Variable fighter

Encyclopedia : V : VA : VAR : Variable fighter

A Variable Fighter is one of a series of transforming aerospace fighters primarily designed by Studio Nue's Shoji Kawamori and Kazutake Miyatake for the animated series The Super Dimension Fortress Macross and later related projects.

Their defining feature is the ability to transform—usually into a humanoid giant robot called Battroid and an in-between mode called GERWALK (Ground Effective Reinforcement of Winged Armament with Locomotive Knee-joint), in which the nose and wings have a pair of "chicken walker" legs extending underneath enabling VTOL, and two arms reaching forward from the sides. Another prevalent (but not universal) design point is the use of a detachable gun pod instead of an internally mounted gun. This allows it to be used as a hand-held weapon in GERWALK and battroid modes. They usually also have one or more trainable head-mounted lasers in battroid mode, stowed internally or used as fixed armament in fighter and GERWALK modes.

In The Super Dimension Fortress Macross, the reason behind the development of variable fighters was the discovery of the existence of the Zentradi race. Giant humanoid aliens genetically engineered for military conquest. Although at the time the humans hadn't met any actual Zentradi it was thought prudent to develop a weapon that can fight them on the ground as well as in the air, thus the development of the variable fighter.

List of Variable Fighters

Stonewell/Bellcom VF-X (non-transformable flight test vehicle)
Northrop Grumman/Stonewell/Shinsei VF-0
Sukhoi/Israel Aircraft Industries/Dornier SV-51 (Anti-UN variable fighter not in the UN designation sequence)
Stonewell/Bellcom VF-1 Valkyrie
VF-X-2
VF-X-3
Stonewell/Bellcom/Shinnakasu VF-3000 Crusader
Stonewell Bellcom VF-4 Lightning III
VF-5
Shinsei Industry VF-5000
VF-6
VF-7
Zentradi Variable Glaug
General Galaxy VF-9 Cutlass
Shinsei Industry VF-11 Thunderbolt
General Galaxy/Messer VF-14 Vampire
VF-15
VF-16
General Galaxy VF-17 Nightmare
Neo Glaug
Shinsei Industry YF-19
Shinsei Industry VF-19 Excalibur
General Galaxy YF-21
General Galaxy VF-22 Sturmvogel II
General Galaxy/Messer-Varauta Fz-109 Elgerzorene (not in the UN designation sequence)
Zentradi Variable Device

External links

[Mecha] at the [Macross Compendium]
[Macross Nexus]

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