RAF VTOL F-104

[ysi_maniac]

Whiffing at its best

[gunfighter]

This afternoon, as I was driving home from work I thought about a backstory for this starfighter.
In late 70s, the russians decide to regain certain islands in the north of Japan, old confrontations as you´ll probably know. The JASDF is well equiped at the time with Phantoms and starfighters, but against the hugue numbers of Migs and Sukhois the atrition rate is too high to bear. The US is unable to bring support at the time because the russians make a diversion pressure in both Europe, south Korea and the west coast of north america. The Us navy only sends a carrier group but when faced with dozens of red navy submarines, and after several clashes in which a couple of scorts are sunk, the americans decide it´s too risky to come closer, and that´s it´s not worth the effort of getting into WW3 to defend 3 or 4 japanese islands with no strategic value.
But the Japanese don´t share this oppinion, as they are strongly proud of their imperial past and decide not to surrender. The valerous JASDF pilots shoot down 125 russian aircraft and sink 4 DDGs and 2 cruisers with Kormoran missiles and free fall bombs, but the number of jets fall rapidly.
In a desperate effort, the japanese government take a critical decision: the hardest wing members propose to recover the figure of the Kamikaze, as used in the last days of WW2.
The ideal aircraft for the purpose is the F104J, of which 34 are still available at the moment. The Starfighter is heavily modified to become a V/STOL jet, thus avoiding the use of air bases, most of them destroyed by cruise missile attacks. On the 5th day of the war, the last F4s are destroyed in combat against Floggers and Foxbats.
The F104j BANZAI is stripped of wings, giving it a cleaner configuration, and a higuer maximum speed. They get rid of the radar, and in its place, a contact fuse is installed. The explosive is housed in the fuel tanks aft the canopy, and the jet flyes with only a couple of external tanks on the sides, which are jettisoned just before the attack.
The mission profile consists in a low level fly towards the known situation of the red fleet, sometimes guided by submarines or fast crafts on the zone. Once the target is in sight, the F104 BANZAI drops the tanks and accelerates to Mach 1,3 at 30 feet of attitude, and heads for the selected ship, exploding with direct contact.
The extremely aggresive tactic catches the russians with pants down, and a Kirov class cruiser and 4 scorts are sunk in one morning.
This action pushes the USSR to bomb civilian targets in Japan in retaliation, a bad decision as the USA threatens to use nuclear weapons if the russians continue to kill inocent civilians.
On the 8th day of the war, 23 BANZAI missions have been flown, with 6 F104s being shot down by Foxbats and SAMs, 3 crashing into the ocean, and 14 successfully reaching their targets, the russians start to withdraw to their bases. The US supply 50 fresh Phantoms and the first 25 F15s to re start air defense duties, and the surviving 11 BANZAIs are put into storage for the future if need araises.
Well, here is my first back story, hope you like
Cheers gunfighter

[Eddie M.]

I loved it when I first saw it done by Wolfik, but now it's a total package after the paint work. Outstanding work Simon!
   Eddie