Seto Kaiba
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M7-style "shoulder kibble" would be my guess... it's in the same section as the M7 FAST pack. But yes, it does look to be the exact same booster model used on the VF-11B (not the economized model used on the VF-11C).
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I was able to get a decent-ish pic of the image in the book, to give you an idea.
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Yeah. They only do that in Master File, and it looks weird as hell... (pages 60-62 of Variable Fighter Master File: VF-19 Excalibur)
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Unless it's fan-made, we probably won't see them until such time as they actually appear in some official Macross show or game. (The more I consider it, the more I'm miffed that they didn't use the VF-19EF/A in Macross 30 as Isamu's upgrade plane instead of the YF-29.) That location's where the VF-11-style FAST packs attach on the Master File version, among other things. They appear to be pretty much identical to the initial YF-19/VF-19 FAST packs, and those held a B-7 pallet of 12 HMM-20e's each.
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Huh... if the toy is any indication (thank you Andras) the count is higher, with 23 missiles in each shoulder instead of the fuel tanks that normally occupy that position. That'd make it a nice round 250 plus whatever's in the leg bays. I really, REALLY wonder how in line with Kawamori's intent that toy is right now... I'm not a toy collector myself, so the details of the toy passed me by completely. The official information is painfully sparse. The Official Complete Book for Macross Frontier: the Wings of Goodbye is says nothing of value about the plane, and declines to even give it a proper identification. Great Mechanics.DX 17 identifies it only as "VF-19 SMS Version", and gives useful info about performance or armament. Macross Chronicle gave it a shared mechanic sheet that gives it a designation (but not the one that's used to promote the toy) and talks about its development, but says nothing whatsoever about its FAST packs. I'm giving serious thought to seeking out the novelization in the hope that it'll have some firm details there (IIRC that's where the "VF-19ADVANCE" designation actually comes from... Macross Chronicle identifies it only as VF-19EF/A "Isamu Special"). On the toy, that certainly appears to be the case. Thank you for sharing that, I genuinely had no idea that was like that there. The pack looks almost identical to the existing one on the YF-19 that was a fuel tank.
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Sorry, I quoted this but forgot to reply to it in my first reply. As far as the relative strength of the micro-missiles... the OTM-based explosives used in missiles would blow conventional munitions into the weeds. The VF-1's AMM-1A Arrow multipurpose medium-range missile had a 20kg warhead equivalent to 200kg of TNT, based on the one source to actually describe it in depth. Missile technology in Macross has improved a lot since the AMM-1 as well. Those HMM-25 micro-missiles are probably at least as powerful as the AMM-1, and very likely significantly more so (designed, as they were, to be used against something far tougher than even a VF-1).
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The VF-19EF/A Excalibur ADVANCE's payload with the Super Packs it's shown with would be 204 (90 in each booster, 12 in each conformal leg pack) plus the contents of the internal bays in the legs. My hunch would be that, since the packs on the wings block off most or all of the pylons (I haven't seen the physical model up close, and it's too hard to tell from the CG model), the internal ordinance bays inside of the legs would be used for longer-ranged missiles the way they were in Macross Plus. (Isamu kept the leg bays full of CHM-2's when he took the YF-19 to Earth.) (The VF-25 has less of a problem on that front.... the NP-FAD-23 leaves 2 or so pylons on each wing clear there.)
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Ah, OK. All told, the YF/VF-19 1st type's bays have enough room for one pallet each... and the conformal FAST packs add another pallet each. That's twelve HMM-20e's per pallet, for a grand total of 48 between the leg bays and packs. (Plus whatever's hung on the six wing pylons.)
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Which "1st Gen" VF-19 packs do you mean? Thanks to Master File there are three distinct sets of VF-19 FAST packs... there's one that's more or less the same as the VF-11B's (Master File exclusive), the conformal packs for the YF-19/VF-19 1st type, and the one seen in Macross 7 on the VF-19F/S. I suppose technically it's four if we count the one-off VF-19EF/A "ADVANCE". #1 is a version of the Super Pack that retains the CIMM-3A launcher assembly but also includes additional fuel tanks for the boosters. #2 is the (rejected) atmospheric variation of the Strike cannon. #3 and #4 are your basic Strike package.
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Yeah, that's an acknowledged problem more than a lot of folks have noticed with the NP-FAD-23 art in Master File. The caption on the image says the Bifors CIMM-3A micro-missile option pack holds a maximum of 90 HMM-25 micro-missiles. Though there is no official stat for the CIMM-3A's capacity in Macross Chronicle or any other source that leaps to mind, the 90 fits better with the other official information about the VF-25. If it has 686 micro-missiles, that would give the VF-25's Super Pack WAY more firepower than the Armored Pack (allegedly the most heavily armed FAST pack). The 90 per CIMM-3A figure gives the VF-25 Super Pack a total of 226, less than the Armored Pack's 244 (274 if you count its anti-armor rockets).
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If you have a copy, there's some line art for the Strike and extended-range packs on page 77 of Variable Fighter Master File: VF-25 Messiah. Three different trial variations of the NP-FAD-23's beam cannon option packs... one originally intended for atmospheric use. (The majority unfortunately only exist in text descriptions, same as the VF-1's.)
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That's my favorite, for sure.
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Kind of a weird place to put such a thing, since its line of sight anywhere other than directly up would be blocked by the packs and directly forward is already covered by multiple camera systems and the radar. What else could they realistically be? They're not large enough to contain weapons systems, the placement is between awful and redundant for sensors, and there's not really a need to up-armor that area. The only logical explanation I can imagine for it is that they're an expansion of the conformal tank through the unused (in space) dorsal inlet the way Master File asserts the VF-1 did for range extension in space. Without the boosters, you just have something pretty much identical to the YF-19/VF-19 1st type conformal FAST pack. With the boosters, that's explicitly true... they're known to be every bit as versatile (possibly more so) than the VF-1's FAST packs, with Super, Strike, missile container, extended fuel, and other variants. The VF-19's 1st and 2nd mass production types had micro-missile pallets for the leg bays... the sole known exception being on the VF-19P, where the ordinance bay was replaced by a stock micro-missile launcher. By "1st Mass Production type" I mean the VF-19 variants based directly upon the YF-19 prototype... the VF-19A, -B, -C, -D, and/or VF-19E if Macross 30's VF-19E is the "true" VF-19E (which would be consistent with most of what's said in Macross Chronicle WRT the VF-19 Custom's origins vs. Master File's version). By "2nd Mass Production type" I mean the VF-19 variants developed and produced based on Shinsei's refinement and simplification of the design to improve control, stability, and optimize the design for space use... the VF-19F, -S, -P, Custom, and derivatives of the 2nd type (e.g. VF-19EF Caliburn, VF-19ACTIVE "Nothung", and VF-19EF/A "Excalibur ADVANCE").
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... ... ... That makes no sense at all. The panels covering the front of the VF-19's dorsal active airflow inlet are too small to hold more than maybe one missile... it hardly seems worth the effort to add one or two missiles to an area better suited to fuel tanks, especially in light of the wing-mounted packs already holding something like 180 missiles! The conformal FAST packs used by the YF-19 and VF-19 1st mass production type were designed to expand the VF-19's weapon and fuel capacity without sacrificing passive stealth. Even so, it still doubled the VF-19's internal weapons capacity. Packs like the VF-19 2nd mass production type's or the VF-25's throw passive stealth to the wind in favor of carting along roughly enough micro-ordinance to blow up an entire battalion. ... so, the 180 missiles the VF-19EF/A (ADVANCE)'s FAST packs are already carrying wasn't armament enough to justify the A in FAST? The pack in question is way, WAY too small for all that... probably way too small for any one of those. There isn't a lot of coverage of the VF-19P in general, but from what little has been said it seems pretty definite that it's a change to the airframe itself. The VF-19P was the first "monkey model" export variant to appear in Macross, and exchanging the pallets for a internal micro-missile launcher seems to have been one of several modifications made to the VF-19's 2nd mass production type to reduce its combat capability. (Master File mentions other decreases in capability coming from functional restrictions added to the avionics and changes to make the target discovery for the micro-missiles launchers take longer.)
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You forgot Guitar - Basara - VF-19
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True, the VF-19 doesn't actually need the additional thrust of a booster system... but there are other advantages beyond raw acceleration. Well, yes... the excess acceleration from a booster (unless accompanied by reductions in main engine thrust output, would most certainly put additional strain on an already overstressed pilot. Isamu is definitely an above-average fighter pilot, but even his fleshy meats have limits. (Also, the VF-17 only produced more thrust vs. the initial YF-19 turbine... subsequent engines solved that.) Unmodified, the kind of instantaneous acceleration you get from a 3,240kN kick in the pants (at a T/W ratio of 39) would do all kinds of horrifically unpleasant things to the pilot... just imagine what a YF-30's 4220kN at 53, or YF-29's 7,150kN at 61 would do! My assumption WRT the VF-19EF/A "ADVANCE" using the SPS-25 Super Pack booster elements would be the redonkulous amount of missiles that supposedly were crammed into the launcher assembly (90 a side, per Master File) or range extension in space. Macross Chronicle has absolutely nothing to say on that front.
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That'd be a pretty useless place to put sensors, IMO... though it's noted that, in Macross, FAST's meaning changed to Fuel, Arms*, and Sensors Tactical. Just about any bolt-on augmentation pack in Macross has several sensors built in, even if they're just for posture control or to function in place of body sensors that ended up being covered by the pack. The sensors are often the means to an end, rather than the end itself, but they're there. The position of the pack in question (esp. its proximity to a known conformal fuel tank) and its connection to the same active airflow inlet that the conformal tank on the opposite side is, suggests to me that it's the same old song and dance the UN Forces have been doing since the First Space War... inlets unnecessary to space flight get stuffed with additional fuel bladders to extend range. * In the "weapons" sense, not limbs.
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They're directly over an active airflow control inlet... so probably more fuel tanks, or if not, then just armor for the inlet.
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What I have isn't exactly a theory... I'd call it an educated guess/probable answer. The YF-19/VF-19 1st Mass Production Type's conformal FAST packs have a pack with an almost identical configuration in that same placement. It's a conformal fuel tank (NP-FB-FA07 conformal fuel tank). This looks like a slightly modified/enlarged NP-FB-FA07 tank.
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As long as she's got Bu.No.2107906/1 on there, it's all good eh?
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Looking at the line art, I'm not certain that's mechanically possible for the Regult... the "hips" don't seem to have much, if any, lateral freedom. http://www.macross2.net/m3/sdfmacross/reguld/reguld-schematics.gif
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I don't make the news, man... I just report it. There's a picture of that same missile in Variable Fighter Master File: VF-0 Phoenix (page 66) labeled "AIM-9X-2"... but yes, the control surfaces near the nose look a little large and square to be the AIM-9X. I'd chalk it up to a low-detail CG model not meant for intense scrutiny.
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Split the difference? I'm seeing a yellow band on the AIM-9X-2 there, but blue bands on the AIM-120D's. Probably an issue with the reference photography they used while making the CG models for Macross Zero. Similar errors can be found in Variable Fighter Master File (on the ASM-1 and ASM-2).
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The VF-1 did, yes... but oddly none of the fighters that came after it seem to have the capability. Even the VF-25's hardpoint & weapon set diagram shows only one RMS-7 per station (and the even larger PaCSWS-1G's and Dimension Cutters need to be spaced out to every other hardpoint normally). If the stations are spaced wider than they normally are, it'd be workable IMO... though the RMS-5 and RMS-7 are both a good deal larger than the old RMS-1. The Dimension Cutter is so large that Master File has it at "not more than 1 per wing". That's the way it is in Macross 30. The VF-27 isn't an anti-ship attack specialist craft either... it's a super-high performance dogfighter with almost exclusively short-range weaponry (and, officially, a victim of crippling overspecialization).
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OK, definitely should've qualified that... I based that on the 2,039lb published mass of the Mk.84 under normal conditions. The RMS-1's weight is only given in one source (the old Sky Angels book), but it's given as 2,387lb. Munition size is a factor, but mercifully only in terms of the possibility of ejected missiles striking other hung ordinance and the ability to retain that ordinance with the wings folded in battroid mode... external fuel tanks having become largely unnecessary thanks to the adoption of thermonuclear reaction turbine engines. Very few VF-carried missiles and bombs are so large that multiples can't be hung from a single pylon... but reaction missiles, para-cruising stealth warheads, and dimension cutters all seem to fall into that category under normal conditions.
