The Aigaion will not be defeated. Launch Nimbus! Continue Attacking!"
-Aigaion Crewman
The Aigaion-class heavy command cruiser is a giant combat aircraft from the Ace Combat Infinity world.
The Aigaion series was developed by an unknown nation in the 2000s after the Ulysses Disaster. The purpose of the heavy command cruisers was to build a singular mobile assault system capable of projecting aerial power at long distances with low maintenance costs, making their operations more practical in comparison to conventional air forces in terms of cost-effectivity in the wake of the global military budget reductions triggered by the Ulysses impacts.
The original model was completed at some point in the early 21st century, proving successful enough to warrant the development of advanced models identified by a colored upper fuselage; a red-plated model with increased firepower and a golden experimental variant armed with point defense laser. Aigaions often operated with two pairs of smaller Kottos and Gyges cruisers providing escort as a unified "aerial fleet", and were universally identified by the name of their class.
As a heavy command cruiser, the P-1112 was designed to act as a mobile base and long-range attack asset, a major development of the XB-0 Hresvelgr built by the former Belka. Physically resembling a giant manta ray, the girth of the Aigaion forces it to operate as a seaplane, as conventional take-off would be impossible. The aircraft houses an internal hangar bay with CATOBAR systems accomodated for carrier aircraft operations. A small helipad rests on top of the rear hangar entrance.
The main weapons of the Aigaion, the Nimbus cruise missiles, allow it to engage aerial and ground targets at near-continental ranges, and is armed with an array of anti-air cannons, AAM launchers and flak guns dotted across the lower, upper and rear fuselage. It is powered by a fossil fuel core built beneath the main canopy, above its "mouth", which propel twenty-four engines arranged in rows of six on its trailing edges, allowing it to operate for three day periods before refueling. A squadron of six KC-10 Extender tankers are required to simultaneously refuel it in mid-air, a process that disable its foward radar.
