The Starhound Class Viper is the current and latest starfighter of the Colonial Fleet and has been in service with the Fleet for just over twenty yahrens now. It is fast, sleek, and armed with two powerful turbo lasers that can destroy Cylon Raiders with ease. Equipped with turbos and inverse motion braking thrusters, its can also fly rings around the opponent. With Turbos blazing, the Viper can achieve light speed.

The fact that it is usually flown by Warriors who are exceptionally trained does not help the Cylons much either.

An interesting fact about Colonial Vipers is that the term 'Viper' is simply the name of the fighter craft as a whole group. There have alway been Vipers in the Colonial Navy, but of many differing classes having differing capabilities.

Vipers operate in squadrons. Usually, a standard squadron is around 75 craft, and whenever possible, large craft will carry Vipers in squadrons. However, some craft cannot carry a full squadron, and thus a lot of captial ships will be seen operating with 'Long' and 'Short' squadrons.

Missile Viper

One variant of the Viper which sees a fair share of duty, is the Missile Viper. The missile Viper is effectively a normal Viper, but it adds a missile launcher (and 6 missiles) to the underside of the forward fuseluge for greater offensive firepower. The trade-off is that the additional weight does slow the craft down a fraction, and the range is considerably reduced if the craft is to continue with hyperspeed patrols. However, if the missile Viper is used as a non-hyperspeed attack craft, most feel that the additional firepower outweighs any of the penalties of range and speed.

Master Fighter Chart Extract: