The Morsian Z-95 development competition was an inter-company development competition in the Morsian Empire. The Morsian Navy got a hold of the schematics and an example of the Z-95 Headhunter from the Galactic Republic, thanks to the Imperial Intelligence Bureau, and whilst they were impressed with what they saw, they decided that before they committed to adoption of the fighter design, it needed upgrading. So the navy sent out a list of requirements, a copy of the schematics and a due date to various ship designing and building companies across the Morsian Empire with the demand to produce a superior version of the Z-95. Despite stiff competition, the winning fighter was the Z-95 Carnifex, which entered service with the Morsian Navy within the year.
History[]
Creation of the competition[]
During the Clone Wars, the Morsian Empire was involved in so-called interventions, or technology gathering missions, on various planets across the galaxy. On these missions, they would collect and gather technology from both the Galactic Republic and the Confederacy of Independent Systems, some of which they were very interested in. When the Z-95 Headhunter entered service with the Republic, the Morsians were very interested in the design and tasked their spies with getting schematics for it, to supplement the various crashed and damaged ones collected during these interventions. The Bureau went one further and managed to both get the schematics as well as an undamaged ship to a Morsian fleet, which hurried back with the Z-95 for Morsian engineers to evaluate.
Upon evaluating the fighter and schematics, the Morsians noted various problems they deemed needed to be fixed. Firstly, they found the starfighter under armed. Whilst it did come with two wing mounted laser cannons and two proton torpedo launchers, they saw potentially unused wing space for further armaments. Also, whilst the ship was fast, it could be faster, and more mobile. When compared to the augmented Aurek-class tactical strikefighters, the Primis-class, that were currently in service, the Z-95 was well over 300 km/h slower, and at double the length, it was seen as sluggish and a large target in comparison. The lack of folding wings was also a potential concern, as it was also wider than the Aureks and unable to fold its wings in, which made storing it in hangars a far greater problem, since more space being taken up meant an overall lower squadron count in carrier ships.
However, despite this, they did see potential in the design, providing these things could be overcome. In order to get a state of the art fighter out of the current design, the navy decided to host a design competition, with the aim of finding a fighter which could overcome these problems and more. Writing out a list of requirements, producing copies of the schematic and setting a tight window for the competition, they approached various ship designers and demanded a cutting edge fighter from them. With the companies briefed and given all the resources they would need, development began on various prototype Z-95 designs.
The requirements[]
The navy produced a guideline of requirements which were needed to be met. Without these requirements being fulfilled, there would be no chance of the design being accepted in any way.
- Foldable wing were a requirement, as the original Z-95 had rigid wings and were far too wide to fit large numbers within the Morsian hangars, which were used to the far slimmer Aurek-class, which themselves came with folding wings as standard.
- Increased firepower was required, as the two laser cannons were far under armed compared to the current fighters in use by the Morsians, which were more heavily armed.
- Some sort of increase in protection, be it increased hull armor or a better shield generator, preferably both. Having better survivability was key, in the navy's eyes, so having increased armor protection or a more powerful shield generator was high on their priority list.
- A better propulsion system was needed to make the fighter more up to par with the current fighter compliments of the navy. The fighter needed to be faster and more nimble than it currently was if they wanted a competitor to the Aurek-class that was in service.
Submitted designs[]
After the final submission date was passed, the navy gathered up all the submitted designs and started their evaluations of them. In total, over half a dozen designs were submitted to the navy, and competition was fierce, especially between companies that already had rivalries between them.
Z-95 Regium[]
The first prototype entitled the Z-95 Regium in Old Morsian, the Z-95 Royal in Galactic Basic Standard, simply shortened the wings to have them not be required to fold up, which the company claimed would reduce material costs, material usage as well as making them easier to repair and maintain, due to the lack of a complex wing folding which the company claimed would require far more work. The fighter also included an extra pair of laser cannons on the wings, as well as under wing hardpoints to mount concussion missile pods and other such heavier weapons. To help the fighter with its heavier load, the engines were doubled up and swapped out to more compact ion drives, along with a larger main reactor and boosted internal systems which did aid the fighter with being faster and more mobile. A better shield generator was fitted, though no extra base armor was added.
Novum Consilium Z-95[]
Novum Consilium Z-95 as it was known, or "New Project Z-95" in Galactic Basic, was an ambitious project to turn the Z-95 into a ground attack heavy fighter. With two large, heavy duty armored engines, plus a far greater increase in armor and a heavier shield generator, there was no denying the staying power of the design in a prolonged fight, or its survivability from taking hits. Various hardpoints were added to the wings whilst stronger laser cannons were fitted in place of the standard cannons on the original design. Heavy duty wing hinges were installed both at the base and halfway along each wing, which allowed the fighter to fold up its wings in the hangar of ships.
Z-95 Pugnator[]
The Z-95 Pugnator, or Z-95 Fighter in Galactic Basic, featured a grand total of eight cannons on it, mounted at various lengths across the wings. It also featured a co-pilot sitting behind the pilot, who operated the belly mounted remote turret, increasing the firepower up to ten laser cannons. However, this came at the expense of removing the proton torpedo launchers in the hull. To try and make up for this, the designers added extra frontal armor to the design along with a boosted shield generator, plus larger, more powerful engines. The wings were also capable of folding up to save space.
Z-95 Carnifex[]
The Z-95 Carnifex, or Z-95 Executioner in Galactic Basic, caught the navy's eye due to the dorsally mounted manned turret fitted to the hull. In addition to the turret, a total of four extra laser cannons were added to the wings, increasing the total weapons to eight lasers, plus the two retained proton torpedo launchers. The engines were heavily upgraded with superior, Morsian made, engines, whilst an increase of base armor was added all over the fighter, plus an enhanced shield generator.
