Group - VF-0 Phoenix

In the Macross Zero anime science fiction series, the VF-0 Phoenix variable fighter was an advanced prototype for the VF-1 Valkyrie which served as a flight test unit and later in 2008 as a front-line fighter, before the Valkyrie's mass production in November 2008. According to the fictional Macross continuity, the fighter was developed with overtechnology obtained from the massive alien space ship that crashed on Earth in the year 1999. In most respects, the VF-0 resembled the VF-1, although its legs were longer because the EGF-127 conventional turbofan engines used by the fighter were larger and bulkier than the VF-1's FF-2001 thermonuclear engines. Numerous fine details also differ, such as head designs. The VF-0D's wings are very different, replacing the variable sweep wings with a canard-delta configuration; although this would perform well, it would ultimately not be adopted for the production series VF-1. The VF-0's maximum speed is Mach 2.74 at 11,000 meters MSL altitude, using variable intake slats to slow the inrushing air to subsonic velocity, rather than a single variable intake ramp. Because it uses conventional turbofan engines and not thermonuclear turbines like the later VF-1, the VF-0 is not a true spacecraft (although it can operate for short periods of time underwater). The VF-0's armament was virtually identical to the VF-1's (although the VF-1S's laser armament was bumped up from two to four barrels), but slightly older in design: A 35 mm gun pod (GPU-9) in place of the VF-1's 55 mm GU-11, and AIM-200 AMRAAM IIs (a development of the AIM-120 AMRAAM) air to air missiles in place of the VF-1's AMM-1s.