Paper Tiger

Paper Tiger is the fourth mission of the original Ace Combat 3: Electrosphere. This mission sees UPEO once again join forces with Abyssal Dision and Keith Bryan from the General Resource Defense Force to destroy Neucom warships amassing at Megafloat. This mission is the first in which the player can change which story path they follow, leading to the General Resource (I) Arc or the UPEO (II) Arc.

Plot
Neucom is amassing ships at their mobile city, Megafloat. A preemptive strike is authorised to destroy these ships. With Rena Hirose's Su-37R Super Flanker-R out of commission, Nemo, Fiona Chris Fitzgerald and Erich Jager sortie alongside Dision and Keith to attack the Neucom ships.

Once the ships are destroyed and any remaining hostiles have been neutralised (depending on the speed of the player's destruction of the ships), the UPEO and General Resource units are ordered to abort the attack and withdraw as a ceasefire between Neucom and General Resource is reached. Dision proclaims that the ceasefire is just something decided by some old men and that times are already changing.

Dision offers Nemo a place at General Resource, saying that UPEO is nothing more than a stepping stone if they want to do with the world. Fiona sees this as a trap, and Keith says that trying to turn Nemo to General Resource is too dangerous, at which point the player can decide whether to accept the offer and abandon UPEO, or remain loyal to UPEO and deny Dision's offer.

Mission Briefing
''Neucom is amassing its naval fleet at its mobile marine city Megafloat. Strike Neucom before preparations are complete! It should be noted that not only are there numerous civilian facilities of Megafloat, but also civilian ships in the harbor sectors. In executing the operation, you are to absolutely avoid damaging them!''