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Unified Forces Aircraft:
The air power of the Unified Forces that soar in the skies.

Right: Glamour ES-11D Cat's Eye Airborne Early-Warning Craft An aerospace airborne early-warning craft. It possesses excellent investigative functions and it was mainly operated in enemy-search missions.

Airframe Explanation
The Variable Fighter (VF) was endowed with exceedingly great all-purposefulness. Not long after its implementation, it was the lead actor in the air power of the Unified Forces. However, the VF, as a weapon that is to the utmost categorized as a fighter aircraft, continued to be operated in coordination with conventional armaments that corresponded to the situation. In the realm of early warning, there was an aircraft that was especially unrivalled in its field, which specialized in reconnaissance and had dedicated equipment installed within it. Such craft as the ES-11D Cat's Eye and EC-33B Disc Sensor bore the burden of that role in the Unified Forces at the time of the First Interstellar War, and they took an active part as the eyes of the Unified Forces on the battlefield. Even though these strategic roles were entrusted to VFs in later years, at that time the surveillance craft that were developed with existing technology were selected when looked at in such ways as operational cost. The activity of such support craft was a strategy that sustained the Unified Forces.

Caption: Even though the ES-11D set out to guard the periphery of the base at the time the Macross landed at Mars Sara Base, it wasn't able to detect Kamjin's force.

Caption: In the closing days of the First Interstellar War, the ES-11D participated in the escort of the Zentraadi's ceasefire envoy.

Caption: The EC-33B, Mac-Nell Douglar's reconnaissance plane. In addition to reconnaissance missions, it certainly also performed such things as the control of friendly aircraft and data processing.

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Operation Record
At the time of the First Interstellar War, while such vehicles as the VFs and Destroids were put into the forces as the main combat strength, airborne early warning aircraft were also actively operated in the form of coordinating those vehicles in the Unified Forces. Above all, the SDF-1 Macross frequently generated situations were the airborne early warning aircraft, which helped the Macross to its feet to bear the full brunt of the Zentraadi forces. The ES-11D Cat's Eye often took on reconnaissance missions for the SDF-1. As an example of its main operations, it was launched for such things as patrolling the periphery of the abandoned Mars Sara Base and reconnaissance of the asteroid belt which considerably restricted radar functions. Moreover, immediately following the end of the great war, the number of operational aspects of airborne warning and control system equipped aircraft like the EC-33B Disc Sensor increased. As mobile command posts, the airborne warning and control system equipped aircraft became essential because the chain of command was cut to pieces when the Earth's military facilities were basically destroyed in the general attack of the Bodoru Main Fleet,. The movement of reacting elements can be said to have spurred on the rest of the Unified Forces in that situation.

Caption: An ES-11D carrying out reconnaissance in the asteroid belt together with the escorting Vermilion Squadron. As it doesn't have an armaments, the ES-11D had an escort most of the time when the mission was in a space region where combat was assumed to occur.

Related Matters: The Captured Cat's Eye
In the reconnaissance mission in the aforementioned asteroid belt, the ES-11D fell into a situation were it was the target of a Zentraadi sample capturing operation. In that case, in addition to the SDF-1's wide-area radar being destroyed by a Zentraadi bombardment, the effectiveness of short-range radar was also limited by asteroid fragments scattered by the battle. To search for movements of the enemy, only a reconnaissance aircraft could be sent out, and it was taken in an unexpected twist. Also, even though one squadron of VF-1 Valkyries were attached as escorts as combat with enemy craft was assumed to occur, they were also divided by a feint. With their intentions having been entirely seen through, the ES-11D that 1st Lieutenant Hayase Misa rode in was captured by the enemy. The result of the reconnaissance aircraft use theory was that the Unified Forces fell for the Zentraadi trick.

Caption: The ES-11D that was corned by the Zentraadi Forces was seriously damaged in a collision with an asteroid fragment, and was captured by a Zentraadi Recovery Boat.

Caption: The rear seat pilot died in the collision. Even though First Lieutenant Misa* - who had boarded the seat in the front part - had just managed to survive, she became a prisoner of the enemy.

* Translator's note: originally was simply "Misa".

Glamour ES-11D Airborne Early Warning Craft Cat's Eye
The Glamour Co. developed Airborne Early Warning (AEW) aircraft used forward-swept wings, which is unusual for a reconnaissance aircraft. It is equipped with a disk-shaped radar antenna on the top part of the fuselage and a gravity detector in the lower part, and it boasted a normal search range of more than 1,000 km (it has a detection range that is expanded even further when it's in outer-space search mode). Moreover, the ES-11D can be operated both inside and outside of the atmosphere as it is equipped with an integrated space propeller and propellant tank in the center of each wing. The ES-11D was also used as such things as an ECM craft and guidance craft.

Up: Cockpit
In the split-type cockpit structure, the operator is in the forward seat, and the pilot is in the rear seat. On the right, the operator seat's console features a circular radar screen in the center top.

Captions (counterclockwise): radar antenna, gravity detector, canard, space propellant tank, winglet, forward-swept wing

Mac-Nell Douglar EC-33B Disc Sensor
The Unified Forces operated a large investigative reconnaissance plane made by Mac-Nell Douglar. It is equipped with the abilities of a within-atmosphere Airborne Warning And Control System (AWACS) craft, and the radar antenna on the rear of the fuselage is endowed with a detection range greater than 1,000 km. The plane is furnished with a large monitoring room, and it can carry out such things as controlling friendly aircraft and data processing. Also, it can even land on unlevelled ground, and it played an active part in strategic actions on the post-First Interstellar War Earth, whose maintenance hadn't progressed.

Caption: An EC-33B that is united in formation with the Skull Squadron. It played a major role as air command in commanding the squadron with the nickname "Cheshire Cat", in the search for members of an uprising.

Up: Monitoring Room
1. The monitoring room. The operator seats are on the right side, and monitors are lined up along the top parts of the right and left walls.
2. Misa's console.
3. The monitoring room seen from the cockpit side.

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© Aaron Sketchley