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The mainstay of GDI's air force, the Orca Fighter is a versatile and lightweight attack aircraft. Fast, lightly armoured and armed with dual missile launchers, the Orca Fighter can deliver a missile barrage to any location on the battlefield within moments of receiving orders. However, like all aircraft, the Orca must return to a helipad in order to reload its weapons.
- Tiberian Sun manual(src)

The Orca fighter was the basic GDI aircraft used during the Second Tiberium War and the Firestorm Conflict. It was the successor to the ORCA assault craft from the First Tiberium War.

Background[]

The acronym "Orca" was officially adopted as a codename for the family of aircraft developed on the base of the original ORCA assault craft from the First Tiberium War.

By the Second Tiberium War, the original concept had been overhauled and redesigned, resulting in the creation of the Orca Fighter, which replaced both the original ORCA and even most GDI fighter jets.

The fighter itself remained a VTOL-based aerial assault vehicle, with revamped and miniaturized engines. The armour was upgraded and the aircraft was armed with Hellfire missiles. Compared to the original ORCA, the Orca Fighter carried fewer but larger & more powerful missiles, while the chin-mounted minigun was removed, as the aircraft's design had come to be optimized as an anti-armour strike fighter, a role in which the minigun would have been of little to no use.

An additional role for the fighter is providing cover for the slower, more vulnerable Orca Bombers, distracting and/or suppressing enemy anti-aircraft defenses until the bombers can reach their targets.

The Orca Fighter was replaced by the Orca Mk. III by the Third Tiberium War.

Game unit[]

Away we go!
- ORCA Fighter pilot, commencing attack run as ordered

A single Orca Fighter's payload is usually insufficient for destroying most ground vehicles, the missiles are almost completely worthless against infantry, and destroying structures requires a great number of Orca Fighters to accomplish. For this reason, it is overshadowed by the Orca Bomber.

Also despite being called a "fighter", the Orca Fighter is not capable of engaging enemy air units in-game.

Orca Fighters launch their missiles in volleys of two and shift position a short distance between each volley, which may lead them into or out of the range of anti-aircraft fire.

AI behavior[]

Orca Fighters controlled by the AI have the following attack patterns:

All difficulties[]

  • 1x targeting structures or vehicles
    • This task force may be accompanied by 1 additional Orca Fighter (Easy only)
  • 1x guarding friendly base

Easy[]

  • 1x targeting Construction Yards, production structures, power plants, Tiberium Refineries, Upgrade Center or Missile Silo
    • This task force may be accompanied by 1 Orca Bomber
    • This task force will only be ordered to attack power plants if enemy base is at low power mode

Medium/Hard[]

  • 1x targeting Construction Yards, production structures, power plants, Tiberium Refineries, Upgrade Center or Missile Silo
    • This task force may be accompanied by 1 Orca Bomber
    • This task force will only be ordered to attack power plants if enemy base is at low power mode

Trivia[]

  • A crashed Orca fighter is seen in Lands of Lore III in a portal world that turns out to be a Nod base.

Gallery[]

Videos[]

An Orca fighter squadron attacking a Nod base

See also[]

  • Harpy, Nod attack helicopter counterpart
TS GDI logo Global Defense Initiative Second Tiberium War Arsenal TS GDI logo
CNCR Orca Ren ORCA Aircraft CNCTW Orca Gunship Cameo
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