FF-4 Toriares
Fighter aircraft developed by Hervic Company for the Earth Federation.
The FF-4 Toriares was a fighter aircraft developed by Hervic Company for the Earth Federation Forces. It was one of four fighter designs created by Hervic to expand the Federation’s space combat capabilities.
History
The Earth Federation Forces commissioned Hervic Company to develop space fighters as they sought to expand their space combat capabilities. Hervic divided the development into four categories, with the FF-4 Toriares designed as a small air defence fighter.
The Toriares was deployed to the asteroid base Luna II and various Side garrisons. However, when the One Year War broke out in UC 0079, the fighter proved ineffective in the Minovsky particle-rich combat environment. It was outmatched by the Principality of Zeon’s mobile suits and suffered heavy losses.
On 27 December UC 0078, Second Lieutenant Yuu Kajima and another officer piloted a Toriares on a scouting mission inside an abandoned colony. They encountered a MS-06 Zaku II and were shot down before they could return fire. Kajima survived and later piloted a Toriares again during the Battle of Loum, but was similarly overwhelmed by Zaku IIs.
After the Federation developed the RGM-79 GM, the Toriares was phased out as the main Federation combat unit.
Design
The FF-4 Toriares was designed as a compact air defence fighter capable of operating in both space and atmosphere. Its small size and high manoeuvrability made it effective as an interceptor, though this came at the cost of limited armament capacity.
The fighter featured a standard canopy-style cockpit in its forward section, providing the pilot with good visibility. However, its sensors proved ineffective in Minovsky particle-rich environments, severely limiting its combat effectiveness during the One Year War.
Armaments
The Toriares had minimal armament, carrying only a pair of nose-mounted machine guns for defence.
25 mm machine guns
Two 25 mm machine guns were built into the nose of the aircraft. While these provided relatively weak firepower, they were adequate for the fighter’s intended interceptor role and engagements with lightly-armored targets.
Known pilots
- Tenneth A. Jung
- Yuu Kajima
Behind the scenes
Okawara Kunio was the original mechanical designer.
Appearances
External links
- FF-4 Toriares on the Gundam Wiki
- FF-4 Toriares on MAHQ