T-2/A-2 Saeqeh
| T-2/A-2 Saeqeh | |
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| Type: | Tactical Trainer / Light Attack Aircraft |
| Place of origin: |  Babkha
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| Date In service: | 1568 / 1606 / 1636 |
| Operators (1733 AN): | |
| Number produced: | 8,807 |
| Number in Service (1727 AN): | 1,328 |
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| Designed: | 1567 |
| Manufacturer: | Allied Production Matrix |
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| Length: | 11.80 m |
| Width: | |
| Wingspan: | 12.60 m |
| Propulsion: | 1 × Almagro PT6A-68C turboprop, 1,600 hp (1,193 kW) |
| Range: | 1,668 km |
| Endurance: | |
| Maximum Altitude: | 10,668 m |
| Speed: | 557 km/h (301 knots) |
| Complement: | One pilot plus one navigator/student |
| Armament: |
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| Sensors and Processing Systems: | |
| Cost: | |
The T-2/A-2 Saeqeh is a cheap and expendable training aircraft equipped with a turboprop engine, originally designed by the House of Osman GmbH for the harassment of dissident tribes and insurgent groups in the harsh and unforgiving environment of the Euran continent. It was subsequently chosen in 1604 by the Hall of Tranquility, the Elwynnese Ministry of Defence in the independence era, to form the basis of its Emergency Fighter Programme, a project to mass produce airframes for an anticipated war with Shireroth. Although Elwynn was reincorporated into the Imperial Republic shortly afterwards the programme was never cancelled and the aircraft remain on the inventory of the Union Defence Force available for mobilisation whenever the situation is sufficiently dire to warrant their use in the light attack role. The most recent examples of this being the River War of 1635 and the constitutional crisis of 1644 in the Year of the Four Kaisers.
During the period immediately prior to Elwynnese independence, a Babkhan Saeqeh formed an integral part of a secret Elwynnese project to kill the Kaiser and his Court, along with most nobles of the Landsraad, by flying a medium bomber filled with high-explosives into Raynor's Keep once the targets had all assembled in that location to negotiate with Elwynnese envoys. The plan had been shelved in favour of actual negotiations but the flying bomb was subsequently used by Aurangzeb to destroy the Elwynnese Congress building in Eliria.
The flying bomb itself was a composite aircraft formed of two parts; the first small piloted control aircraft mounted above a large explosives-carrying drone. The drone was a converted medium bomber whose entire nose-located crew compartment had been replaced by a specially designed nose filled with a large load of explosives, formed into a shaped charge. The pilot aircraft, a propeller driven light-attack plane, was attached to the flying bomb by struts and metal harness, held in place by a release mechanism of ball joints with explosive bolts that the pilot would activate in the same manner as though he was releasing a normal bomb. The unmanned bomber would be released to hit its target and explode, leaving the fighter free to return to base.
A number of these Mistel flying bombs remained on the UDF inventory, ready for use against strategic targets before being squandered ineffectually during the Auspicious Occasion.
After the Auspicious Occasion in 1651 the UDF's air inventory was confiscated by the Imperial Forces and transferred to its air arm.
The venerable design, while being gradually replaced by the T-4/A-4 Flecha in the air forces of the Raspur Pact, continued to be operated into the early 18th century after Norton - long after the first examples of the type had vanished into museums or the scrapper's yard - as a testimony to its uncomplicated design and the useful niche it filled. Whilst vulnerable to man-portable anti-aircraft systems, the serial overproduction of the type, combined with the indifference of militaries in the Babkhan and Shirerithian tradition to casualties amongst trainee pilots, saw the aircraft continue to be flown in its designated role, irrespective of losses.
Limited production of the type continued in Normark as of 1706 AN. With production runs continuing at various times, with significant intervals, at locations across the world, over a 121-year span of history, the T-2/A-2 Saeqeh may possibly lay claim to being one of the most commonly manufactured airframes in the history of Micras.
