CFA-44 Nosferatu

The CFA-44 Nosferatu is an fictional twin-engined, delta-wing carrier fighter designed by Estovakia, featured in Ace Combat 6: Fires of Liberation. Named after the Romanian term for "vampire", Its design gives it unrivaled mobility.

Ace Combat 6: Fires of Liberation
The CFA-44 makes its only campaign appearance towards the end of mission #13, "The Liberation of Gracemeria", where it it flown by Strigon leader Ilya Pasternak in a last stand for the occupying Estovakian forces. Emblazoned in a red-black paint scheme, Pasternak's Nosferatu is armed with All Direction Multipurpose Missile launch pods, and is accompanied by a massive swarm of UAV-45 combat drones.

Completing Campaign mode in Hard difficulty will unlock the CFA-44 in the Hangar screen in the next New Game+ playthrough, at the cost of $229,500 credits. As a player aircraft, the CFA-44 possesses maximum mobility and air-to-air statistics, at the expense of low defense and stability. It is armed with a 300-missile payload and dual machine guns. Its high mobility allows experienced players to weave through enemy fire; however its maneuverability comes at the cost of a flaw with high-G turning: the aircraft tends to get stuck in high-G, and will quickly bleed out speed. This often leads to the aircraft stalling, which can prove fatal in combat situations.

The CFA-44 makes an appearance in Co-op Battle stage #3, based on "Ragno Fortress". If the conditions are met, players will have to face Pasternak as the "level boss". It is also featured in the downloadable mode Ace of Aces, where it is flown by Victor Voychek in mission #1, and by both Estovakian pilots in the mode's remade "Heavy Command Cruiser."

Online-wise, the Nosferatu is often disliked by players. Even though it may look otherwise, the EML will not destroy all enemy player aircraft in a single shot. Aircraft with enough defense, such as an standard A-10A, can survive a slug impact. A player kill with the CFA-44 will net 500 points, as opposed to lower-tier aircraft, which can earn even 2,000 points (in the case of the F-16C) with one kill.

Paint schemes

 * Emmerian: Basic gray w/ light brown cockpit.
 * Estovakian: Black-and-red Strigon paint scheme.
 * Special: White w/ blue wings.

Downloadable skins

 * CFA-44 -PROTOTYPE-
 * CFA-44 -ACES-
 * CFA-44 Nosferatu -Razgriz-

Ace Combat: Assault Horizon
The CFA-44 returns as a DLC aircraft in Ace Combat: Assault Horizon. It was released together with AV-8B Harrier II Plus, as well as online maps Tokyo and Honolulu as a pack on 20th December 2011. It uses the same special weapons from Ace Combat 6. U nlike in Ace Combat 6, the ADMM is avalible online, though the missles have recived a major downgrade compared to the ones in AC6.

Armaments

 * All-Direction Multi-purpose Missile
 * Electro-Magnetic Launcher
 * Electromagnetic Counter Measure Pod

Colors

 * Color 1: Republic of Emmeria Air Force grey drab.
 * Color 2: Estovakian Navy. Prototype scheme.
 * Color 3: Estovakian Air Force Strigon Squadron scheme.

Trivia

 * Its name is a reference to a Romanian vampire legend. Nosferatu is quite literally the Romanian word for vampire. A Nosferatu is classified as a Strigoi, the vampire-like undead in Romanian Mythology from which the name Strigon is derived.
 * The lack of a one-piece cockpit, the large number of protruding airfoils, and the lack of a smooth airframe suggests that the CFA-44 is not very stealthy, even though the gameplay contradicts this. It is possible though that the paint used is a radar-absorbent paint.
 * The CFA-44 is similar in design to the Strigon Team's signature aircraft, the Su-33D Flanker, suggesting that the Nosferatu concept was derivated from the Flanker-D. In addition, comparing the Estovakian and SP paints respectively on the Su-33 and CFA-44 shows that they bear the same colors and patterns, but with the colors switching (ex: on Strigon's Su-33, black is the primary color, while on Pasternak's CFA-44, red is the primary color).
 * The plane appears in Tekken 6's Scenario Mode as an Easter egg.
 * The Nosferatu cockpit is reused on the GAF-1 Varcolac.
 * The XFA-27, when its wings are swept back, bears a striking resemblance to the Nosferatu.
 * The nose and cabin section of the Nosferatu appears to have been taken from the X-02 Wyvern. This is somewhat surprising in a sense considering the fact that both the Nosferatu and Wyvern's airframes are inspired by the Flanker-class fighters' airframe.
 * In Ace Combat: Assault Horizon, the Nosferatu's onboard computer voice is taken from the Russian aircraft affirming a stronger connection to the real-world inspiration of the Nosferatu's airframe to the Su-27 Flanker family.
 * There is a strong possibility the Nosferatu may have either been co-produced by or used technology from Grunder Industries since the pilot Lorenz Riedel, a former participant in the Belkan War and defector to Estovakia(based on his Assault Records in Ace Combat 6) had brought with him information on the weapons technology of Belka's weaponry in which the Aigaion was built from (likely based from the XB-0 Hresvelg.) Another strong piece of evidence to support this is the same kind of machine gun sound used on both the ADXF-01 Morgan and ADF-01 Falken, aircraft built by Grunder is used for the Nosferatu's dual machine guns. That, and the Nosferatu's ECM pods also may have been based on the ECM pods used by ADFX-01 Morgan(the only fighter with similar weaponry during that time Lorenz Reidel had information on) used back in the Belkan War.