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Description
"I love flying the Jupiter. It's like flying a frigate except you don't drown if you do a roll."
- Wei

The F-39 Jupiter suborbital interdiction picket was the pinnacle of 21st-century warplane design. Its role was to continuously patrol UN airspace at very high altitude, forming part of a readiness network able to respond to threats from any vector. To facilitate its week-long patrols, the nuclear-powered aircraft was heavily automated, and carried a crew of two who could take shifts or work as a pilot/RIO team in combat. It also acted as a hub for RQ-44 Remora drones, which extended its sensor range and filled the gaps in manned aircraft coverage.

Although capable of deploying air-to-ground PGMs, the F-39 was considered a strategic air defense asset and was not usually equipped or tasked for ground-attack missions; those types of missions were the domain of tactical aircraft able to adapt to the mission at hand.

F-39s served for a long time in various iterations, and the F/S-39 Jupiter Pathfinder was the first NATO ground-based combat aircraft deployed on an extrasolar planet. By the 23rd century it was augmented by the orbit-capable F-53 Zeus interceptor.

Description
"I love flying the Jupiter. It's like flying a frigate except you don't drown if you do a roll."
- Wei

The F-39 Jupiter suborbital interdiction picket was the pinnacle of 21st-century warplane design. Its role was to continuously patrol UN airspace at very high altitude, forming part of a readiness network able to respond to threats from any vector. To facilitate its week-long patrols, the nuclear-powered aircraft was heavily automated, and carried a crew of two who could take shifts or work as a pilot/RIO team in combat. It also acted as a hub for RQ-44 Remora drones, which extended its sensor range and filled the gaps in manned aircraft coverage.

Although capable of deploying air-to-ground PGMs, the F-39 was considered a strategic air defense asset and was not usually equipped or tasked for ground-attack missions; those types of missions were the domain of tactical aircraft able to adapt to the mission at hand.

F-39s served for a long time in various iterations, and the F/S-39 Jupiter Pathfinder was the first NATO ground-based combat aircraft deployed on an extrasolar planet. By the 23rd century it was augmented by the orbit-capable F-53 Zeus interceptor.