s.

The aforementioned difficulties in adopting the VF-19 as next main fighter and its replacement in that capacity by the VF-171 mean that most fleets have few, if any, VF-19s. We're talking single-digit numbers in most of the cases we know about. The Macross Frontier fleet is the one outlier, having 156 domestically-made VF-19EFs between its Round Table special forces unit and its local SMS branch. Even then, those were mainly just built as a way to collect data for the early development of the YF-25 by outfitting them with EX-Gear.

With the VF-171 and the AIF-7 Ghost being the standard, anyone looking to upgrade is far more likely to look at adopting a 5th Generation design rather than a now-decades-old 4th Generation design that needs to be retrofitted with 5th Generation technology to be viable. The 5th Generation designs would also be somewhat more attractive from the perspective that they include design measures that reduce the amount of time and resources needed for maintenance, like abolishing many of the delicate moving parts via linear actuators.

Oh yeah, I forgot we've talked about this before, but not on the specific of how the 5th gen are simpler to maintain than the VF-19. The VF-24 and 25 definitely beat the VF-171 when it comes to cost-to-performance ratio, right?

In what sense?

Unless Kawamori decides that human can now make Fold Quartz, we're not gonna see the 6th gen be the centerpiece of the next Macross, or at least not the good guys' starting machine. So I wonder if the VF-31 shows up next time, what new things can we expect from it? The FAST pack and Armored Valkyrie had already been shown. Maybe we'll finally see the VF-24, YF-29B and YF-30 in action next time. But I'd pay to see the VF-9 finally be animated, or the VF-4, 5000 and 11 to have just one good fight.

[Seto Kaiba]

Oh yeah, I forgot we've talked about this before, but not on the specific of how the 5th gen are simpler to maintain than the VF-19.

Not just simpler to maintain, but more durable as well... the linear actuator abolished a lot of the most delicate and failure-prone components and in so doing reduced maintenance requirements and made VFs less likely to break down due to damage.

The VF-24 and 25 definitely beat the VF-171 when it comes to cost-to-performance ratio, right?

It's hard to say for sure... and cost-performance is far from the only factor in play.

To beat an old cliche to death, General Galaxy's VF-171 wasn't what the New UN Forces initially wanted in a 4th Generation Valkyrie but it was absolutely the 4th Generation Valkyrie they needed. It offered all of the same technological advancements that Project Super Nova mandated in a package that handily exceeded the performance of previous-gen fighters without being overkill, boasted the rugged durability of a proven design, with easy handling that allowed even average pilots to draw out its full potential, and exceptional multirole adaptability via modular armaments and equipment.

5th Generation VFs were more expensive, but they made up for the difference with a variety of improvements. Linear actuator technology abolished many of the most delicate moving parts and reduced VF maintenance requirements while improving overall durability. EX-Gear and the ARIEL II integrated control AI reduced training times and made VF operation noticeably more intuitive to the extent of being described as equivalent to the feeling of "wearing" the VF. They offered significantly better performance without the drawback of loss-of-control problems thanks to Inertia Store Converter systems, and the improved materials and the greater energy output of the engines improved their defensive potential and overall survivability by increasing the strength of energy conversion armor and allowing it to run at a limited level in Fighter mode.

The cost-benefit analysis is probably a wash in the short term for fleets that are not under threat or operating in dangerous areas, but upgrading offers significant tangible and intangible benefits in the mid-to-long term in terms of reduced training costs, increased survivability, increased ease of repair, and so on.

Unless Kawamori decides that human can now make Fold Quartz, we're not gonna see the 6th gen be the centerpiece of the next Macross, or at least not the good guys' starting machine. So I wonder if the VF-31 shows up next time, what new things can we expect from it? The FAST pack and Armored Valkyrie had already been shown. Maybe we'll finally see the VF-24, YF-29B and YF-30 in action next time. But I'd pay to see the VF-9 finally be animated, or the VF-4, 5000 and 11 to have just one good fight.

Trying to guess Kawamori's future plans is a complete boondoggle... I wouldn't even try.

The past two shows have shown the very earliest phases of introducing 5th Generation VFs to various governments. I'd assume that if the timeline continues to march forward we'll probably start to see governments that have already adopted a mass production 5th Generation main VF like Windermere IV did. The Frontier fleet was supposed to formally adopt the VF-25 in 2060 and Master File suggests that multiple governments including Frontier's got the transition process underway starting in the early-to-mid 2060s. The Brisingr Alliance New UN Forces were supposedly 1-2 years from adopting the VF-31A in Macross Delta's TV series, so we could expect they'd start to transition to that new design and begin exporting it sometime c.2069. 5th Generation VFs are likely to be the standard for at least a couple decades... possibly into the early 22nd century.

[Seto Kaiba]

I can't remember that particular piece of info coming up on this forum, but in a brief summary, what's a 6th Generation VF supposed to be?

I don't think I've actually mentioned it here in any significant detail... I know some of the Macross-minded folks were following my ramblings on the topic on MacrossWorld.

If I were to sum the 6th Generation Variable Fighters up in one word, it would be "problematic".

Certain materials produced for Macross Delta incl. Master File and the Blu-ray extra features have effectively retconned the YF-29 and YF-30 into being 6th Generation prototypes as a part of their effort to talk up the VF-31 Custom "Siegfried" used by that show's protagonists. Previously, in Macross Frontier's materials, the YF-29 and YF-30 were presented as 5th Generation super-prototypes that were simply too impractical for production.

We don't have a complete picture of the military's requirements for the 6th Generation yet, but the one feature that seems to be present in all of the 5.5th Gen and 6th Gen designs we've seen is some form of performance-enhancing system based on fold wave resonance. The YF-29's fold wave system was the ur-example, but we've since seen modified versions in the YF-30's fold dimensional resonance system and VF-31 Custom's scaled-down fold wave system, as well as a more limited take in the Sv-262's fold reheat and a radical all-encompassing approach in the Sv-303's twin quartz drive and mirage package. Other technologies that've come up in the limited discussion of 6th Gen VFs as new include things like a new generation of ARIEL airframe control AI, the adoption of directionally-strong energy conversion armor materials in the aircraft's structural frame, using an inertia store converter to shield the whole aircraft from g-forces not just the cockpit, and some more mundane material improvements and a definite predisposition for four-engine configurations with one pair being on the wingtips and mounted to rotate.

The 5.5th and 6th Generations are discussed in the most detail in Master File, which is currently the ONLY source of information for the new designs in Macross Delta: Absolute Live!!!!!!. That book, however, has the writers go way out of their way to paint 6th Generation VFs as fundamentally unworkable. The reason is material scarcity. Those fold wave resonance systems require fold quartz of greater size and purity than what's used in the inertia store converter. Fold quartz so large and so pure that it's vanishingly rare. So much so that Macross Delta's materials argue that the Frontier fleet's YF-29 is essentially IMPOSSIBLE to reproduce in full because the fold quartz they used in it was some of the purest ever found and is only available in the bodies of Vajra queen forms. Subsequent attempts to duplicate the YF-29 achieved lower performance since their available fold quartz was of lesser (but still exceptionally high) quality, and that the purity of the fold quartz commonly available would net only a tiny tiny fraction of the output, with humanity's very best synthetic material (fold carbon) managing 1% of the Frontier YF-29's performance improvement at best. The 6th Generation was painted as an unachievable pipe dream with current technology due to cost and the inability to synthesize or secure a supply of fold quartz of the requisite purity.

... and then the VF-31AX Master File dropped and explained that the new VF-31 Custom in Absolute Live!!!!!! is a field repair of Delta Flight's battle-damaged VF-31 Custom Siegfrieds with parts from a 6th Gen prototype program codenamed "VF-31X". The Siegfrieds were supposed to be gradually retrofitted to the VF-31X specification, but the rushed retrofit performed so poorly the VF-31X's developer demanded they not call the custom aircraft "VF-31X" for fear of tainting the 6th Generation program's reputation.

[False Prophet]

You know, all this thought about Fold Quartz and Vajra makes me want to ask this: Can you clone a Vajra like you can with human?

Also, I imagine getting a complete DNA sample of a Vajra queen is nigh impossible, but what if they can do that? Has humanity reached the level of technology to allow them to locate the DNA sequences that allow Vajra to produce Fold Quartz, extract them using genetic splicing, and then implement the process onto another bio form?

[Seto Kaiba]

You know, all this thought about Fold Quartz and Vajra makes me want to ask this: Can you clone a Vajra like you can with human?

Possibly? Though because the refinement of fold quartz is a biological process carried out by the Vajra Queen and it's carried by the V-type bacterium, cloning a Vajra form would likely just produce a mindless feral animal with no means to connect to the Vajra bio-fold wave hive mind.

Mind you, a project like that would almost certainly be illegal under the New UN Government. They imposed strict controls on cloning technology from the outset and banned many applications of the technology for either health or ethics reasons. The creation of clones for military use is one such prohibited action. I'd imagine cloning an intelligent life form for "biological resources" (e.g. organ harvesting) is probably also wildly illegal.

Trying to keep a high-order Vajra form captive is also probably a distinctly unhealthy idea. Not just because the V-type bacterium that makes their hive mind work is a lethal infectious disease to humanoids either. The last time the Vajra (incorrectly) thought Humans were holding a baby Vajra Queen (actually Ranka Lee) captive, they attacked the emigrant fleet holding what they believed was one of their own repeatedly and nearly destroyed that extremely well-equipped fleet while shrugging off the best weapons one of the most advanced and powerful fleets had to offer. (Except in the movie, where they completely destroyed one fleet and nearly destroyed another, all without really trying hard.) It's safe to say that trying to keep a real Vajra Queen captive would be a fantastically terrible idea that would probably get everyone killed when the Vajra show up to take that captured queen home.

Also, I imagine getting a complete DNA sample of a Vajra queen is nigh impossible, but what if they can do that? Has humanity reached the level of technology to allow them to locate the DNA sequences that allow Vajra to produce Fold Quartz, extract them using genetic splicing, and then implement the process onto another bio form?

It's a very safe bet that at least two emigrant fleets had or have DNA samples from Vajra queen forms like the semi-queens that command Vajra warships.

Considering how much of Vajra behavior and biology is tied up in their bio-fold wave hive mind, it may not be as simple as finding a DNA sequence and grafting it into something else. Humanity has had the technology to synthesize fold carbon since the 2000s, but even almost thirty years after first contact with the Vajra in 2040 the process to refine fold carbon into even poor-quality fold quartz eludes them. We know the Protoculture's science eventually achieved the ability to synthesize fold quartz at very high levels of purity, but humanity clearly has a ways to go before reaching that level.

[False Prophet]

Say, beside the Vanquish Race, is there any non-combat role a decommissioned Valkyrie does? Like, I can imagine an armored Valk being used to explore the inside of a volcano.

[Seto Kaiba]

Say, beside the Vanquish Race, is there any non-combat role a decommissioned Valkyrie does? Like, I can imagine an armored Valk being used to explore the inside of a volcano.

So... there have been a few examples of different non-military uses for VFs over the years. I'll go in production order for the examples we've had.

The oldest example is from the article "The Lost Two Years" in the Macross Perfect Memory artbook, which talks about what happened during the timeskip between Ep27 and Ep28 of the original Super Dimension Fortress Macross series. In that, there is a piece of art depicting a VF-1A being used by the referee in the ring at a Zentradi wrestling match.

Bandai B-Club magazine's feature "VF Evolution" that was released to promote the OVA Super Dimension Fortress Macross II: Lovers Again had the first official mention of Variable Fighters being used as leisure craft. The Takachihof Corporation* debuted its first non-military variable fighter in 2054 with an eye towards sales to various non-military government agencies, though it was apparently affordable enough that it's noted the VC-054 found a secondary market as a leisure craft. Takachihof released a new non-military model in 2079 - the VC-079 - which appears in the OVA itself in the service of the Scramble News Network (SNN), who use it as a camera craft in space and (in the OVA) for battlefield reporting.

Macross 7 later introduced the concept of decommissioned military VFs as leisure craft in the main Macross timeline, with many civilians bringing their modded VF-1s out for display when City 7 threw a festival that was a thinly-disguised attempt to recruit additional soldiers. The series also had Fire Bomber's VF-19 Custom stand in, with some computer graphic and prop assistance, for a VF-1 to film the docu-drama The Lynn Minmay Story.

Materials explaining the changed timeline started by Macross Plus and Macross 7 also established that the real movie Super Dimension Fortress Macross: Do You Remember Love? is also an in-universe film under the title Do You Remember Love? and that its production used both computer graphics and a number of real Valkyries, battlepods, and warships for veracity.

Macross Dynamite 7 depicted export variants of military-use VFs being used for a combination of police work and wildlife management as the anti-poaching "Zola Patrol" employed old VF-5000s armed with non-lethal weapons in a bid to prevent galactic whale poaching in their space. That OVA also has, in a "blink and you'll miss it" moment, a depiction of a modified VT-1 being used to for construction/shipbuilding purposes working on the construction of a replacement for the destroyed Battle Seven.

The Macross Frontier novelization mentions decommissioned and purpose-built non-military variants of the VF-1 being used as training aircraft by the pilot training major at Mihoshi Academy. Some of these aircraft were also used to help the actors playing characters like Shin Kudo in the in-universe movie Bird Human understand what operating a VF is like in order to make their performance more convincing. In the TV series, SMS's pilots were also contracted to provide their services for filming. Their VF-25s were digitally altered into VF-0s for the finished picture.

Macross the Ride, of course, introduced the idea of mecha motorsports to the setting via the Vanquish League VF air races and mentions of a number of predecessor formats like GERWALK (or battlepod) foot races.

Macross 30: Voices Across the Galaxy introduced a more varied depiction of the applications of non-military VFs. The planet Uroboros enjoyed something of a thriving freelance/mercenary business with the Hunter's Guild being almost a classic "Adventurer's Guild" out of RPGs, albeit with all the mercenaries using personal/private VFs. Due to Uroboros's unique topography, VFs were used for a variety of mundane tasks. Various missions the Guild hands down include things like collecting natural resources, high-speed courier missions ferrying people and small quantities of supplies to one city or another, and even archaeological research inside Protoculture ruins. That last one does frequently border on or cross the line into combat though, since the Protoculture ruins on Uroboros are often inhabited by biotechnological insectoid "guardians" who rather violently enforce the ancient Protoculture's "no trespassing" policy. Of course, since Uroboros also has a piracy/banditry problem many of the missions the Guild takes involve the use of force.

Macross Delta, of course, had an actual flight demonstration team.


* The post-merger Stonewell, Bellcom, and Shinnakasu in the Macross II timeline, named for Studio Nue cofounder Kimiyoshi Takekawa's penname "Haruka Takachiho" (the creator of Crusher Joe and Dirty Pair.

[Seto Kaiba]

There are also a few non-canonical examples in books like Master File... the most noteworthy example being the Wyvern, a VF-25 variant which was developed to operate with special FAST Packs in order to cut its thermonuclear reactors and sustain flight using a secondary wing and propeller driven by a superconducting motor and battery in order to study the Vajra up close without emitting any fold waves that might trigger the Vajra to see the aircraft as a threat. (Master File indicates that this variant was never actually produced, but its development is described in some detail.)

[hitokirigarou]

Can the head lasers aim forward in the fighter modes of the VF-5000/11/19/22/25/31.

[Seto Kaiba]

Can the head lasers aim forward in the fighter modes of the VF-5000/11/19/22/25/31.

As far as existing information indicates, no they can't.

Starting with the VF-5000, the coaxial laser cannon on the monitor turret was set up as a means to cover the fighter's blind spot and thus is a rear facing fixed gun. The gun pod covered the forward arc alone until the VF-17 began the trend of also having forward-facing fixed guns of various types. The VF-19, VF-22, VF-25, VF-27, and VF-31 all have fixed forward-facing guns in addition to the fixed rear facing gun on the head in fighter mode.

[hitokirigarou]

As far as existing information indicates, no they can't.

What about this depiction: https://i.imgur.com/zySDJXh.mp4

I'm assuming the developers took some creative liberties?