X-02 Wyvern

"...we were also able to obtain data on Erusea's unmanned fighter aircraft, which has long been veiled in secrecy."

- Mobius 1's commander following Operation Katina

The X-02 Wyvern (Japanese: X-02 ワイバーン), also known as the X-02A, is a next-generation fighter aircraft developed by the Erusian Air and Space Administration.

The X-02 is an iconic fictional aircraft in the Ace Combat series, debuting in Ace Combat 04: Shattered Skies and making various appearances since. It was last featured in Ace Combat Infinity, its first console appearance in nearly a decade.

Design
The X-02 Wyvern is an experimental fighter with a striking appearance. The aircraft incorporates an uncommon design with variable geometry technology with a forward-swept wing configuration. As the aircraft gains speed, the wings and vertical stabilizers fold inward to reduce air drag, and retract to their neutral position once it slows down. This unconventional design grants it an extreme degree of mobility, and the folded wings add a degree of stealth; however, this comes at a cost to the aircraft's armor, which is scaled back to provide such mobility.

The X-02 incorporates a weapons bay between the intakes on the underside of the aircraft. This weapons bay is capable of carrying all kinds of special weapons, including air-to-air missiles, air-to-surface missiles, and various bomblet dispensers. The aircraft's standard missiles are launched from downwards retractable holders located on the undersides of each intake. The X-02 is powered by two tri-dimensional thrust vectoring ERG-1000 engines, which provide the aircraft with the ability of Mach 2.5 flight.

The aircraft's specifications are as follows:
 * Length: 21.84m (71.65ft)
 * Width: 18.30m (60.04ft) / 11.54m (37.86ft) when wings are folded
 * Height: 4.36m (14.30ft) / 3.42m (11.22ft) when wings are folded
 * Weight: 16,800kg (16.8 metric tons)
 * Max Speed: Mach 2.5 (3,062 km/h or 1,903 mph)
 * Combat Radius: 1,050km (652 miles)
 * Crew: 1 person

Conception
In the 1980s, the Federal Erusian Navy began to draw up concept plans for the development of a new combat aircraft. Sometime afterward, the Federal Erusea Air Force requested a new fighter aircraft. In response, Erusea's military decided to modify the Navy's new concept aircraft to also perform fighter duties for the Air Force.

Preliminary blueprints of the new aircraft, known as the "X-02A", were completed on January 22, 1987. Erusea's weapons arsenal primarily came from its neighboring countries, so their designs had an indirect influence on the X-02A's design.

Development
Over the next 10 years, the X-02A's development had grind to a halt for reasons unknown. After the existence of the Ulysses 1994XF04 asteroid was announced, Erusea—along with most other Usean countries—was solely focused on developing the Stonehenge Turret Network. Erusea would not return to the X-02A project until June 1998, after Stonehenge's completion. At that point, the EASA began development of the aircraft, now known as the X-02 Wyvern.

Development continued until the start of the Second Usean Continental War in 2003. Erusea planned to use the X-02s for the defending squadron of the captured Stonehenge network, but opposition groups questioned its large development costs when compared to proven conventional aircraft. Development was halted as the controversies went on.

The X-02's development was hastily restarted after Stonehenge fell in April 2005, but it was hampered by a lack of funding and supplies due to the war. Due to the X-02's unique variable geometry, the ISAF received rumors that Erusea was developing two different aircraft.

By September 2005, the EASA had gotten extremely close to completing an X-02 unit. However, before they could finalize it, ISAF captured Erusea's capital and ended the war, preventing the X-02 from being used to defend the capital. The country continued development regardless, and within one year, at least four and at most six X-02 units were successfully completed. These units were equipped with an experimental UCAV configuration.

Post-war development
In September 2006, the UCAV X-02s were stolen by Free Erusea during their continental uprising. They were used as a last resort during Mobius 1's attack on Free Erusea's base, a White Valley arms factory, but they were destroyed by the ace pilot. The X-02s were recovered by the ISAF for research.

Sometime over the next four years, Erusea established trade relations with Yuktobania, securing a deal whereby Yuktobania would receive an unspecified number of X-02s with Gründer Industries as a middleman. Gründer would subject the X-02 to their cost-cutting development techniques. At some point during the Circum-Pacific War, a Yuktobanian X-02 was shot down over Osean territory, and its remains were eventually handled by the mechanics at Sand Island.

A year after the Circum-Pacific War ended, an X-02 flew alongside an ADF-01 FALKEN and an ADFX-01 Morgan flew over November International Stadium in its first airshow since the war.

Infinity universe
In the Infinity universe, the X-02 was developed by an unknown country. Its blueprints were later added to Wernher and Noah Enterprises's Advanced Automated Aviation Plant, including a variant used by an ace pilot to win countless wars by living "the way of the knight."

Game Analysis
"An air superiority/multirole fighter developed by a certain country. It features special variable wings which adjust according to speed. The forward swept wing configuration allows it to demonstrate unparalleled combat abilities while its sweptback wing configuration gives it access to supercruise and stealth abilities. The extreme visual differences between the wing configurations has often made people believe that there are 2 different aircraft. Its nickname is "Wyvern"."
 * -|Ace Combat Infinity====Ace Combat Infinity===

- Hangar

How to Unlock
 * The X-02 is available through the Aircraft Tree.

Skins
 * Default: Grey livery with blue tips on vertical stabilizers
 * Event Skin #01: Three-tone gray camouflage; based on the Mercenary paint scheme of the X-02 from Ace Combat Zero: The Belkan War; awarded to the top 5,000 players in the "The Eagle Has Landed" Ranking Tournament in March 2016
 * Event Skin #02: Digital gray camouflage; based on the default paint scheme of the X-02 from Ace Combat 04: Shattered Skies; available for 200 Skilled Pilot Medals in the Skilled Pilot Medal Exchange since April 2015

Gallery

Trivia

 * The X-02 Wyvern was designed by Project Aces member Isshin Yabuki, who desired to make an aircraft design with variable wing geometry and used several aircraft, including the Su-37 Terminator, the Su-47 Berkut and the YF-23A Black Widow II as reference. Yabuki revealed his inspiration in a 2004 interview with Japanese gaming site Softbank Games, where he also hinted that another source was the Sentō Yōsei Yukikaze series, described by him as "a certain novel".
 * During the Operation Future Prospect trailer for Ace Combat Infinity, an image of the X-02 is seen in a similar paint scheme to the ADFX-01 -Block1- . As of July 2016, this livery for the X-02 is still unavailable.
 * Although the X-02s deployed to engage Mobius 1 during Operation Katina had a UCAV configuration, radio chatter can still be heard from enemy pilots.