History VideoGame / AceCombat7SkiesUnknown

** It's very heavily implied the [[spoiler:Erusean Radicals]] are supporting Torres' quest for nuclear terrorism, as they pass on intel to one of his sailors despite Erusea trying to apprehend Torres when the Alicorn launches.

* LetNoCrisisGoToWaste: During Operation Domino, one of the Erusean port facility staff jokes that all the freshly-sunk ships are going to net them a fortune once the war's over, and suggests buying stocks in salvage companies in advance.

** Mihaly flies an Su-[=30SM=]. This plane is specialized version of the thrust-vectoring [=Su-30MKI=] and MKM. [[spoiler:In Mission 18, he enters the fight in a X-02S Strike Wyvern, an evolution of the [[UsefulNotes/PlayStation2 PS2]] games' own forward-swept variable wing X-02 that comes equipped with a railgun.]]

** DLC Mission 02, [["https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7iFaiHRyrEw Anchorhead Raid",]] is, [[ExactlyWhatItSaysOnTheTin as the name suggests]], a raid on the Erusean port city of Anchorhead, with the goal of crippling Erusea's consolidated naval forces. Not only that, but they receive reports that Captain Matias Torres himself is bringing the ''Alicorn'' to Anchorhead (ostensibly to join the Erusean naval forces), providing another opportunity to stop the super-submarine before it causes even more damage. The LRSSG sets out once again, aiming to hobble the Erusean Navy and sink the ''Alicorn'' in one fell swoop, but treachery follows their every step, and enemies lurk in places they least expect.

** DLC Mission 03, "Ten Million Relief Plan", serves as the conclusion to the three-mission DLC story arc. Torres plans on using the ''Alicorn'''s weaponry to devastate the Osean capital city of Oured, last seen in ''[[VideoGame/AceCombat5TheUnsungWar Ace Combat 5: The Unsung War]]''. Trigger's squadron conducts a desperate hunt in the waters off southwestern Usea to find and destroy the ''Alicorn'' before Torres and his crew can kill a million people with it, and Torres does not intend to go down without a fight. With time running out, our heroes desperately chase after the mad captain, but there's nothing more dangerous than a {{cornered|Rattlesnake}} lunatic...

** The "After the Blue Dove" short story in ''Aces at War'' explains [[spoiler:what exactly Nagase was doing on the Pilgrim One space mission: Osean astronomers detected a second asteroid on a collision course with the planet, so they arranged for a secret mission to send a team of astronauts to destroy or divert the asteroid, which ended up being the Pilgrim One mission, and Nagase was selected to be the ship's pilot]].

* AlphaStrike: During the climax of Operation Daredevil, Osean [[spoiler:and Erusean]] forces, from bombers to warships and every air squadron available, fire everything they have at the final Arsenal Bird. The attack fails when the Arsenal Bird activates its APS barrier and {{No-Sell}}s every single warhead coming at it, before crippling the navy and most of the air force. [[spoiler:It's only when Cossette shuts down the shield that Strider Squadron has a real chance at taking down the airborne carrier once and for all.]]

** If you run out of standard missiles and go to fire again, your plane will reload 2 more that you can then fire off. You technically have infinite ammo, but the reload time is even longer than it would usually be.

Announced near the end of 2015, the first trailer, [[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=aIqAS4avNsE found here,]] shows an Osean F-22 Raptor chasing after an Erusean Su-30M2 as they approach a space elevator called the "Lighthouse". [[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=O9kLbrO2vBI A second trailer,]] showcased at the [=PlayStation=] Experience 2016, provides more exposition, establishing that the two countries are at war. See [[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=T_nDzM0ELPM here]] for the E3 2017 trailer, and [[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Zc2qUPHAlas here]] for the Gamescom 2018 trailer. The game was released on January 18, 2019 on Platform/PlayStation4 and Platform/XboxOne, and February 1st for PC; the first multi-platform release since ''VideoGame/AceCombatAssaultHorizon''. ''Ace Combat 7: Skies Unknown: [[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wXc3bUw8A6o Deluxe Edition]]'' is set to release on the Platform/NintendoSwitch on July 11, 2024.

Announced near the end of 2015, the first trailer, [[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=aIqAS4avNsE found here,]] shows an Osean F-22 Raptor chasing after an Erusean Su-30M2 as they approach a space elevator called the "Lighthouse". [[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=O9kLbrO2vBI A second trailer,]] showcased at the [=PlayStation=] Experience 2016, provides more exposition, establishing that the two countries are at war. See [[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=T_nDzM0ELPM here]] for the E3 2017 trailer, and [[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Zc2qUPHAlas here]] for the Gamescom 2018 trailer. The game was released on January 18, 2019 on Platform/PlayStation4 and Platform/XboxOne, and February 1st for PC; the first multi-platform release since ''VideoGame/AceCombatAssaultHorizon''. A Platform/NintendoSwitch version is set to release on July 11, 2024.

Announced near the end of 2015, the first trailer, [[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=aIqAS4avNsE found here,]] shows an Osean F-22 Raptor chasing after an Erusean Su-30M2 as they approach a space elevator called the "Lighthouse". [[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=O9kLbrO2vBI A second trailer,]] showcased at the [=PlayStation=] Experience 2016, provides more exposition, establishing that the two countries are at war. See [[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=T_nDzM0ELPM here]] for the E3 2017 trailer, and [[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Zc2qUPHAlas here]] for the Gamescom 2018 trailer. The game was released on January 18, 2019 on UsefulNotes/PlayStation4 and UsefulNotes/XboxOne, and February 1st for PC; the first multi-platform release since ''VideoGame/AceCombatAssaultHorizon''.

** As part of [[spoiler: Strider]] Squadron, Trigger has to perform a high-speed canyon run while dodging searchlights.
** The final mission features the most intense tunnel run in the series' history: [[spoiler:a supersonic chase through a tunnel that makes the tunnel under Sudentor from ''VideoGame/AceCombat5TheUnsungWar'' look positively spacious. The tunnels are barely wider than some of the larger planes, even small bends become hard to correct for, and gates close in front of you. You then have to pull a tight bank in an enclosed circular underground chamber, avoid crashing into one of the pillars in the middle, and fly through the hollow space elevator tower to escape. Here, it's basically a ''vertical'' tunnel mission, where your plane will be affected by the wind and gravity as you avoid elevator pods and walls until you finally reach the exit, ascending over ''12 kilometers'' completely vertically]].

* ArtificialBrilliance: {{Invoked}} with the Arsenal Bird. Any attempt to destroy it from a long distance is met with swarms of drones TakingTheBullet. If you fly in closer, the drones will [[InstantDeathRadius simultaneously target you]] and [[MacrossMissileMassacre spam missiles that will eat up ''and'' get past your flares]].

* AcceptableBreaksFromReality: Most airplanes actually cannot fly straight up; their "thrust-to-weight ratio" is too low. But implementing this would run the risk of making the final mission UnwinnableByMistake. So the game fudges the physics in the name of fun.

** Mission 12 - Stonehenge Defensive features a reworked version of of "[[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=e9U-qBU8fos&pp=ygUXQUM0IHN0b25laGVuZ2UncyBhdHRhY2s%3D Stonehenge's Attack]]".

* DarkerAndEdgier: In addition to having [[AnyoneCanDie one of the higher body counts in the series]], ''Skies Unknown'' touches on some fairly dark themes, such as the usage of convicts as military assets, the efficacy of drone warfare, and the utter chaos of war in general and its effect on the civilian population, as well as deconstructing the typical ''Ace Combat'' player through the character of Mihaly (see below). [[spoiler: This trope especially comes into play in the last act when the collapse of Usea's satellite network plunges Erusea into civil war, sparks refugee crises across the continent, and very nearly allowed two highly advanced drones to launch an apocalyptic RobotWar.]] There is also [[ArsonMurderAndJaywalking a lot more swearing]].

* AnyoneCanDie: This game has a noticeably higher major character body count than previous games in the series, which is especially evident when you join the [[WeHaveReserves expendable 444th Fighter Squadron]]. [[spoiler:By the end of the game, you and Count are the only named survivors of said squadron, and other allied squadrons don't fare much better either. [[spoiler:Ex-President Vincent Harling]] returns [[SuddenSequelDeathSyndrome only to be killed off]], and even Princess Rosa's adorable dog is killed!]]

** Unlike the above Greek theme, the Erusean super submarine ''[[MeaningfulName Alicorn]]'' is Latin for the horn of the unicorn, keeping up with the mytholocal horse ThemeNaming adapted by its predecessors ''Scinfaxi'' and ''Hrimfaxi''.[[labelnote:Explanation]](Adapted from ''Skinfaxi'' and ''Hrimfaxi'', the horses of Dagr and Nótt, the personifications of Day and Night in Norse mythology.)[[/labelnote]] This becomes even more meaningful when the ''Alicorn'' [[spoiler:reveals its massive rail cannon that makes up part of the runway, which is raised upward from its hull, protuding into the sky ''just like a unicorn's horn''.]]

* RuleOfThree: Several important details of the game often occurred three time:

** You fought Mihaly A. Shilage, aka Mister X, and the Arsenal Birds three times each throughout the game.
** Trigger flew for three squadrons throughout the story: from Mage Squadron, Spare Squadron, and later [[spoiler:Strider Squadron]].
** Trigger gets three 'sin lines' on his tailwings when he joined Spare Squadron, which he would later fashioned to become the [[spoiler:''Three Strikes'' symbol once he joined Strider Squadron]].

** Even the [=DLC=] missions get in on this. There are three SP missions, all of which involved Captain Matias Torres, the rogue Erusean captain of the ''Alicorn'' Super-Scinfaxi class submarine, which is itself the ''third'' super submarine that Yuktobania developed following [[VideoGame/AceCombat5TheUnsungWar the Scinfaxi and the Hrimfaxi]] that ended up fighting Osean pilots once again.

** The Mission Briefing officer for the LRSSG has the same BadassBaritone as the [[VideoGame/AceCombat5TheUnsungWar Mission Briefing officer of the Sand Island Airbase.]] They are implied to be the same person, as they shared the same voice actor, that being Creator/JamiesonPrice.

* AcceptableBreaksFromReality: Most airplanes actually cannot fly straight up; their "thrust-to-weight ratio" is too low. But implementing this would make the final mission impossible unless you were flying one of those specific craft. (To be fair, you're likely to be; most of them are at or near the the end of the aircraft tree.) So the game fudges the physics in the name of fun.

** As usual for the series, though it's taken UpToEleven here. The 444th Fighter Squadron is composed of expendable convicts that the Osean Air Force does not hesitate to send into suicidal battles with impossible odds and almost zero hope to survive, including an intense air-to-ground operation in a series of cloudy valleys while under the watch of a powerful [[KillSat satellite-based anti-air defense system]].

** Osea is heavily implied to have some of the same real-world political problems of modern-day (as of 2019) America: harsh laws targeting the poor in what's heavily implied to be a scheme for cheap penal labour, an over-budgeted trigger-happy military that inflicts collateral damage wherever it goes, neo-colonialist imperialist tendencies dressed up as international aid that wind up screwing over other countries' economies, and an overcrowded prison system. It ''still'' isn't the aggressor in the Lighthouse War, and [[spoiler:it turns out Harling genuinely wanted the ISEV as an international effort for all countries, and not for Osea to gain the upper hand in the space race. On top of this, it's stated the Royal Family was goaded into accepting war for Erusea's own imperialist tendencies by military officers who wanted world domination at best, and at worst, total genocide like Torres]].

** The Tactical Laser System (TLS) packs a powerful punch, but is strictly boresighted (denying you the ability to lead your target like with a conventional gun), can't penetrate clouds, and requires you to face your target while you fire, which means you can't maneuver away from enemy missiles. Without the ability to lead your target (unless you're ''very'' dexterous), you also risk not doing enough damage against smaller targets or just plain missing them.

* BalkanizeMe: By the game's third act, [[spoiler:with everyone having lost central communications and mapping, national borders are thrown into disarray. At least one long-defunct kingdom declares itself independent, and it's heavily implied that even if Erusea doesn't completely cease to exist, it'll only ever be a shadow of its pre-war self.]]

Announced near the end of 2015, the first trailer, [[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=aIqAS4avNsE found here,]] shows an Osean F-22 Raptor chasing after an Erusean Su-30M2 as they approach a space elevator called the "Lighthouse". [[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=O9kLbrO2vBI A second trailer,]] showcased at the [=PlayStation=] Experience 2016, provides more exposition, establishing that the two countries are at war. See [[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=T_nDzM0ELPM here]] for the E3 2017 trailer, and [[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Zc2qUPHAlas here]] for the Gamescom 2018 trailer. The game was released on January 18 2019 on UsefulNotes/PlayStation4 and UsefulNotes/XboxOne, and February 1st for PC; the first multi-platform release since ''VideoGame/AceCombatAssaultHorizon''.

Three years have passed since [[VideoGame/AceCombat6FiresOfLiberation the last major continental war]] and now the Kingdom of Erusea, [[VideoGame/AceCombat04ShatteredSkies formerly the Federal Republic of Erusea]], has come into conflict with the Osean Federation. Princess Rosa Cossette D'Elise claims that Osea has violated her kingdom's sovereignty by forcing the construction of their SpaceElevator on their territory, and has declared war in retaliation. You take on the role of Mage 2, codename Trigger. After a rescue mission goes wrong, Trigger finds himself being thrown into the 444th Fighter Squadron -- aka the Spare Squadron -- composed of other prisoners, where he must work off his crimes while keeping Osea safe. The game is set between May and November 2019 of the Strangereal calendar, taking place a year before the [[VideoGame/AceCombatXSkiesOfDeception Leasath-Aurelia war]] in October 2020.

Announced near the end of 2015, the first trailer, [[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=aIqAS4avNsE found here,]] shows an Osean F-22 Raptor chasing after an Erusean Su-30M2 as they approach a SpaceElevator called the "Lighthouse." [[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=O9kLbrO2vBI A second trailer,]] showcased at the [=PlayStation=] Experience 2016, provides more exposition, establishing that the two countries are at war. See [[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=T_nDzM0ELPM here]] for the E3 2017 trailer, and [[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Zc2qUPHAlas here]] for the Gamescom 2018 trailer. The game was released on January 18 2019 on UsefulNotes/PlayStation4 and UsefulNotes/XboxOne, and February 1st for PC; the first multi-platform release since ''VideoGame/AceCombatAssaultHorizon''.

* DLC Mission 01, "Unexpected Visitor," introduces OIA Agent David North, who has discovered the location of the ''Alicorn,'' a massive Erusean [[MilitaryMashupMachine submarine aircraft carrier]] with the strike power of an entire fleet and which, most alarmingly, has WMD capabilities. Anxious to capture the ''Alicorn'' to use as a bargaining chip against the Eruseans in peace negotiations, Osean High Command tasks Trigger's squadron to assist the operation. But the captain of the ''Alicorn'' is much more than he seems...and may have an agenda of his own for his ship.
* DLC Mission 02, "[[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7iFaiHRyrEw Anchorhead Raid]]," is, [[ExactlyWhatItSaysOnTheTin as the name suggests,]] a raid on the Erusean port of Anchorhead, with the goal of crippling Erusea's consolidated naval forces. Not only that, but they receive reports that Torres himself is bringing the ''Alicorn'' to Anchorhead, ostensibly to join the Erusean naval forces, providing another opportunity to stop the super-submarine before it causes even more damage. The LRSSG sets out once again, aiming to hobble the Erusean Navy and sink the ''Alicorn'' in one fell swoop, but treachery follows their every step, and their enemies lurk in places they least expect it.
* DLC Mission 03, "Ten Million Relief Plan", serves as the conclusion to the three-mission DLC story arc. Torres is planning on using the ''Alicorn'''s weaponry to devastate the Osean capital city of Oured, last seen in ''[[VideoGame/AceCombat5TheUnsungWar Ace Combat 5: The Unsung War]]''. Trigger's squadron conducts a desperate hunt in the waters off southwestern Usea to find and destroy the ''Alicorn'' before Torres and his crew can kill a million people with it, and Torres does not intend to go down without a fight. With time running out, our heroes desperately chase after the mad captain, but there's nothing more dangerous than a cornered lunatic...
* 25th Anniversary Original Aircraft Series -- Released on October 28th, 2020. Adds the [[VideoGame/AceCombat6FiresOfLiberation CFA-44 Nosferatu]], [[VideoGame/AceCombatAssaultHorizon ASF-X]] [[VideoGame/AceCombatInfinity Shinden]], and the [[VideoGame/AceCombat2 XFA-27]] to the roster, as well as more plane skins and emblems.
* 25th Anniversary Experimental Planes Series -- Released on April 28th, 2021. Added the F-15 S/MDT, F-16XL, and FB-22 Strike Raptor, as well as more skins and emblems.
* 25th Anniversary Cutting-edge Aircraft Series -- Released on November 22nd, 2021. Added the F/A-18F Super Hornet Block III, F-2A -Super Kai-, and [=MiG=]-35D Super Fulcrum as playable aircraft, as well as more skins and emblems.
* ''Film/TopGunMaverick'' Aircraft Set -- Released on May 26th, 2022 as a {{Crossover}} with the release of the film. Added the [=DarkStar=], F/A-18E Super Hornet, F/A-18E Super Hornet "Top Gun Maverick" version, F-14A Tomcat, F-14A Tomcat "Top Gun Maverick" version, and the 5th Generation Fighter[[note]]The movie's official designation for an advanced Su-57[[/note]] from the film as playable aircraft, as well as Top Gun-themed skins and emblems.

** Trigger is accused of shooting down [[spoiler:Harling]]'s plane while going after some drones which were harassing him, which gets him sent to a penal squadron. [[spoiler:However, it's later revealed that Trigger ''didn't'' fire the missile which killed Harling. Unbeknownst to everyone at the time, Erusea had gained the ability to hack into the Osean satellite-based IFF systems, allowing them to make their drones appear on radar as Osean allied fighters. One of said disguised drones was deployed into the battle around the Space Elevator and managed to shoot down Harling before making its retreat, leaving Trigger (the allied unit in closest proximity to Harling at the time the drone took its shot) to take the fall.]]
** Count shoots down [[spoiler:Full Band]] due to his IFF designating him as an enemy after Erusean drones spoof Osean IFF signals and, on suggestion from the rest of the group, Bandog hastily redesignates everyone not formed up around Trigger as hostile. [[spoiler:It's implied that Bandog did this on purpose (Count certainly believes so), given Full Band spent much of the mission talking about some highly-sensitive data he'd hacked and some later revelations regarding Osea's war plan.]]

** An inevitable result of the plane customization system is that your plane will significantly outperform its baseline specs. Insofar as aesthetics, Trigger himself has two: The first is his custom emblem of a wolf clutching a revolver in its jaws, and the second, gained during his stay with the 444th, is three white "strikes" across his tail, [[spoiler: which are later appropriated into a set of three jagged claw marks when Trigger joins the LRSSG, and earning him the enemy nickname "Three Strikes."]]
** Mihaly's Su-30SM is heavily modified, eliminating the [[GuyInBack second seat]] in favor of a system that automates most of the GuyInBack's tasks and records his flight data in great detail and the plane displays ''extreme'' maneuverability. [[spoiler: His two-seat X-02S Strike Wyvern boasts similar automation and flight recording enhancements.]]
* AIIsACrapshoot:
** [[spoiler: The drones utilized by the Erusean military begin to go rogue following the collapse of Usea's satellite network as the strategic AI that controls them does not know when to cease its function. Schroeder first notices this when the F/A-18 drone escorts of Cossette's transport stopped obeying his orders over Anchorhead Bay]].
** [[spoiler:ALEX, David North's AI assistant in the three DLC missions (Unexpected Vistor, Anchorhead Raid, and Ten Million Relief Plan) appears to be completely benign though, capable of sassing North when his train of thought strays into "trash" territory, and even coining her own variant of the game's oft-repeated refrain of "Stick with Trigger and you'll make it."]]
* AirborneAircraftCarrier: The two Arsenal Birds built in concert with the Lighthouse are a more thought-through example than most. They are entirely uncrewed and only carry shorter ranged [[AttackDrone Unmanned Aerial Vehicles]] instead of conventional fighter jets. They stay aloft perpetually, given thrust by sets of propellers with giant blades powered by electrical engines that are remotely fed power beamed from the Lighthouse itself. As the top of the Lighthouse terminates in geosynchronous orbit, this effectively gives the Arsenal Birds a range covering approximately half the planet if they ever interpreted their programming to send them elsewhere beyond Erusea.

** As usual for the series, though it's taken up to eleven here. The 444th Fighter Squadron which Trigger is a part of is composed of expendable convicts that the Osean Air Force does not hesitate to send them into suicidal battles, hence most of their missions pit the squadron against impossible odds with almost zero hope to survive, including an intense air-to-ground operation in a series of cloudy valleys while under the watch of a powerful satellite-based anti-air defense system.
** In Mission 6, Trigger can fly into a tunnel that cuts through a hill, resulting in a LampshadeHanging conversation where Bandog assumes that Trigger crashed until a Spare points out that he invoked this trope.

** The final mission features the most intense tunnel run in the series' history, engaging in a supersonic chase through a tunnel that makes the tunnel under Sudentor from ''VideoGame/AceCombat5TheUnsungWar'' look positively spacious. The tunnels are barely wider than some of the larger planes, even small bends become hard to correct for, and gates close in front of you. Finally, after you finish your mission in there, you have to fly upward through the corridor in the space elevator itself to escape. You need to pull a tight bank in an enclosed circular underground chamber before quickly pull your plane upward to avoid crashing into one of the pillars to even get into the elevator shaft in the first place. Afterward, it's basically a tunnel mission ''vertically'', where your plane will be affected by the wind and gravity as you try to maintain your plane through the long corridor, avoiding elevators and walls until you finally reach the exit, ascending over ''12 kilometers'' completely vertically.

** The [=Weapons UAVs=] deployed by the FinalBoss are tiny copies of the X-45 experimental drone.

** Osea is heavily implied to have some of the same real-world political problems of modern-day (as of 2019) America: harsh laws targeting the poor in what's heavily implied to be a scheme for cheap penal labour, an over-budgeted trigger-happy military that inflicts collateral damage wherever it goes, neocolonialist imperialist tendencies dressed up as international aid that wind up screwing over other countries' economies, and an overstuffed prison system. It ''still'' isn't the aggressor in the Lighthouse War, and [[spoiler:it turns out Harling genuinely wanted the Space Elevator as an international effort for all countries, and not for Osea to gain the upper hand in the space race. On top of this, it's stated the Royal Family was goaded and groomed into accepting war for Erusea's own imperialist tendencies by military officers who wanted world domination at best, and at worst, total genocide like Torres.]]
** When [[spoiler:the Erusean Civil War breaks out]], both sides commit massive war crimes: [[spoiler:the Conservatives]] begin shooting Belkans on sight, even plain-ol' civilians and ''fully naturalized soldiers'', which [[spoiler:accidentally tips the war in Osea's favour by causing a key soldier in Erusea's frame-up of Trigger to defect to Osea]]... and then you have the [[spoiler:Radicals,]] who want to dominate the world and outright massacre ''civilians leaving their war zones, including children'' regardless of nationality for being "cowards" not reveling in the glory of war, up to [[spoiler:trying to kill the Princess herself for daring to lead a refugee convoy.]]
* AllThereInTheManual: Several instances:
** The 2019 edition of the ''Aces at War: A History'' book included with the Aces at War physical edition of ''Ace Combat 7'' for [=PlayStation=] 4 and Xbox One show that [[spoiler:AWACS Argus was fed false information about Osean Captain Karl being an impostor which he believed, causing him order the destruction of the helicopter containing TheMole Erusean General Labarthe and Captain Karl. An Osean [=F-16=] complies with said orders and shoots down the chopper, killing both men, causing Operation Gorgon to fail and become a radical Erusean victory.]]
** It's implied in-game that Spare Squadron's missions have an additional motive, [[spoiler:as several convicts notice the 444th keeps encountering Erusean drones. In addition, Mission 11's briefing officer mentions the loss of many pilots in order to find an opening in Erusea's auto-intercept drone network. A section of ''Aces at War: A History'' on the Lighthouse War confirms this was part of Osean strategy, which established both the LRSSG for long-range strikes at Erusea's capital and used Spare Squadron to test the auto-intercept network for weaknesses.]]
** What were the supply ships launched in Mission 17 carrying? ''Aces at War'' reveals the supply ships launched from Tyler Island's mass driver contain ammunition and fuel for the MQ-101s, as well as engine lubricant and munitions (such as Helios missiles) for the Arsenal Birds.
** The "After the Blue Dove" short story in the ''Aces at War'' book explains [[spoiler:what exactly Nagase was doing on the Pilgrim One space mission. Osean astronomers detected a second asteroid on a collision course with the planet, so they arranged for a secret mission to send a team of astronauts to destroy or divert the asteroid, which ended up being the Pilgrim One mission, and Nagase was selected to be the ship's pilot.]]

** The Space Elevator gets occupied by the Eruseans at the outset of the war. The nearby city of Selatapura, which seceded from Erusea, is also taken.
** The [=LRSSG=] hijack an important Erusean base under cover of night and [[AirstrikeImpossible through a heavily-guarded canyon system]].
** In a "heroic" example, the [=LRSSG=] later [[spoiler: are forced to take over an old Erusean castle that was housing both Erusean conservatives (read: anti-war soldiers trying to survive) and refugees to resupply for their final battle against the Loyalists in the Space Elevator.]]
* AlphaStrike: During the climax of Operation Daredevil, Osean [[spoiler:and Erusean]] forces fire everything they have at the final Arsenal Bird, from bombers to warships and every squadron available. The attack fails because the Arsenal Bird activates its APS barrier and neuters every single warhead coming at it, before crippling the navy and most of the air force. [[spoiler:It's only when Cossette shuts down the shield that Strider Squadron has a real chance at taking down the airborne carrier once and for all.]]
** Also possible to the player if they select any of the multi-[=AAM=]s. Firing a bunch of them at a single target and immediately following them with two standard missiles will often result in more incoming warheads than the soon-to-be-disassembled bandit knows how to handle. This is by far the most efficient way to take out anyone in Sol Squadron.
* AndThereWasMuchRejoicing: Allowing Erusean bombers to destroy the airbase (and thus kill [=McKinsey=]) in Mission 5 earns you a mission failure, but also makes everyone in Spare Squadron ''cheer''. Given that [=McKinsey=] is ostensibly the most hateful character in the game, it comes as nothing short of cathartic.

** Checkpoints retain your score, and if you haven't taken any damage prior to a checkpoint, retain that information as well if you go down afterwards (or manually restart from them), making them a huge frustration-saver on a NoDamageRun, a machine gun only run, or when going for S ranks. As an added layer of frustration relief, restarting from a checkpoint restores all of your ammo. The only drawback is that your overall mission time keeps ticking when you restart from a checkpoint, even if there haven't actually been any yet.
** There is a significant first time completion bonus on missions that helps make sure that you can afford a high-end plane on your first time through the game, even if you're struggling to get rank bonuses and thus offsetting UnstableEquilibrium.

** Mihaly's [[spoiler: EML]] can't take you down in a single hit. So long as you have taken less than a certain amount of damage, it will only take you to 99%, no matter how much damage you had taken before. It's even {{Lampshade|Hanging}}d by Mihaly, who notes that the shot partially missed, and if you ''had'' been shot down immediately, it wouldn't be much of a fight.
** Using the target designator in Mission 13 does not violate the requirements for the machine guns only medal, so long as it is only used to destroy the ballistic missile silos. Though, alternatively, they can be ignored entirely, which just results in more missiles to shoot down in the second stage of the mission, rather than an immediate failure.
** In Missions 16 and 17, holding down the target button will help identify unknown targets much faster and from further away, especially in the clear-HUD view which lets you zoom in on a target with that function. Your allies will eventually identify unknowns on their own if given enough time.
* AnyoneCanDie: This game noticeably has higher major character body counts than previous games in the series, which is especially evident when you joined up the [[WeHaveReserves expendable 444th Fighter Squadron]]. [[spoiler:By the end of the game, you and Count are the only named survivors of the original squadron, and casualties among other allied squadrons aren't pretty either. President Harling returns only to be killed off, and even Princess Rosa's adorable dog is killed!]]
* TheAlliance: The International Union Peacekeeping Force, which consists of Osea and countries in South-East Usea.
* ArcWelding: While most ''Ace Combat'' games have standalone stories with some ContinuityNod here and there, ''Ace Combat 7'' is the one that has plot points connected to many games in the series, mainly ''VideoGame/AceCombat04ShatteredSkies'' and ''VideoGame/AceCombat5TheUnsungWar''. The countries Erusea and Osea, two major countries from the two games, finally interact with each other, and the motivation of the leaders of both factions are tied with the aftermath of the conflicts that happened in their own games. Princess Cossette wants to protect Erusea's sovereignty from a potential threat posed by Osea's Space Elevator because she does not want to see her country fall for the second time. The Space Elevator itself is also the brainchild of [[spoiler: former Osean President Vincent Harling, who envisions the tower to be a symbol of unity and a bridge for mankind to reach into outer space after the Circum-Pacific War ended, and a replacement for the fallen Arkbird (which was built for the same purpose and, just like the Space Elevator, subverted for the purpose of war). Belka is once again revealed to be the root behind the conflict, with some Belkan individuals ''still'' looking to avenge their country after it was defeated in ''VideoGame/AceCombatZeroTheBelkanWar'', and manipulates Erusea into going to war with Osea by providing them with advanced AI technology to create a drone army derived from the Zone of Endless project from ''VideoGame/AceCombat2'' (and slightly expanded upon in its VideoGameRemake, ''VideoGame/AceCombatAssaultHorizonLegacy''). Said drone army proved to be so advanced, it's implied that it paved the way for the rise of A.I. pilots in ''VideoGame/AceCombat3Electrosphere'' as well. Mihaly's advanced G-suit that he gets halfway through the game to assist him with flying shares a lot of qualities with the COFFIN system utilized in ''Electrosphere,'' making it a likely predecessor to COFFIN.]]

** "Can you hear me?", which gains a new meaning after [[spoiler:the Battle of Farbanti]]. At first, it reflects how in an era where information flows uninterrupted all the time, being cut off for even the shortest moment can have massive consequences. After [[spoiler:the communication blackout]], it's a plea to try and reach to allies in a war where nobody can differentiate friend from foe anymore.
** According to a Famitsu interview with the project leads, "Dark Blue", both as actual spoken words, and as a color motif. If Avril is in a scene, there are good odds that she'll say the words. Furthermore, the game is functionally [[BookEnds Bookended]] by the term, with Avril's opening monologue introducing the concept, and the final mission is entitled "Dark Blue".

** "Stick with Trigger and you'll make it" becomes a recurring line. [[spoiler: The SP Missions hammer it home with [=ALEX=] pointing out that, for every mission where Trigger was present and where his fellow pilots stayed near him, the survival rates of allied pilots skyrocketed compared to HQ's predictions.]]
** "Dumbass." The moniker is used by and appended to numerous characters in the story, most prominently Trigger. It's even one of the unlockable nicknames the player can use in multiplayer mode.

** Osea's [[FourIsDeath 444th]] Fighter Squadron -- otherwise known as Spare Squadron -- is a penal unit whose members have been convicted of severe crimes, with their leader indicating that he can decide whether they live or not. Heck, even their AWACS insults them!

** On Tyler Island, Avril takes a moment to rub salt in the wound to Princess Cossette after she experiences that WarIsHell firsthand.

** Ionela gives ones to [[spoiler:native Belkan and Grey Men successor Dr Schroeder at the drone factory]].
-->'''Ionela:''' Is this about [[spoiler:Erusea]]? Or about [[spoiler:Belka]]?

* ArtificialBrilliance: {{Invoked}} with the Arsenal Bird. Any attempt to destroy it from long distance is met with swarms of drones TakingTheBullet. If you fly in closer, the drones will [[InstantDeathRadius simultaneously target you]] and [[MacrossMissileMassacre spam missiles that will eat up AND get past your flares]].
* ArtificialStupidity: {{Invoked}} - The autonomous drones have fittingly inhuman agility, but their systems aren't as flexible as a real pilot and they have exploitable quirks to their behavior. (And this is integrated into the actual gameplay: almost every drone encountered has a nasty habit of flying straight ahead after firing on you, making them much easier to hit if you can keep track of the drone.) As a result, as the war goes on, Erusea's drones start to suffer higher and higher loss rates, which leads Mihaly, who provided flight data for the drones, to take back to the skies and provide newer and better data.

* ArtisticLicenseBiology: In the opening cutscene, Avril claims an Osean fighter and the Erusean drone it was chasing "must have been doing thirty G's at least". Even an extremely fit and well-trained individual wearing a G-suit would succumb to G-LOC and black out by 15 G's. The F-15C's airframe also has a limit of 9Gs; anything above that would risk destruction of the airframe. Of course, given that the aircraft aren't actually shown doing particularly impressive maneuvers, Avril may have been engaging in some hyperbole.
* ArtisticLicenseShips:
** During the mission "Fleet Destruction", if you sink the Erusean aircraft carrier ''Njörðr'', her crew mentions the catapults becoming inoperable, despite ''Njörðr'' being a ''Kuznetsov''-class carrier, which is a STOBAR "ski-jump" design with no catapults in the first place.
** At the end of Mission 19, you land on the (presumably ''Nimitz''-class equivalent) aircraft carrier Admiral Anderson to rearm, repair and resupply prior to the final mission. The problem is that the carrier is stated to have run aground and been abandoned at sea weeks if not months prior to the mission, but somehow Osea finds enough crew to reactivate it and begin flight ops within 24 hours. At bare minimum you'd need at least a day to get the reactors started up again if you bypassed every safety check(and risk serious damage to the engineering spaces/crew if you messed anything up), not to mention all the other vital equipment for flight ops. Also, you'd need at least 1000 (normal ship and aircrew is close to 5000) sailors working non-stop and they knew exactly what to do, or significantly more if they were less seasoned and stopping to eat and sleep.
* ArtisticLicenseLaw: Assuming Osea has a military court system similar to or the same as the U.S., Avril, a civilian mechanic, should never have been transferred to a ''military'' penal base, which is strictly for enlisted personnel, regardless of whether or not she broke "wartime aviation laws." Even if she was flying a plane not properly equipped with a transponder, that would fall under the jurisdiction of the federal courts (more specifically the Osean equivalent of the FAA), not the military, even in wartime and ''especially'' considering this all occurred over the Osean homeland. Of course, there are implications that this was all deliberate, to cover up the fact that an Osean military aircraft engaged and downed a civilian aircraft without attempting to signal or contact the pilot, which is ''itself'' a war crime even by real life standards.
* AscendedGlitch: The August 2020 update, which added several skins in collaboration with the United States Armed Forces, had a bug where the Red Devils F/A-18F skin would show up as a glowing blue-white instead of the proper skin design. This was popular and amusing, but was quickly patched away. Later, with the game's second anniversary update, Project Aces added several previous player character skins, a Crow Team skin for the F-16C from ''VideoGame/AceCombatZeroTheBelkanWar'', a Ridgebacks Team skin for the ASF-X Shinden II from ''VideoGame/AceCombatInfinity'', UPEO skins for the Eurofighter Typhoon and Su-37 from ''VideoGame/AceCombat3Electrosphere'', and a glowing skin for the X-02S Strike Wyvern that replicates the old glowing glitch at all times.
* AssholeVictim: Full Band spends much of his airtime mocking his slain comrades ''right after they bite it'', being a DirtyCoward, and bragging about having classified intel that could have jeopardized [[spoiler:the Stonehenge op]]. While Count doesn't like it, [[spoiler:it's no big loss when he's accidentally killed himself after the IFF goes haywire and targets him.]]

* AwesomeButImpractical:
** [=8AAMs=] - they can lock multiple missiles onto a single target, which looks cool, but is incredibly wasteful, as very few targets can survive a single SP weapon missile of any sort. Fortunately, after an update, [=8AAMs=] tend to come with much higher payloads than 6 or [=4AAMs=], mitigating how easy it was in the release version to waste them all on only a few planes, as they initially had similar payloads to their smaller-salvo cousins. They also have very poor lock on range even with upgrades, so by the time you're close enough to a large group of enemies to lock on and fire, said group will have scattered. The only time where it could actually be useful is against a large airborne enemy with lots of targets on it, namely [[spoiler:the Arsenal Birds.]]
** [=8AGMs=] have all the problems of their air-to-air counterparts (except, of course, against ground targets instead of air) but come in smaller payloads, not having received the payload buff [=8AAMs=] received. While situationally useful against hard targets like Aegis Ashore and warships, they're usually less useful than the less-flashy but more efficient, more common, and more plentiful [=4AGMs=].
** The F-104C Starfighter's Guided Rocket Launcher locks onto ground targets and fires an entire salvo of homing rockets that strike with pinpoint accuracy no matter how much you're moving around. The weapon is quite powerful at overwhelming CIWS and destroying ships and AEGIS Ashore installations, but long range air-to-ship missiles are more efficient and generally have a higher ammo count. The toughest reasonably common ground targets in the game are tanks and air defense tanks, which both take only two normal missiles to destroy, making this a strong case of NoKillLikeOverkill.
** The Integrated Electronic Warfare System on the ADFX-01 Morgan, XFA-27, and CFA-44 Nosferatu disrupts enemy missile accuracy while enhancing your allies. In the campaign mode, there are very few instances on any difficulty where you would need such defenses, and it doesn't affect your allies at all. Multiplayer is a different story altogether.
** The Tactical Laser System packs a powerful punch, but it's strictly bore sighted, denying you the ability to lead your target like a conventional gun, can't penetrate clouds, and you have to remain facing your target while you fire, which means you can't maneuver away from enemy missiles. Without the ability to lead your target (unless you're ''very'' dexterous), you also risk not doing enough damage (or just plain missing) against smaller targets.
** Post-stall maneuvers allow you to slow down suddenly and [[TopGunned force the enemy to overshoot]], and look cool while doing it. Unfortunately, to initiate a PSM you have to be flying very slowly, just above stall speed, which makes you an easy target. It's mainly useful as a last-ditch escape if you have no energy for anything else.
** The [=DarkStar=] from the ''Film/TopGunMaverick'' aircraft set is a sleek-looking and very powerful futuristic stealth fighter with a design worthy of the original aircraft that Ace Combat has created themselves, but it has some obvious drawbacks.
*** Don't fly it from inside the Cockpit view. The plane only has two viewports to the sides, and the in-game cockpit adds a third to the roof for the player's sake, because looking out directly ahead from your cockpit is nothing but a giant X obscuring your field of vision by the plane itself.
*** It has close to, if not the, highest straight-line speed in the game but it handles only marginally better than a beached whale, making it a royal pain in any close range, high maneuverability dog fight or anything requiring course correction, like [[spoiler:the final flight to ascend from the Lighthouse's core.]] Don't even think about dogfighting in the clouds, as the lasers that replace the machine gun are useless in clouds.
* BackForTheDead: [[spoiler:Former Osean President Vincent Harling, who is initially rescued by Sea Goblin, who are both killed trying to defend the space elevator from being destroyed, in the very mission that is the CallBack to the mission that introduced him in ''Ace Combat 5'', no less.]]

* BadBoss: Col. [=McKinsey=], who runs the 444th, and to a lesser extent Bandog, the AWACS contact who serves as their MissionControl, certainly qualify. [=McKinsey=] is an open GloryHound who plans to ride to victory on the sweat (and corpses) of his pilots. Bandog treats his prisoners with nothing but scorn, even encouraging Trigger to let his comrades die and focus on the mission by pointing out he has no need to be honorable for a bunch of criminals, but he's no [=McKinsey=]: he shuts the Colonel up to stop him from interfering with a bombing run on his own base that would have killed everyone if he hadn't intervened, and allows the prisoners to use a base for resupply after it's clear the current op would need more munitions to complete. In fact, the "good" Colonel is so hated that Bandog drily comments nothing of value was lost if [=McKinsey=] is shot down during "Transfer Orders".

* TheBattlestar: The Arsenal Birds are gigantic {{Airborne Aircraft Carrier}}s that carry an insane number of AAM batteries and laser weapons on top of their scores of [[AttackDrone UAVs]]. Taking one of these beasts on in direct combat is a monumentally dangerous task no matter how you approach it, and their sheer amount of firepower pretty much guarantees heavy casualties among the attacking forces.
* BecomingTheMask: In an odd, non-character sense, the 444th Air Base, originally established as a complete fake to draw Erusean bombers, gradually became more and more realistic to make sure the Eruseans remained fooled. First, it was just balloon vehicles and painted runways with empty shells of airplanes, then they started having the convicts run jet engines to fool Erusean thermal imaging, then they started actually flying rebuilt planes and making dry runs at Erusean bombers, and then eventually, shortly after Trigger's arrival, started actually shooting back, turning a decoy air base into an actual, functional air base with its own fighter squadron.

** Osea's plan to neutralize one of the hijacked Arsenal Bird hinges on [[spoiler:the reactivation of the lone Stonehenge cannon that was spared by [[VideoGame/AceCombat04ShatteredSkies Mobius One]] due to being non-operational at the time. It ends up being the only superweapon still available to Osea that can outright shoot through the Arsenal Bird's impossibly powerful APS barrier, and promptly stops functioning once it fires the shot that splits the ''Liberty'' in two.]]
** The ''Alicorn'' is equipped with two powerful railguns that can vaporize ships in a hurry, but they're not significantly bigger than the ship guns found on most capital ships. What instead qualifies the submarine for this trope is [[spoiler:the hidden 600-mm/128 caliber rail cannon whose barrel length exceed 70 meters and makes up part of the runway for the ''Alicorn'''s fighter complement. It is also its most dangerous weapon, being able to fire projectiles over a distance of over 3,000 kilometers - a good fraction of the range of an ICBM - and among the projectiles are two tactical nuclear shells that allow Torres to carry out his grim plan of killing a million lives in Oured in order to terrify the world into stopping the Lighthouse War.]]
* BigBadassBattleSequence: Mission 19 is the culmination of all that transpires during the cutscenes following the midwar crisis of [[spoiler:Erusea's EnemyCivilWar. Here you join up with the Osean air force ''and'' some rebel Erusean squadrons in an attempt to free the Space Elevator from the radical Erusean government forces and bring down the last Arsenal Bird. A massive furball between the combined Osean-Erusean alliance and the Erusean government drones then ensues over the sea surrounding the ISEV, topped by the Arsenal Bird's appearance and the alliance's massive AlphaStrike on it, which fails due to its APS barrier. Princess Rosa manages to disable the shield permanently, allowing you to strike the Arsenal Bird unimpeded as the triumphant OneWomanWail of "Daredevil" hammers on.]]
* BittersweetEnding: The Lighthouse War has ended, but many people have died on both sides. [[spoiler:Erusea has lost another war, its military and air force have been utterly decimated a second time and its future as a country (and as a kingdom) is uncertain. In addition, many of its conquered provinces used the chaos of the IFF network's destruction to declare their independence]]. Osea did not escape the war unscathed as well; [[spoiler:its naval power took a serious blow early in the conflict, it lost both Arsenal Birds]], and the revelation that [[spoiler: Belka was once again responsible for instigating a conflict will no doubt cause issues among Osean officials.]] Moreover, if one takes [[ForegoneConclusion what happens in]] ''VideoGame/AceCombat3Electrosphere'' into consideration, [[spoiler:eventually various governments will collapse and Mega-Corps will take over, conflicts will become commonplace, and the fact that its protagonist is a combat AI far superior than its predecessors which downplays the actions and sacrifices of everyone who fought in the Lighthouse War.]]
* {{Blackmail}}: Avril Mead has her ways of pulling favor among the Spare Squadron. In the disorder to pack up the air base and ship everyone elsewhere across Usea, someone left an old rotary phone unplugged. Avril monologues that prisoners aren't allowed to use the phone, and that she's good at remembering numbers. The next scene heavily implies that she made a phone call that would have inconvenienced Col. [=McKinsey=] if he didn't offer to take her along on his plane. He agrees, but she isn't the least bit surprised that he took off and left her behind.
* BookEnds: The game begins with [[spoiler:Avril staring out to the sky, and ends with Cossette staring out at the space elevator]], both of them in the same pose.

** The Self-Forging Fragmentation Submunition (SFFS), or, in common parlance, cluster bomb. While not as flashy as cruise missiles or dedicated anti-ship missiles, when dropped from the correct (low-ish) altitude, SFFS will oneshot or at most twoshot any non-boss ship in the game while having a relatively obscene ammo count (especially compared to cruise missiles) and a large blast radius for non-ship targets, and, unlike cruise missiles, can't be intercepted. It also for this reason renders the Guided Pentration Bomb (GPB) completely worthless in every respect, the GPB being much weaker and having a smaller blast, a shorter useful range, and less ammo. Nearly every high score run of Missions 11 and [=SP02=] feature a F-15E or Su-34 armed with them for a reason.
** The standard missiles, which technically have infinite ammunition and can be enhanced with upgrade parts that allow for more speed, homing ability, and lock-on capabilities, which are useful for taking down the most agile of the enemy planes.
** The XFA-27's Multiple-Launch Standard Missile (MSTM), which is essentially four more charges of standard missiles that have the same potency as the latter, only that they're affected by special weapon parts. While it's not flashy for a weapon wielded by a superplane, it definitely does its job well by allowing pilots to spam standard missiles nonstop on multiple targets, making it a solid choice for annihilation missions that don't feature too many difficult targets like battlecruisers and highly agile aircraft.
** Regular Unguided Bombs (UGB). They're only a little more powerful than standard missiles, and ships and the arsenal birds take reduced damage from them, but you can carry a lot of them, they have a nice big blast, take out tanks and air-defense tanks in a single blast instead of two missiles, and have a short cooldown. All-in-all, they're excellent general-purpose air-to-ground weapons that are often more useful than fancy guided weapons like GPB or 4/8AGM.
** The [=MiG=]-21 bis's Machine Gun Pods (MGP) are only rivaled by Unguided Bombs in how primitive they are, but in a world of fancy laser weapons, missile spam, railguns, and attack drones, simply strapping two more machine guns to your plane is often one of the most effective weapons you can pick. While they don't have the range or homing or hitscan or per-hit damage of other weapons, bearing down on an enemy with the integrated machine gun and [=MGPs=] blazing puts out a horrific amount of damage per second that can overwhelm almost anything.

** The final mission, "Dark Blue", is home to only 2 hostiles: [[spoiler:two ADF-11F RAVEN drones, nicknamed Hugin and Munin, provide the FinalBoss fight of the game, duking it out with Trigger and every Osean and Erusean ace still available over Gunther Bay. It is notable in that the boss fight prolongs itself by way of the [=UAV=]s detaching themselves from the base aircraft, with one continuing to engage you in battle while the other attempts to escape through the space elevator's underwater tunnels.]]
** The third DLC mission, "Ten Million Relief Plan", is populated by nothing but aircraft and equipment fielded by the ''Alicorn'', which is saying a lot considering you end up fighting about 20 SACS Rafale M and up to nearly a hundred SLUAV launched from the submarine. [[spoiler:And this before taking into consideration the flock of barrier drones deployed after half of the ballast tanks are destroyed.]]
* BossRemix: The boss theme of the DLC mission "Anchorhead Raid", "[[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Kuq3tsmBS88 Mimic]]", has three variations to it depending on the flow of the battle: one for both Rage and Scream together, [[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=l-FNItAOhag one for after Rage has been shot down]], and [[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rHqNdxsfRs4 one for after Scream has been shot down]]. Both variant tracks double as musical storytelling. [[spoiler:In the Scream version, the drums become incoherent, intentionally slipping notes and disregarding the timing of the rest of the instruments, reflecting Scream's psychotic breakdown after watching her brother die. In the Rage version, the drums go into an extended drum solo, still keeping time with the rest of the instruments but not following their rhythm, showing Rage's all-encompassing, well, rage towards Trigger and Count for killing his sister. Ultimately both characters and both versions of the song, which had functioned quite well up to that point despite themselves, devolve into angry incoherence after their sibling dies.]]
* BraggingRightsReward:
** The special skin for the F-104 Starfighter requires earning an S-rank in every mission on the highest difficulty.
** Beating the game's most difficult challenges, like attaining the coveted S-rank in all campaign missions on [[HarderThanHard Ace difficulty]], doesn't actually get you anything except unique skins for some high-end planes to show off in multiplayer. Some also unlock additional nicknames, which is just as inconsequential for actual gameplay.

** {{Downplayed|Trope}} with the 444 Squadron - they're equipped with until-recently mothballed planes hastily recommissioned to make their base seem more "authentic", including ancient F-104 Starfighters and [=MiG=]-21s and an eclectic mix of Su-33s, [=F/A-18Fs=], Mirage 2000-5s, and [=MiG-29As=]. However, it's not because newer planes are strictly unavailable, but because the 444, being a penal squadron, isn't considered worth Osea's time or effort to equip with anything better, and the original intent didn't even call for the planes to be able to do more than run their engines to fool Erusean thermal imaging. It's only thanks to the efforts of [[WrenchWench Avril Mead, the "Scrap Queen,"]] that their planes are fully functional and able to keep up with those used by proper squadrons.
** The Osean Army moved in to capture [[spoiler:the abandoned Stonehenge and put effort into repairing the only cannon that wasn't destroyed by Mobius One in order to use it to destroy one of the Arsenal Birds. The cannon, which is now ''two decades old'' in the Strangereal timeline (as it was built in the late 1990s), still proves to pack enough firepower to one-shot the Arsenal Bird in half even with its shield active.]]

** [[spoiler:A somber female chorus rendition of the {{Leitmotif}} of ''VideoGame/AceCombat5TheUnsungWar'' mourn when Harling is killed at the end of Mission 04, with the song titled "Tears of Razgriz".]]

** [[spoiler: Mission 12 is entitled "Stonehenge Defensive, a role reversal of ''VideoGame/AceCombat04ShatteredSkies''[='=]s twelfth mission, "Stonehenge Offensive". In ''Shattered Skies'', Mobius One destroyed the seven operational Stonehenge cannons (the 8th one had been put out of commission before the ISAF attack, after Ulysses fragments hit its power supply), and in ''Skies Unknown'', Trigger and Cyclops and Strider Squadrons fly cover for Osean forces repairing the eighth gun. The musical accompaniment for the mission, "Stonehenge Defensive", is also comprised of elements from the track "Stonehenge Offensive" from ''Shattered Skies'' only played in reverse. Slipped into the song as well is the first three notes of the ISAF trumpet leitmotif, though the back four notes that would complete the theme are different, highlighting the blend of the familiar and the new.]]
** The Arsenal Birds take more than a few design cues from the [[VideoGame/AceCombat5TheUnsungWar Arkbird]]. Stark white paint, sweeping upwards wings, a large number of small control surfaces that evoke the image of feathers, bird-like frontal area, a similar (if not identical) resupply strategy and resulting aft-ventral configuration; the craft is essentially a successor to the legendary spaceplane. (Given that both craft were developed by the Osean Federation, this only makes sense.) They also boast a similar armament to the Arkbird and the musical cues that accompany their presence on screen sounds like a more menacing version of "White Bird" at times. Their shape evoke also a more streamlined version of the [[VideoGame/AceCombat6FiresOfLiberation P-1112 Aigaion]] and its ancestor, the [[VideoGame/AceCombatZeroTheBelkanWar XB-0 Hresvelgr]].
** The Arsenal Birds' Helios long-range airburst type missiles is similar to the Nimbus missiles used by the Aigaion.
** [[spoiler: President Harling's plane is once again code-named Mother Goose One, and the mission that you met him is very similar to the mission that he first appeared in ''Ace Combat 5'', namely with you flying through the hole in the enemy's anti-air radar system and escort his plane out of there. When Harling is killed at the end of the mission, the music even briefly plays a version of ''Ace Combat 5's'' theme.]]
** [[spoiler: Belka is once again involved in a plot that manipulates two superpower countries into war with each other in the name of revenge. This time Gründer sold their advanced AI technology to Erusea, allowing the Radicals to develop a large drone army, which they use to manipulate Princess Rosa into declaring war on Osea.]]
** [[spoiler:The drones at the focus of the latter part of the narrative, specifically the ADF-11F Hugin and Munin, are a part of the restarted Zone of Endless AI fighter project from ''[[VideoGame/AceCombat2 Ace Combat 2]]'' and its recent remake ''[[VideoGame/AceCombatAssaultHorizonLegacy Assault Horizon Legacy]]''. The underlying plot of those games centered around Gründer Industries taking advantage of a war on Usea to create the ultimate AI pilot and next-generation superplane for it to fly, the ADF-01 FALKEN. The ADF-11F RAVEN of ''Skies Unknown'' appears to be a continuation of the same project, having flown under similar circumstances. The ADF-11F also sports the Z.O.E. "squadron" logo on its cockpit just to hammer the point home.]]
** The latter half of Mission 13 has [[spoiler:the Eruseans launching ballistic missiles out from an underground silo hidden in a reservoir behind a dam. [[VideoGame/AceCombatZeroTheBelkanWar Where have we heard that before?]]]]

** The first DLC "Unexpected Visitor" takes place only two days after Mission 13 - "Bunker Buster". The briefing begins with members of the LRSSG wondering how Fencer's condition is doing, with the confirmation that he's out of the hospital but not yet cleared for duty. Fencer was injured in Mission 12 - "Stonehenge Defensive" and had to pull out of the battle.
*** It also takes place at Artiglio Port, the same place you attacked with Spare Squadron in Mission 8 - "Pipeline Destruction". The attack is mentioned, and Count comments that it's been a while since then.
** The submarine ''Alicorn'', a major feature of the first three DLC missions, is explicitly stated to have been sold to Erusea [[spoiler:(via General Resource)]] by Yuktobania, whose previous super-subs ''Scinfaxi'' and ''Hrimfaxi'' were bosses in ''VideoGame/AceCombat5TheUnsungWar''. The ''Alicorn'' is even classified as a ''Super-Scinfaxi'' class sub.
** In Mission 02, Brownie expresses concern about innocent people being caught by the falling debris of enemy aircraft shot down. This is exactly what happened to the family of the narrator boy in ''VideoGame/AceCombat04ShatteredSkies'', with a plane shot down by Yellow 13 crashed into the narrator's house and killing his family. This also doubles as {{Foreshadowing}} to what happens later down the storyline of this game as well, as mentioned below.

** Dr. Schroeder refers to having a young female assistant named "Massa," which is a mistranslation of the middle name of [[spoiler: Yoko Martha Inoue, the researcher who perfected [[BrainUploading Sublimation]] with Abyssal Dision as her test subject. Supplementary materials also suggest that Simon Orestes Cohen (the creator of [[PlayerCharacter Nemo]]) was a part of Schroeder's team alongside Inoue.]]

** After Neucom in ''Ace Combat X'', General Resource Limited returns, playing an important part in the DLC missions; [[spoiler: Erusea purchased the ''Alicorn'' from Yuktobania via GR Trading, then had it towed across the ocean by General Resource Marine Transportation, and Mimic Squadron was part of General Resource Guardian Mercenaries.]] You can see Neucom adverts for their phone in Anchorhead as well.
** Both Osea and Erusea launch [[spoiler:a high-altitude strike on the others' opposing satellites]]. Decades later, Neucom, which bought Erusea's space and aviation agency, or UPEO, the IUPF's successor organisation, will do the same thing to General Resources.
** The entire behavior of Erusea's drone army [[spoiler: and Z.O.E. by extension]] as well as Alex and its simulation of the Lighthouse War is this for [[spoiler: Nemo.]]

** Creator/DanWoren is again playing [[Literature/SentouYouseiYukikaze a commanding officer of a special air force squadron made up of convicts]]. [[ReasonableAuthorityFigure Unlike that time]], he's a total {{Jerkass}} here.
** [[Creator/DCDouglas D.C. Douglas]] is playing [[Franchise/ResidentEvil a mad scientist obsessing over gathering combat data]]. [[spoiler:Unlike [[VideoGame/ResidentEvil5 last time]], he grows repentant by the end (and survives the events of the game).]] That Dr. Schroeder's specialty is in Artificial Intelligence also calls to mind [[VideoGame/MassEffect2 the times Douglas voiced]] an A.I. himself in the forms of [[VideoGame/MassEffect3 Legion]], [[VideoGame/TheLegendOfHeroesTrailsOfColdSteel Valimar]], and [[VideoGame/NierAutomata Pod 042.]]
* CentralTheme: Who is FriendOrFoe in a war where information is everything? Much of the game's tension is being unable to figure out for sure who is really the enemy and who can you trust.
** [[spoiler:Harling's death is the result of Osea's IFF system being hacked, allowing an Erusean drone (which appears as an Osean allied fighter on everyone's radar) to sneak in right behind Trigger himself and shoot him down in the chaos of his extraction.]]
** At one point the Spare Squadron comes under attack from a squad of drones. However these particular drones [[spoiler:initially appear on their IFF systems as allied fighters. This designation confusion both allows the drones to get a drop on the unsuspecting Spare Squadron, and also leaves them unable to properly retaliate for fear of causing a FriendlyFire incident - a fear which comes true when Full Band is mistakenly ([[YouHaveOutlivedYourUsefulness or deliberately]]) tagged as an enemy and is promptly shot down by Count.]]
** During the Battle of Farbanti, [[spoiler: Osea and Erusea launch simultaneous anti-satellite attacks in attempt to destroy the other side's military satellites. Both these attacks succeed, essentially removing IFF from the picture entirely. However the sheer amount of debris the destruction of these satellites generate end up damaging nearly every ''other'' satellite in orbit, which essentially cripples global satellite communication network. Being unable to tell who is friend or foe, coupled with both side's chain of command being utterly broken due to lack of functioning communication systems, leads to chaos throughout the Usea Continent, making good on the game's title: Skies Unknown.]]
** The game also deals in the power of false information. [[spoiler: Erusea used spoofed IFF to assassinate Harling and later to ambush Spare Squadron, Bandog falsely tagged Full Band as an enemy plane, resulting in the latter's death from Count, and Erusean hackers fed false intel to Osean AWACS planes to get General Labarthe killed.]] It actually ties well into the themes of who is friend or who is foe, since it shows how difficult to tell what is truth and what is a lie in a world dependent on the flow of information.

** Erusea feels this way about their drone forces, which were a selling point even. It allows them to [[TakingTheBullet shield]] the Arsenal Bird and the Space Elevator from missiles, and they never have to worry about living pilots getting killed.

** [[SpeedRun Photon Blitz]] is awarded for completing a speedrun of the campaign in under four hours.
** [[NoDamageRun Not A Scratch]] is awarded for completing the campaign without taking a single hit.
** [[MoreDakka Machine Gun Maniac]] is awarded for completing the campaign without ever using any weapon other than machine guns (note that the Raven and Darkstar's integrated pulse lasers but ''not'' pulse laser pods and the [=MiG=]-21 bis's machine gun pods both count as machine guns for the purposes of the achievement, and that the target designator in Bunker Buster is permitted so long as it's only used on the missile silos).

** First Contact awards "Relieved" for shooting down all the drones before any allies send a distress signal.
** Bunker Buster awards "Clairvoyant" for taking out all the real silos in under five minutes.

* CheckpointStarvation: Barring some rare exceptions, most campaign missions tend to be pretty light on checkpoints. You only get an autosave once a mission objective is either completed or changes due to unforeseen events, and a long time can pass before that happens. Annihilation missions (Long Day, Pipeline Destruction, Fleet Destruction, etc) are notorious for this because their first phase is a full 15 minutes of attempting to wreak havoc in an op zone that's absolutely crawling with things shooting at you. Dying at any point in this phase resets you back to the very beginning.
* ChekhovsGun: The eighth gun of Stonehenge, which was rendered inoperable after a meteorite damaged its power or control systems prior to the events of ''VideoGame/AceCombat04ShatteredSkies'' and which was conspicuous by its non-target status during the assault on Stonehenge in ''Ace Combat 04'' is finally repaired and fired over sixteen years in real life and nearly as long in InUniverse after first being seen.
* ChessMotifs: A variant occurs in the DLC regarding Trigger and Matias Torres. Alex's battle simulations between the two is represented with a chessboard with Trigger's plane and the Alicorn as their own pieces, resulting in stalemates. Both of them are regarded as singularities by David and Alex, where they do not follow standard rules of their game and thus are not bound by regular roles and movements attributed to any of the chess pieces. Before the third and final DLC mission, the Alicorn is represented as approaching the King, while Trigger's plane enters to defend it.
* ClarkesThirdLaw: [[spoiler:Erusean General Labarthe]] states that Gründer's drone technology is so advanced that understanding it would be equivalent to magic or alchemy. Erusian Conservative pilots even call it alchemy later on in the same mission.
* ClownCarBase: The OFS [[spoiler:''Admiral Andersen'']] is loaded to the brim with planes that it was transporting to other bases. This is a LampshadeHanging to how the [[VideoGame/AceCombat5TheUnsungWar Kestrel]] had full access to every plane available in the game's roster, when it canonically could only use carrier-based planes.
* TheComputerIsALyingBastard: Simply put, the stated statistics of aircraft mean almost nothing and are often incredibly misleading. For example, the stated statistics indicate that the [=MiG=]-21bis handles like a brick, but in actual gameplay, it's one of the most agile planes in the entire game and is able to outturn many of the highest-end planes in the game, despite their stated superiority in maneuverability.
* ConcealmentEqualsCover: The Tactical Laser System and Pulse Lasers cannot penetrate clouds, which merely act as concealment against guided weapons, which may lose lock and home worse when flying through, and don't even offer more than the most basic visual cover against unguided projectiles.

* ContinuityNod:
** The 2016 trailer shows a brief look at the destroyed Stonehenge from ''VideoGame/AceCombat04ShatteredSkies''. A few moments later, a cutscene shows a meteor storm entering Earth's atmosphere. The 2018 Gamescom trailer shows the last of its cannons firing, the eighth gun, which had been rendered inoperable by a meteorite impact before Operation Stone Crusher in ''VideoGame/AceCombat04ShatteredSkies'', while the other seven guns are still utterly smashed from Mobius One's attack on the facility. [[spoiler: Osea is revealed to have been secretly rebuilding the smashed Stonehenge site, and brings in power equipment to get the 8th gun up and running. It is the setting of Mission 12: Stonehenge Defensive, where Trigger has to defend Stonehenge against a massive Erusean assault. The cannon only gathers power for one shot, which it uses to destroy one of the Arsenal Birds as it approaches the area. Afterwards, the cannon collapses to the ground.]]
** During the operation at Stonehenge, Húxiān (Cyclops 4) takes a hit just like Yellow 4; unlike Yellow 4 she's not wounded, and gets ordered to withdraw instead.

** On the topic of the ''Kestrel'' herself, ''Ace Combat 5'' fans would know the ''Kestrel II'' in ''Skies Unknown'' is the successor to the original ''Kestrel'', which was sunk at the end of ''The Unsung War''. [[spoiler: However the ''Kestrel II'' is sunk off of Farbanti in the early days of the war, and is never seen in action by the player.]]

** The Mission Briefing officer for the LRSSG has the same deep voice as the [[VideoGame/AceCombat5TheUnsungWar Mission Briefing officer of the Sand Island Airbase.]] They are implied to be the same person as they shared the same voice actor: Jamieson Price.
** [[spoiler:A space center on Tyler Island similar to the Basset Space Center, along with its iconic mass driver, is the setting of Mission 17: Homeward.]]
** The aircraft carrier [[spoiler: which the Strider launches off of in their bid to put a stop to the war once and for all]] is christened the ''Admiral Andersen'', after the brave admiral of ''Kestrel'' in ''Ace Combat 5''. Avril Mead even recounts the tale of how Andersen steadfastly made sure that the capsizing ''Kestrel'' managed to launch the fighter squadron that ended the Circum-Pacific War before the ship sank.
** [[spoiler:Captain Kei Nagase herself shows up in the ending. She is now an astronaut on a spacecraft named Pilgrim One, which has just returned from an exploration mission in the Asteroid Belt. She thanked Trigger for saving the space elevator so that she could land safety.]]

** The "Unexpected Visitor" DLC features a background article in the news magazine GAZE talking about a submarine that Erusea purchased from Yuktobania through a third party company. The author of the article is [[VideoGame/AceCombat5TheUnsungWar Albert]] [[VideoGame/AceCombatXSkiesOfDeception Genette]]. The Yuktobania connection comes from how the ''Alicorn'' submarine is actually a heavily upgraded and upscaled ''Scinfaxi''-class to the point that it qualifies as its own class, the ''Super Scinfaxi''-class.
** The briefing for Anchorhead Raid reveals that [[spoiler:Captain Torres became an Erusean hero because he managed to save much of his crew]] when Mobius One destroyed the fleet located at Comberth Harbor in the Continental War. It is even revealed he was the captain of the Erusean battleship ''Tanager,'' which you can personally sink in ''Ace Combat 04.'' In addition, when North is discussing Comberth Harbor during the briefing, he pulls up a list of ships sunk during the Continental War; those names actually ''correspond'' to named ships that show up as targets during the ''Ace Combat 04'' mission.

** Being set just 1 year before ''VideoGame/AceCombatXSkiesOfDeception'' creates InUniverse TechnologyMarchesOn issues for that game, what with no one there making the slightest mention of the Lighthouse, the ascent of AttackDrone armies and other worldshaking events that happened here. There is all of one thing there that might have received a CallForward here, namely a throwaway line about a [[spoiler:satellite network]] being restored that could have followed the [[spoiler:anti-satellite attacks]] in this game, but that is tenuous.
** A minor example is in the SP Missions, which take place prior to the second Battle of Farbanti. Count's personality is closer to [[CharacterDevelopment his]] [[TookALevelInKindness appearances]] after the earthshaking mission that is Farbanti, [[spoiler: despite the fact that Wiseman is still alive during the hunt for the ''Alicorn,'']] and he's constantly designated as Strider 2, even in "Ten Million Relief Plan", where Cyclops is also deployed. That said, Count does have his moments, such as being happy Wiseman isn't watching his every move and [[spoiler:being the most vocal about wanting to destroy Torres when he initially surrenders]].

** Avril gets thrown in the 444th for unauthorized wartime flight because her test flight of her F-104C just happened mere hours after the Lighthouse War officially began, before her or most of the rest of the world was even given notice of the declaration.
** In Mission 15, [[spoiler:Osea and Erusea's simultaneous satellite attacks happened at the exact moment you're running Mihaly down in the last minutes of the Battle of Farbanti, disrupting everyone's electronic devices and conveniently allowing Mihaly to escape. Not only that, but the simultaneous attacks were carried out by accident as well, with Osea shooting down the satellites that Erusea hijacked from them, and Erusea shooting down the Osean satellites they did ''not'' control, resulting in a massive debris field that takes out whatever was left after the attack.]]
** The final battle just so happen to take place in the same day [[spoiler:as Nagase's return trip from her seven-years-long mission into outer space.]]
* CoolAirship: The Arsenal Birds, a pair of absolutely titanic, wing-shaped aerial warships used to defend the Lighthouse, whose wingspan is measured at a whopping 1,100 meters and can carry a plethora of weapons and smaller escort UAV. Not only are they armed to the teeth with edge-cutting technology, they're also protected by a deployable energy barrier that's impervious to all but the very strongest projectiles Strangereal can offer. [[spoiler:It says something when one of these behemoths had to be shot down by ''Stonehenge'', while the other needed its APS barrier neutralized permanently for Trigger to bring it down.]]
* CoolBoat: The ''Alicorn'', the massive Erusean super-submarine featured in the SP DLC missions. It's nearly half a kilometer long, can stage aircraft operations as if it was a carrier, and boasts an impressive arsenal, namely two railguns with an effective range of 400 kilometers. David North recounts that it spent nearly two years stuck to the bottom of the ocean with most of its crew still alive after accidentally running aground during sea trials. [[spoiler:Once Captain Torres goes rogue, he annihilates Osea's fleet with the sub's railguns and starts his grim crusade to kill a million people.]]
* CoolButInefficient: Numerous upgrade parts sound cool in theory but prove rather disappointing in practice, like the Machine Gun Radar Lock[[note]]automatically pulls the machine gun reticule on the target you're locked onto, but it doesn't account for bullet travel time, so it doesn't actually increase your chances to hit unless you're in a situation where you would've hit anyway, like from right behind the target[[/note]] or the Anti-Stealth Microwave Radar[[note]]hostile stealth planes are few and far between, and the ones that appear normally engage you in combat anyway, making the upgrade completely useless for anything beyond chasing down stealthed aces, of which there are exactly three[[/note]].
* CoolPlane: It's not an ''Ace Combat'' entry if it doesn't introduce real-life and fictional superplanes.
** During your escort of [=McKinsey=]'s aircraft in Mission 10, a dangerous experimental UCAV shows up after all hostiles are down, setting up for a boss fight. It's a white unmanned aircraft with forward-swept wings, an angular windowless cockpit and no vertical tail, unique enough to be distinct from the droves of UCAV that are deployed from the Arsenal Bird. It's also shown to be incredibly agile, performing barrel rolls on a fly. [[spoiler:It is the experimental ADFX-10, which ends up being the prototype for the ADF-11 encountered in the final mission, itself being the centerpiece for the ADF-11F RAVEN mentioned below.]]
** [[spoiler:Near the end of Mission 19, two black superplanes unexpectedly arrive and strike at the skydiving Cosette. They are the ADF-11F RAVEN, an even more advanced successor to the [[VideoGame/AceCombat5TheUnsungWar ADF-01 FALKEN]]. The main visual difference between the Raven from the Falken is that its wings aren't forward-swept, instead being backward-swept with canted wingtips, and it lacks the FALKEN's vertical tails. The key difference between the two, and the most distinctive trait of the Raven, is that the Raven is actually a combination of a cockpit and a RAW-F body, with a UAV version using an ADF-11 drone (the completed form of the ADFX-10) loaded with advanced AI as the cockpit, and a manned version using a [[VideoGame/AceCombat3Electrosphere COFFIN]] cockpit. On the UAV version, if the RAW-F is damaged, the ADF-11 holding actual core of the UAV will detach the RAW-F, expand its wings, and fly off, turning into an ''extremely'' maneuverable craft surpassing even the ADFX-10. In the campaign, the two Raven drones, Hugin and Munin, controlled by an advanced version of the [[VideoGame/AceCombat2 Zone of Endless]] AI, loaded with tip of the edge combat data from Mihaly himself, prove to be ''by far'' the deadliest planes on the ''planet'', destroying dozens of planes in ''seconds''. Hugin and Munin serve as the final boss of the game, and are rightfully the strongest enemies in the entire game.]]
** Mihaly flies an Su-[=30SM=]. This plane is specialized version of the thrust-vectoring [=Su-30MKI=] and MKM. [[spoiler:In Mission 18, he enters the fight in a X-02S Strike Wyvern, an evolution of the [[UsefulNotes/PlayStation2 PS2]] games' own forward-swept variable wing X-02 that comes equipped with a EML.]]
** Interestingly, Trigger appears to have two canonical planes. Media shown after Mission 10, such as the [=DLC=] trailers, uses a [=McDonnell=] Douglas F-15C to represent him, but by the time of the final few missions Trigger has switched to the Lockheed Martin F-22 with wing-mounted stealth weapon pods.
** All 3 of the [[https://youtu.be/bubsFU4znlE Season Pass]] aircraft undoubtedly qualify, as original superplane designs[[note]]The "'''A'''dvanced '''D'''ominance '''F'''ighter" programme started by Belka[[/note]] unique to ''VideoGame/AceCombat'' - the ADFX-01 Morgan from ''VideoGame/AceCombatZeroTheBelkanWar'', ADF-01 FALKEN from ''VideoGame/AceCombat5TheUnsungWar'', and ADF-11F Raven (finally averting Mission 20's UnusableEnemyEquipment).
*** The ADFX-01[[note]]"'''A'''dvanced '''D'''ominance '''F'''ighter e'''X'''perimental"[[/note]] is a 20+ year old prototype by the time of ''Skies Unknown'', with its distinctive bulky twin engine design, forward-swept wings, and rear mounted Tactical Laser System. It's also a SuperPrototype in a way, as the ADFX-01 was originally a test platform for Belka's newly developed weapons like the Multi-Purpose Burst Missile, which was never adopted by other planes in the ADF series.
*** Its successor, the ADF-01 FALKEN, shares a largely identical body but ditches its conventional glass canopy in favour of the [[FunWithAcronyms COFFIN]][[note]]"Connection For Flight Interface"[[/note]] cockpit that gives the FALKEN its trademark appearance. Unlike the ADFX-01, the FALKEN's TLS is concealed in its nose, which opens to reveal the emitter.
*** The latest member of the ADF program is the ADF-11F Raven, still based on the same twin engine layout of the ADFX-01 & ADF-01 FALKEN but using a rear-swept wing design without vertical tails. It's also armed with some of ''Ace Combat's'' most futuristic weaponry - the Tactical Laser System; two [[AttackDrone Weapon UAVs]]; and is the first aircraft in the series to use Pulse Lasers instead of a gun.

*** The XFA-27 is one of ''Ace Combat's'' earliest original designs, having debuted in ''Ace Combat 2'' alongside the ADF-01 FALKEN as the first playable[[note]]The FALKEN was exclusively flown by Z.O.E.[[/note]] superplane in the series. Constructed during the Usean coup d'état over two decades ago, the XFA-27's swing-wings and elegantly swept fins were designed for acceleration and maneuverability.
*** Developed by Estovakia for use on the "Aerial Fleet" during their civil war, the CFA-44 Nosferatu is a carrier-based stealth fighter built with strong offensive capabilities in mind. As a result, it can be armed with numerous experimental weapons - two rapid-fire [=EMLs=], the All Direction Multi-Purpose Missile (ADMM), a swarm of "Malebolge" [=UAVs=], or an electronic warfare system (IEWS).
*** A CanonImmigrant from the ''Assault Horizon'' universe, the ASF-X Shinden II was designed in collaboration with ''Macross'' creator Creator/ShojiKawamori as a next-generation fighter for the JASDF. Best described as a combination of the F-35B and the Su-47 Berkut, the ASF-X's relatively grounded appearance was the result of setting ''Assault Horizon'' in the real world.
* CrazyPrepared: Evidently, the Federation of Central Usea set up range tables when they were building Stonehenge, despite the fact that in its intended use of shooting falling asteroid fragments, it would ''need'' its supercomputer targeting array to have any chance of hitting its targets, and even in its later Erusean use of long-range aerial interdiction, without computerized targeting, it would be nearly useless.
* CreepyChildrenSinging: Although Mihaly's granddaughters aren't creepy themselves, their singing is given a creepy context [[spoiler: in a cutscene before the final mission, with shots from the viewpoint of the [[AIIsACrapshoot "Zone of Endless" AI]], as well as automated factories preparing for a RobotWar.]]
* CripplingOverspecialization:
** The Erusean military, on their drones in general but the Arsenal Birds in particular. The drones represent a fast, precise, and cheap counter to the vastly more powerful allied forces, consisting of the Osean Air Defense Force (and their naval counterparts) and their IUN allies (consisting of most of the nations that formally comprised ISAF, who by themselves were able to beat Erusea in a war). The Arsenal Birds have an argument as the most indestructible superweapon yet created in Strangereal, with their massive drone swarms, macross missile systems, and nearly-impenetrable defensive shields (and ironically they're stolen from Osea). Having both on air superiority lets Erusea occupy most of Usea. [[spoiler:However, once Osea and the IUN manage to shoot one down with Stonehenge, Erusea has to shrink the defensive envelope of the remaining one, and Osea and the IUN manage to liberate most of Erusea's occupied territory... in a single off-hand mention in a briefing.]]
** Some planes and SP weapons are massively specialized for a single mission profile to the detriment of pretty much everything else.
*** The A-10C is an excellent pure ground attack plane with a very low stall speed, huge reserve of machine gun ammo, and vast reserves of any of its three air-to-ground SP weapons (4AGM, UGB, and RKT), but it's in a game with maybe one pure ground attack mission and its poor speed and handling makes it probably the worst dogfighting plane in the game, especially when it can only engage other planes with its machine gun and standard missiles.
*** The F-15J is entirely specialized the other way - it's the only plane with only guided air-to-air SP weapons (SAAM, HCAA, QAAM), leaving it in a rough spot in ground attack scenarios, and especially against hard targets like ships.
*** The F-104C's GRKT special weapon is probably the single most specialized weapon in the game. It fires several rockets all at one target, doing tremendous damage and easily overwhelming defenses like CIWS. However, such targets are rare and its long cooldown makes it hard to use to in most situations. It's unmatched against ships, but in the regular campaign, that's only really relevant in two missions and it's not very useful against the much more common tanks and [=SAMs=] and AA guns.
* CriticalExistenceFailure: {{Discussed|Trope}} in Mission 18, "Lost Kingdom", when the conditions are met. Getting hit by [[spoiler:Mihaly's EML]] will turn your plane from undamaged to 99% in one hit. Count and Jaeger will comment on how your plane should be shrapnel by now and is just barely holding together.

* {{Crossover}}: With ''Film/TopGunMaverick''. The game was given the "Top Gun Maverick Aircraft Set" DLC released on the same day as the movie in theaters on May 26th, 2022.

** Trigger's first encounter with Erusea's hijacked Arsenal Bird ends in a disastrous defeat for the IUPF, with the entire Skeleton Squadron wiped out and Osean command forcing a retreat due to being unable to even put a dent in the airship. [[note]]Sure enough, the Arsenal Bird spams [=UCAVs=], abuses the cloud mechanic to hide itself, and is deceptively fast despite its size [[spoiler: and has DeflectorShields, which it deploys once it has taken a certain amount of damage.]][[/note]]
** Champ versus Mihaly in the canyons of Yinshi Valley. The former thinks he can go toe-to-toe with the Erusean ace, ignoring Bandog's orders to disengage and pulling a Pugachev's Cobra to get behind "Mister X". Mere seconds later, Mihaly pulls a Kulbit and shoots down Champ in reverse position. Mihaly's bored tone when Wit berates him for [[WhyDontYouJustShootHim not downing Champ straight away]] confirms that he was toying with Spare 8 and hoping there would be ''at least'' a worthy fight, which he does get moments later against Trigger.

* DarkerAndEdgier: In addition to having [[AnyoneCanDie one of the higher body counts in the series]], ''Skies Unknown'' touches on some fairly dark themes such as the usage of convicts as military assets, the efficacy of drone warfare, and the utter chaos of war in general and its effect on the civilian population. As well as deconstructing the typical ''Ace Combat'' player through the character of Mihaly. [[spoiler: This trope especially comes into play in the last act when the collapse of Usea's satellite network plunges Erusea into civil war, sparks refugee crises across the continent, and very nearly allowed two highly advanced drones to launch an apocalyptic RobotWar.]] There is also a lot more swearing.

** AA guns and CIWS try to inflict this upon you, and it's very likely that you'll take one or two hits from them over the course of a mission. However, there are very few cases in which they're likely to actually get the "thousand cuts" they need.
** Flying close to an Arsenal Bird not only gets CIWS lighting you up, but also opens you to missile spam that ''will'' force you to peel away unless you like watching your health deplete in steady chunks to zero.
* {{Cult}}: It's heavily implied Captain Torres turned the Alicorn's personnel into his personal cult, worshipping nuclear destruction as "Salvation" and his brand of nuclear-enforced peace. Several pilots throw away their lives to sacrifice themselves for his vision, hollering "Salvation" as they die like suicide bombers, and one pilot fervently chants that he will always obey his commanding officers at all times like some kind of prayer. Even to the end, none of Torres' sailors attempt to man the lifeboats and willingly follow his commands to flood the sub simply for another chance to enact nuclear geno- er, "salvation".
* {{Deconstruction}}:
** Of the trope WouldNotShootACivilian. For most of the war, Erusea used drones to target Osean military targets without even scratching a single civilian. [[spoiler:But this was due to the work of the radical faction within the Erusean military, who are driven by the AI technology they received from Belka and use it to develop an advanced drone army. The drone performance and accuracy goes beyond all expectations, so they use this to gain public opinion on their side and opportunists into declaring war on Osea , even manipulating the Princess. To put it simply, the radicals avoided civilian casualties ''simply as a means to their end''.]]
*** Taken further, the use of drone launchers disguised as commercial shipping containers is a bad idea: later in the game, you're clearly attacking shipping containers that MIGHT contain drones. You get points for killing them no matter what, but there's no guarantee that they're launchers. The use of camouflaged drone launchers results in devastation to civilian shipping. This is further confirmed in the [[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XGJa5fkOWB4 trailer for the "Unexpected Visitor" story DLC]], where near the end of the video, the news ticker at the bottom says that container shipping traffic has deadlocked everywhere because containers are being inspected to make sure they aren't drone launchers, and there aren't enough inspectors to keep traffic moving.
** The Erusean top ace Mihaly is also a deconstruction of typical ''Ace Combat'' players: he's an ace pilot who's a LivingLegend who finds little to no enjoyment in life other than flying, and he's been flying for so long through so many wars, it's putting a strain on his aging body. He also [[BloodKnight doesn't care what he shoots down]], [[spoiler:even if it's harmless, fleeing pilots who posed no threat like Brownie, even toying with her as she's scared out of her mind, before taking the shot anyway, [[YouBastard the same thing we've been doing before]] as a [[AceCombatZeroTheBelkanWar Mercenary-route Cipher]] and even [[AceCombat04ShatteredSkies Mobius 1 himself]].]]
** Of previous ''Ace Combat'' games, which depict war as clean and controlled, and flying as safe and reliable, only breaking these rules to twist the plot. Clouds constantly block the player's view and missiles, icing up if they spend too long in them. Powerful and sudden windbursts can knock planes off course or into the ground. Lightning will cause instant InterfaceScrew, often recovering straight into a mountainside. War itself is shown to be brutal, where AnyoneCanDie is in full effect; people can and do just perish from random fire and events, with PlotArmor kicking in just a few times. Identification tech is unreliable, not every target really is one, and weapons don't just cleanly do what they're supposed to. As a result, almost every mission has some sort of PlotTwist in it.
* DeflectorShields: Receiving wireless energy from the space elevator with its Microwave Powered Dome, the Arsenal Bird is able to deploy a large spherical barrier called the Active Protection System around itself to protect against long-range missile strikes. Said shield is so powerful, even a concentrated missile attack won't hurt it. [[spoiler:However, it's not so mighty as to withstand a direct hit from Stonehenge.]]
* DespairEventHorizon: [[spoiler: The LRSSG commander reaches this after the satellite communications networks go down, throwing the entire continent and both sides into chaos, and their one chance at restoring peace is killed in a case of friendly fire. It is so bad that your [=AWACS=] operator is forced to step in as the ''de facto'' commander for the rest of the game.]]

** Different planes have their gun types accounted for; planes like the Su-37 and Su-35S (which have a single-barrel autocannon) have a lower ammunition cap and fire slower, while the A-10 has its famous GAU-8 Avenger with a cap of 4800 rounds, higher damage and a faster fire rate. Similarly, planes like the F-22 and F/A-18F (which have multi-barrel Gatling guns) have higher fire rates and higher ammo caps.
** There is overall a surprising level of detail on the various mission maps. In Mission 1 you take off in the midst of an air raid, and the activity of the base reflects to prove it; people running around, ground vehicles mobilizing for emergency response, and other aircraft lining up to take off behind you as choppers lift off from helipads. And the kicker is that those units don't just ''disappear'' once you get far enough from the base; they ''all'' have their own set locations and objectives to get to. For example, as you begin your takeoff roll, a pair of Chinook helicopters next to you take off as well. If you follow them, they cross the channel and hover near a burning watch tower, ostensibly for the purposes of recovering injured personnel. In Mission 2, when you begin the attack on the airbase, you can not only hear enemy radio chatter referencing the preparation of the drones you fight in the last part of the mission, but, if you have a good eye, you can actually ''see'' the disguised container trucks moving across the airfield from their staging positions to the launch positions.

** On Mission 3, you conduct a joint operation with the Navy. Before you start the mission, you play a mini-game to refuel your plane in mid-air. However, if you select a naval aircraft (like the F-14D), you take off from the Navy's carrier instead of refueling with the tanker.
** Halfway through Mission 3, Brownie gets severely damaged and has to withdraw while your job is protect other retreating allied aircraft from the Arsenal Bird's drones. While you're doing this and she is about to leave the area, [[spoiler: Mihaly shows up and manages to shoot her down.]] Even though you are far away from them because you are to protect the other allies, if you follow Brownie, you can see the whole encounter play out in-game, Mihaly's Su-30 and all. [[spoiler: Unfortunately he is invulnerable; [[ButThouMust Brownie must die for the sake of the plot]]]].
** If you think you can shoot down the Arsenal Bird in Mission 3 [[NewGamePlus with a powerful enough plane]], think again. If you render enough damage, the Arsenal Bird will activate its shield and will remain active throughout the mission.
** During the first duel with Mihaly, he has dialogue for his wingmen for every time he hits Trigger with a missile. There's about five conversations, even though most planes can only survive two missiles from Mihaly.
** In Mission 11, Wiseman will show that the support pylons of the ocean platforms can be destroyed, sending the platform and anything on it and under it crashing into the water. However, even though you can't directly lock onto the pylons until after the event, ''you can still shoot and destroy them'', if you manage to damage them with direct hit weapons or a lucky hit from a cruise missile. The dialogue will even change, with your fellow pilots in awe of your skill for hitting something with no targeting and Long Caster even swapping his line to reference you instead of Wiseman.

** Also in the final mission, [[spoiler:your plane will take off from the aircraft carrier ''Admiral Andersen''. You can choose any plane for the mission, but if you pick a non-carrier-based plane, your plane will launch from further back of the aircraft carrier. If you pick a carrier-based plane, it will launch from the middle of the carrier with normal procedures, including using a catapult and jet blast deflector.]]

--->'''Control Tower:''' Go back to flight school already. The aircraft can't seriously handle your shit!\\
'''Control Tower (alternate dialogue):''' Do you even know how to land a plane?!

** Unknown Known - Erusea neglects securing Stonehenge after it once again falls within their territory, not because they don't know its power, but rather because they don't see how a wrecked superweapon could be useful. By the time they realize that it's not completely useless (Mobius One only smashed ''seven'' of the eight guns during [[VideoGame/AceCombat04ShatteredSkies the Usean Continental War]], as the eighth had been silenced by a meteor impact that took out its power supply, but left the gun itself intact prior to the war) and there's a reason there's a small pocket of Osean forces there, it's almost too late for them to do anything about it. This failure to recognize the importance of this particular known value and close the pocket around Stonehenge sooner costs Erusea one of the Arsenal Birds.
** Unknown Unknown - ''neither'' side could foresee that they would launch their ASAT missions at ''exactly the same time'' while Osea was besieging the Erusean capital of Farbanti. On top of this, neither side had a real contingency for what to do if ''their entire communications network'' goes dark, resulting in widespread chaos and anarchy as nations secede, entire military units rebel, and people start shooting at each other.
* DifficultButAwesome: In multiplayer, the Electromagnetic Launcher is a OneHitKill on all planes with a value below 2000 points. Manually lining up your plane to aim it is the challenge. You can get a kill or two on an unsuspecting player at the start of a match, but good luck when they all gather into a furball.

** The fourth mission, "Rescue", is centered around "Operation Lighthouse Keeper," a daring, intricate mission to rescue former president Vincent Harling from the Lighthouse, but the it all falls apart about halfway through.
*** While Mage and Golem squadron successfully clear the Lighthouse of anti-aircraft weapons for Sea Goblin, the mission's rescue team, to land, they come under attack from MQ-99 drones launched from the mainland; this ends up dividing the mission's air support as they intercept the drones, leaving Sea Goblin without effective air cover.

*** Shortly after locating Harling, a thermobaric rocket demolishes Sea Goblin's helicopter, and a second one finishes off the survivors; Harling's escort, Colonel Johnson, is forced to find alternate transportation off the Lighthouse by stealing an Erusian Osprey.
*** No sooner does "Mother Goose One" (Harling's/Johnson's Osprey) lift off the landing pad when a new swarm of drones show up, these being the more advanced MQ-101 which are known to herald the arrival of an Arsenal Bird. The drones waste no time attacking both Mother Goose One and the IUN squadrons, turning the extraction into an aerial furball.

*** During the chaos, Mother Goose One is hit by a missile. While the aircraft continues flying, the cockpit is seriously damaged, and Johnson is mortally wounded. With only Harling inside the stricken aircraft, the escorting pilots try desperately to contact him, to seemingly no avail.
*** Not long after losing radio contact, Mother Goose One, ostensibly under Harling's control now, turns back towards the Lighthouse, still not responding to hails or directions to leave the airspace, even as drones begin to swarm the aircraft.
*** Finally, a missile, assumed to be a stray one fired by Mage Two [[spoiler: but later revealed to have been fired by a drone spoofing Mage Two's IFF]], strikes Mother Goose One, causing the aircraft to explode in midair with no survivors. With the primary objective failed and the Arsenal Bird ''Liberty'' entering the airspace, the IUN-PKF forces declare the mission a failure and pull out.
** [[spoiler:Osea and Erusea's simultaneous anti-satellite attacks kick off an [[http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Kessler_syndrome ablation cascade]], a well-documented hypothetical real life DisasterDominoes scenario wherein space debris starts hitting satellites, breaking them and spreading more debris that breaks more satellites and making more debris and so on, that destroys most of the global satellite network and creates an information blackout that plunges the world into chaos]].

** The [=F/A-18F=] Super Hornet and Su-33 Flanker-D, some of the earlier planes you unlock and more or less equivalent aircraft between the US and Russian branches (each only has a single pre-requisite - the F-14D for the [=F/A-18F=], and the [=MiG-29A=] for the Su-33), share access to some of the most powerful special weapons in the entire game, including the EML railgun and the deadly LASM, which makes mincemeat of otherwise highly durable ships. While the planes starts to fall behind later in the game, they can easily last you a long time just by themselves.
** In multi-player, the [=MiG-21=]bis. It's far, far more maneuverable at both high and low speed, than its stated stats would indicate, and due to its massive parts cap, it can buff its missiles so high that normal missiles maneuver almost like [=QAAMs=]. This, combined with its low "cost" makes it a monster in low-points and no-subweapon rooms, and surprisingly competitive in unlimited rooms.
** If a player is persistent enough, there's nothing stopping them from grinding out enough MRP to unlock the YF-23, F-22, or Su-57 by playing Multiplayer or Free Mission after playing the first mission in the story. Any MRP you earn is permanent and carry over, so you can play through the campaign on your first try with the best planes. Previous games in the series required completing the campaign before even unlocking free mission mode and better aircraft were unlocked through campaign progression, instead of the now free-form [[TechTree Aircraft Tree]]. You still have to beat the campaign to unlock the X-02S Strike Wyvern though.
** [[BribingYourWayToVictory With the appropriate DLC installed]], players can hop into the cockpit of an ADF-11F Raven (stat-wise ''the'' best plane bar none) from the moment they fire up the game for the first time. Its somewhat lackluster choice of SP weapons tends to let the Raven be overshadowed by the F-22 and the X-02S once they become available, but it remains one of the most powerful planes in the game and can make most of the campaign that much easier, especially for new players with limited access to advanced planes and upgrade parts.
** Early missions against drones can be handled easily via the Hyper-Velocity Air-to-Air Missiles special weapon, first available on the F-2A and later on the Su-33 and YF-23. They have very high accuracy due to their speed, allowing you to OneHitKill drones about as quickly as you can get the missiles to respawn on your plane's hardpoints.
* DontCelebrateJustYet: In Mission 19, [[spoiler:all seems to be well when the second Arsenal Bird is finally destroyed...and then the two new super-drones Hugin and Munin show up and starts to tear the Oseans [[EnemyMine and Eruseans]] a new one. The remaining fighters are forced to make a landing at a nearby abandoned carrier so that they can regroup.]]

* DudeNotFunny: No one, ''not even [[{{Jerkass}} Bandog]]'', is amused at Full Band literally chortling over [[spoiler:High Roller's]] death and shitty "jokes" at the newly-dead pilot's expense. His mocking is met with a frigid silence until Bandog breaks the ice by mocking ''him'':
-->C'mon, guys, where's your sense of humour? Your buddy made a joke. [[SarcasmMode Laugh already.]]
* DudeWheresMyRespect: ZigZagged - at first, it's {{averted|trope}}, as Trigger is a new pilot who quickly earns the respect of Mage Squadron and becomes trusted enough by high command to send on extremely dangerous missions, then it's played straight when he gets reassigned to Spare Squadron, as Spare is a penal unit and the base C.O, [[MilesGloriosus McKinsey]], takes all credit for Spare's achievements. [[spoiler:Then the trope gets {{subverted|trope}} as Spare Squadron's accomplishments convince HQ that they're worth being incorporated into the military proper. All members of Spare Squadron are pardoned. Some of the members are sent off to other squadrons. Meanwhile Wiseman vouches for Trigger and Count, which gets them both absorbed into the Long Range Strategic Strike Group as parts of Strider and Cyclops Squadrons.]] Finally [[GoneHorriblyRight owing to his great success commanding Spare Squadron]], [=McKinsey=] is reassigned to a prestigious post [[spoiler:on the front lines]].
* DuelBoss: In Mission 18 - "Lost Kingdom", you fight Mihaly for the third and final time [[spoiler:as he pilots the X-02S Strike Wyvern equipped with an Electromagnetic Launcher,]] and Strider Squadron, fully aware that only Trigger is able to match the Erusean ace, resign themselves to forming a perimeter around the duel so that no other hostile may interfere. Meanwhile, Mihaly instructs the rest of Sol Squadron to retreat and pursue their objective of [[spoiler:claiming independence for their own land from Erusea,]] adding that he's not the one that will be guiding them towards that objective.
* DwindlingParty: 444th Fighter Squadron is sent up against impossible odds again and again and is guaranteed to lose some of their members in every other mission, to the point that even your named wingmen are not safe. [[spoiler:After the initial mission, each subsequent level sees Spare Squadron's ranks dwindle: High Roller is shot down by enemy fighters, Champ is killed by Mihaly, Full Band is marked as a hostile by Bandog and is subsequently shot down by Count; while Tabloid survives to see the 444 considered a proper military unit, he suffers an off-screen death helping civilians on land. By the end of the game, Trigger and Count (and Avril, but she's the mechanic) are the only known survivors of the original squadron.]]
* EasierThanEasy: Casual Easy difficulty is recommended for players new to the Ace Combat franchise. It gives the player both unlimited guns and standard missiles while significantly reducing damage taken from enemies.
* EasyLevelTrick: Mission 13 (Bunker Buster) requires 5 missile silos to be taken out by directing bombers to deliver ground penetration explosives within a fairly strict time limit. Complicating this is the Eruseans have created 3 dummy silos scattered amongst the real ones, and the fake ones are randomised each time the mission is started. However, The fake silos do not change if the mission or checkpoint reset, and the fake silos can be determined either by looking closely at them(the fake ones are painted on concrete and two dimensional while the real ones are not) or shoot them with your machine gun before attempting to bomb them(the fake ones will be removed as a TGT from your map and count will comment on finding a fake). It's possible to play the mission the first time with the sole purpose of finding the fake silos and then reset the mission knowing which three silos to ignore for the actual bombing runs to maximize the time you have and focus on landing the bombs on the silos.

** Mister X's Sol Squadron stands head and shoulder above any regular enemy pilot you'll encounter on the battlefield. Mister X himself is the most dangerous human enemy in the game, and his wingmen are all ace pilots in their own right. They also fly nothing but top-tier planes that can withstand significantly more damage than most of the regular enemy planes. That they tend to show up at the end of long missions when you're likely to be low on ammo only makes them that much more dangerous. Thankfully you're never required to actually shoot them down[[note]]the first time they show up you just need to survive for a couple minutes until everyone's IFF goes haywire. The second time you "only" need to defeat Mister X himself while the rest of Sol Squadron watches the duel from the sidelines[[/note]].

* EndOfAnAge: The onset of unmanned aircraft with AI comparable or superior to regular pilots brings forward the question: "What does it mean to be unmanned?". Avril recounts that her grandfather gave her a magazine with the title "Era of the Drones" and the tagline "Soon, there will be no one gripping a control stick and taking to the skies", referencing the increasing replacement of pilots by unmanned aircraft. On the Erusean side of the story, Dr. Schroeder tries to extract flight data from the aging ace Mihaly in order to improve the [=UAVs=]' war performance and produce powerful drones armed with a depth of combat experience and unhindered by human limitations. [[spoiler:Eventually, several characters start voicing their disapproval of UAV technology being used in the war, claiming that it has no place in the conflict and is no better than witchcraft, thus defying the trope.]]

** In the third SP Mission 'Ten Million Relief Plan', [[spoiler:[[EveryoneHasStandards even Erusea is horrified of what Captain Torres and his crew planned to do]], so they sent the specifications of the ''Alicorn'' super submarine to Osea to allow the LRSSG to take the fight to Torres before the madman can accomplish his goals of ending the war swiftly and violently with his nuclear shells.]] It is, however, [[spoiler:implied that Erusea dragged their feet on sending the submarine blueprints, and that at least one faction of Eruseans had a vested interest in nuking a capital city.]]
** In the final two missions, [[spoiler:all forces that are against the use of drone warfare teams up together to take the fight to the Radical Erusean forces who attempted to prolong the war even after the entire world had been thrown into chaos following the satellite disaster. After taking care of them, they later fight the two super [=UAVs=] Hugin and Munin to stop them from kickstarting a devastating RobotWar.]]

** The F-15C, [=MiG-31B=], and Su-57 can carry laser pods that shoot out blue laser blasts (PLSL or Pulse Laser) similar to how previous games used the Machine Gun Pod (MGP).
** The F-15E and Su-37 Terminator can carry a single TLS pod that resembles a streamlined version of Morgan's "Zoisite" TLS, and fires a continuous red laser beam at significantly reduced damage compared to the [=PS2=] games.

** The ADF-11F RAVEN is able to fire a lengthy pink laser beam from its beak, much like its predecessor, the ADF-01 FALKEN. It can also deploy smaller [=UAVs=] that ''also'' fire a continuous pink beam. The playable version of the plane not only features the TLS as a subweapon, but also features Pulse Lasers as the default weapon instead of internal guns.
** The ADF-01 FALKEN included in the second DLC also fires a continuous laser beam from its retractable beak, only this time it's clear blue like the game it debuted in. It also retains a power level closer to its pre-nerfed incarnation, taking 3 "pulses" to destroy an enemy bomber while the TLS on all other planes take 5.
** The third DLC adds the ADFX-01 Morgan, which can equip its classic "Zoisite" TLS pod, which fires a similar red beam to the regular TLS.

** Mission 16 requires you to see a civilian vehicle through the a battlefield of chaos where enemy units aren't immediately identified as such.
* EstablishingCharacterMoment: The mission "444", is an establishing character moment for the ''entire Spare Squadron''. It starts off with Champ forcing a take off after cutting off Tabloid's plane on the taxiway, and telling the Air Traffic Control (who unsubtly keeps implying Trigger can't fly his plane) to ‘Go to hell’ after they call him out on it. Count tries to assume command of the squadron, but nobody listens to him, High Roller sets up a betting pool on whose going to live and whose going to die, Full Band proceeds to SpeakIllOfTheDead when mentioning how Trigger got transferred over to the Spare Squadron by shooting a missile in between [[spoiler:old Harling’s eyes]], and last but not least, AWACS Bandog sends out a warning to the squadron, ‘This is the penal unit. [[ImpliedDeathThreat I decide when you die]].’ When the mission is over, [[TheNeidermeyer Colonel [=McKinsey=]]] throws everyone into solitary for disobeying ''his'' orders to not fire on the enemy bombers until he gave the go ahead, [[UngratefulBastard despite the fact that he and most of the base personnel would likely have been]] ''[[UngratefulBastard obliterated]]'' [[UngratefulBastard by said bombers had Spare Squadron not intervened]]. It all goes to show how dysfunctional the Spare Squadron is.

** Several of the in-game medals require the player to perform certain feats with machine guns. Since the [=MiG=]-21bis's ''machine gun'' pods are machine guns, even though they're not the internal machine guns and are fired separately from them, they ''do'' count for the medals and can be used when pursuing them.
** On your first mission as the 444th, Erusean bombers are fooled into thinking that the base (which was initially a decoy) is legit. [=McKinsey=] orders you to intercept them to make it more convincing. However, he did not say to ''shoot them down'' (though you need to in order to progress), and throws the whole squadron in solitary for "disobeying" orders.
* FalseFlagOperation: Erusea sics drones on Spare Squadron during a recon operation. But what's worse than just killer drones? The drones are conventional aircraft converted into [=UAVs=] and painted in Osean colors (and they spoof [=IFF=] signals, making them a violation of international law). One can tell that the planes are drones by the weird glowing bars below the cockpit canopies, but that requires getting a little too close to the drones for comfort.
* FantasticRacism: Since the [[VideoGame/AceCombat5TheUnsungWar Circum-Pacific War]], Belkans have become stereotyped as warmongering conspirators who frequently instigate conflicts with their technology. [[spoiler: Following Erusea’s descent into civil war from the ablation cascade, Erusean conservative forces on Tyler Island indiscriminately massacre the Belkan engineers and their families who lived and worked near the island’s mass driver, blaming them for leading their country to ruin. During Mission 18, the retreating Osean forces on the aforementioned island end up discovering the mass grave where the killings took place. The radicals aren't much better in that they're killing ''every'' citizen they come across.]]

** As part of the game's analysis on the growing role of drones in warfare, Erusea appears to be exploiting a loophole in laws prohibiting combatants from disguising themselves as civilians with intent to attack - apparently loading an armed drone into a shipping container and getting it into position across state lines via civilian freight doesn't quite constitute a war crime (it helps that the Princess immediately leans on how this allowed them to hit military assets without damaging civilian centers, in contrast to messier counter-attacks, which causes Osea to get lots of news flak from the media). As autonomously self-guided drones are not people, they cannot be prosecuted.

* FinalBossPreview: Exactly halfway into the game, you fight [[spoiler:a prototype drone with extreme maneuverability and combat skills, to the point that Strider Squadron, who were following it, didn't expect anyone to be able to shoot it down. Two drones of the same type appeared in the final mission, code-named ADF-11. They split off of their "shell" - the ADF-11F - after they were shot down by Trigger, forcing Trigger to fight them again as the final enemies of the game.]]
* FiveSecondForeshadowing: In Mission 9, after you finish taking out all of the aircraft that were tagged as enemies, Bandog will inform Spare Squadron that there's just one left to take out. [[spoiler:The fact that Full Band specifically is the one to ask where it is gives a hint as to [[UnfriendlyFire what's about to happen to him.]]]]
* ForcedToWatch: In Mission 10, the Bulgurdarestian forces guarding the border are itching to assist Spare Squadron and Roper 1 as they head toward the border, but their commanding officer denies permission to fire on the Erusean aircraft harassing them as that would be taken as a pretext for invasion, so the big mass of blue "Friendly" units can do nothing but watch. Indeed, the Eruseans even broadcast a warning to Bulgurdarest that any attempt to fire on Erusean forces ''will'' be taken as hostile military action, and they are already preparing combat engineers to get into position to launch a ground invasion of Bulgurdarest if they are dumb enough to try and help Spare Squadron.

** The news broadcast after Mission 1 shows Erusean [=UAVs=] launching from cargo containers, [[spoiler: one of which is labeled North Osea Gründer Industries.]] And in Mission 2, some of the Erusean radio chatter talks about giving "feedback for those war merchants" and complaining about manuals written in a foreign language [[spoiler: both of which are hinting at a Belkan connection behind the drones.]]
** As early as Mission 2, you can get a JumpScare when certain ground targets explode with a ''huge'' blast. Strangely, it also [[UnusuallyUninterestingSight goes unremarked on by either your AWACS or your wingmen.]] Eventually, you find out that these [[spoiler: were warheads for the Arsenal Birds' Helios burst missiles, which have the same effect: a massive blue explosion that causes your HUD to temporarily fritz out.]]
** In Mission 2, the five MQ-99 drones perform an aerobatic "bomb burst" maneuver. [[spoiler: Later, in Farbanti, this is shown to have been learned from Mihaly and the Sol Squadron.]]
** At the end of Mission 2, Knocker replies to Brownie's concerns of innocents being killed with, "You shoot, and someone gets killed. The guys in charge take care of the rest." [[spoiler: Come Mission 4, Trigger shoots, and ''Harling'' inadvertently gets killed. The "guys in charge" took care of it by finding Trigger guilty of murder and transferring him to the 444th.]]
** Similarly, Brownie expresses concern of innocents being killed by falling enemy aircraft. [[spoiler: Come Mission 19, Tabloid dies saving a child from a shot down drone crashing.]]
** No matter how many of the Arsenal Bird's engines you disable in Mission 3 before it puts up its shield, the ending cinematic will always show it recalling its drones and leaving with all engines fully functional. At first it seems like an egregious case of GameplayAndStorySegregation...[[spoiler:until the penultimate mission, where it is revealed that the Arsenal Birds have ''automated repair systems'' which allow it to restart damaged engines after a short while and owe to their extreme longevity.]]
** During Mission 04, an Erusean controller says that the Arsenal Birds' strategic AI sent ''Liberty'' over ''Justice'' to come defend the space elevator. [[spoiler:After the communications blackout, nations annexed by Erusea claim independence and start purging anybody related to Belka and the drone technology in revenge, choosing their liberty over justice towards the real culprits (the Radical Eruseans and what's left of the Grey Men)]].

*** Bandog also unintentionally gives another bit of symbolic foreshadowing when he responds to Count's snide remarks towards Trigger with, "You wouldn't understand. Not until you take a good look in the mirror." "Harling's Mirror" is an InUniverse riddle to describe the dichotomy between whether Harling intended to destroy the Lighthouse due to it causing the war, or save it in the hopes that it could bring peace. [[spoiler: For Count, he experiences growing jealousy over Trigger's performance overshadowing his own, as well as his superiority complex over being under the (benevolent) thumb of Wiseman. Wiseman's death, putting him as de facto leader of Cyclops Squadron and doing an okay job (once both Cyclops and Strider Squadron chew his ear) and the final battle at the Lighthouse allow him to put aside his jealousy and recognizes Trigger for the true ace he is.]]
** The first time Cyclops Squadron and Strider Squadron are introduced, it is mentioned that they are returning back from a deep reconnaissance mission into Erusean territory. When one of the Spare pilots questions what they are doing so far behind enemy lines, Full Band says that all he could dig up was that they were investigating "the ruins." [[spoiler:Said ruins turn out to be that of Stonehenge, and the Osean military forces move in to capture it in order to repair the remaining cannon and use it to shoot down one of the Arsenal Birds.]]
** During the mission where [[spoiler:the enemy planes are tagged as allies ambushing Spare Squadron, an Arsenal Bird starts launching Helios missiles into the area as well. Tabloid is puzzled as to why the Eruseans would fire Helios into the area indiscriminately without caring that this might shoot their own planes down. The enemy planes are also conspicuously silent during the mission, without the usual enemy chatter that often accompanies them. This is another hint that those planes don't actually have any pilots flying inside them: they're all being flown by [=AIs=].]]
** Trigger and Count encounter an odd drone while on an escort mission, one that is much more maneuverable and capable than the previous [=UAVs=]. [[spoiler: It is a prototype of the final drone they fight, based on Mihaly's (and Trigger's!) complete flight data.]]
** Mage Squadron's AWACS calls attention to Osea's satellite-based IFF system in the second mission of the game, mentioning on how it is [[TemptingFate almost infallible]] and explains how it is what allows for Osea's almost-instant IFF tagging. [[spoiler: Later the entire system goes down when Erusea destroys Osea's communications satellites, forcing Trigger to rely on the more traditional (and slower) visual processing-based IFF systems and AWACS datalink for the rest of the game.]]
** During the first battle at the space elevator, Gargoyle Squadron's flight leader suddenly yells: "Babel, babel, babel!", followed by the entire squadron turning towards the space elevator and firing a volley of missiles at it, though the [=UAVs=] suddenly swarm the elevator and [[TakingTheBullet intercept almost all the missiles themselves]]. Mage Squadron wonders what the hell was going on until they conclude command forgot to keep everyone informed again. [[spoiler:When the satellite network goes down, this sort of right hand vs. left hand conflict becomes commonplace.]]
** There is an early hint in Mission 4 that the Erusean military is factionalized. [[spoiler: The Erusean radio chatter shows the Arsenal Bird's operator complaining to someone else about a senior officer who is ordering him to have the drones fire "warning shots" at Harling's escape craft. The operator (who sounds rather young himself) then snidely remarks "He's an old-timer. Has no idea how drones are used." This is the earliest hint in the game that the younger Eruseans are very gung-ho about using drones aggressively while the older Eruseans are more cautious, a split that becomes official after the satellites go down.]]
** In Mission 16, there is some Erusean radio chatter [[spoiler: reporting that the drones are behaving strangely and are not acknowledging new orders being transmitted to them. One officer asks if the drones can be switched to slave mode instead. Shortly after, an Erusean pilot alarmingly reports that he [[UnfriendlyFire was fired upon by a friendly drone.]] At the end of the mission, the drones do go haywire, and in Mission 19 the remnants of the Radical faction slave their remaining drones to human-operated aircraft to gain control over the unstable network.]]
** The first time you face drones in Mission 2, the Eruseans launch five drones, which immediately perform a starburst maneuver. When you face all of Sol Squadron in Mission 15, they perform an identical starburst, hinting just how deeply involved Sol Squadron was in Erusea's drone program.

*** Anchorhead Raid has a Erusean commander rush the defences to defend an Erusean fleet meant to crush Osea at an upcoming decisive battle, lest "Labarthe and the conservatives" get their anti-war plans traction. You later escort Labarthe himself in the middle of the aforementioned conservatives trying to fight the pro-war radicals.

*** Mimic Squadron, a flight of two black-coloured jets, showing up and ignoring [[spoiler:Clemens']] order to stand down, much like the ADF-11s ignoring Erusea's attempt to get the [=UCAVs=] to stand down. Their behavior is even ''mimicked'' by the ADF-11s - shooting one down before the other causes the other to go berserk, and depending on which one you shoot down, they may dissolve into near-incoherent madness as they randomly fire at you, or channel their fury into overdrive as they focus a barrage on you.
** The Alex AI being used to simulate an entire war [[spoiler:winds up foreshadowing all of Electrosphere, which was a simulation run by one man to predict the outcome of a war.]]
* ForegoneConclusion: Thanks to various [[CallForward Call-Forwards]] and attempts at ArcWelding, [[FreezeFrameBonus some subtle]], [[spoiler:by this point it's clear to many fans that the war has long-term consequences as shown in ''[[VideoGame/AceCombat3Electrosphere Electrosphere]]'', especially the creation of Nemo]].

** Osea's expendable penal fighter squadron is the 444th Fighter Squadron "Spare". They are sent on the most dangerous missions to earn redemption either through victory or through death, with the latter being implied to be the far more common outcome. This is also further emphasized by the fact that the squadron (and their airbase) is nearly always referred to as the "four-four-four" or "four forty-four", rather than the "four-hundred-forty-fourth".
** Mission 4 has you leading an operation to rescue [[spoiler:Vincent Harling. However, this time it didn't have a happy ending like in the fifth game.]]
* FourLinesAllWaiting: The game utilizes a SwitchingPOV amongst four characters, though three of them are relegated to {{Cut Scene}}s and the fourth, the PlayerCharacter, is never seen.

** Avril Mead, the Scrap Queen, is the star of the opening CutScene. A WrenchWench, she restores a mothballed F-104 Starfighter and takes to the skies. The realistic outcome backfires when she's tagged as a bandit, shot down by Osean fighters (her own side), and then jailed. However, this leads to her helping run the 444 Air Base and keep its planes flying. After Trigger and Count are transferred out, the jailers and jailed band together and make a run for it; she ends up on Tyler Island, where she links up with Trigger again. Thereafter she sails to the ISEV and helps mastermind the EnemyMine coalition of Osean defenders and Erusean Conservatives.
** Princess Rosa Cosette D'Elise is the ruler of Erusea, rallying the troops and starting an offensive war against (what she perceives to be) Osean intentions of dominion; she's seen and heard mostly through propaganda transmissions. After Farbanti is captured, the remains of her government try to spirit her away, but her transport is shot down and she's left marooned on Tyler Island, where Avril's group find her and take her in. Confronted by the bloodthirsty attitude of the Erusean Radicals, Cossette joins forces with Avril in helping to end the war, and even takes a personal hand in combat by destroying the mechanisms within the ISEV that power the DeflectorShields of the second Arsenal Bird, allowing Trigger to land the finishing blow.
** Dr. Schroeder is a Belkan researcher who is responsible for Erusea's {{Attack Drone}}s. Hired by Cossette's government to provide (a veneer of) BloodlessCarnage, keeping Erusean lives safe and minimizing Osean civilian casualties, he uploads and refines the drones' AI by taking readings from Mihaly A. Shilage, an aging AcePilot who serves as TheDragon for Erusea as a whole. He is at the ISEV, attempting to upload his latest AI to the drones, when Avril and Cossette seize it; seeing the slaughter his drones have wrought, he performs a HeelFaceTurn and helps brief the LRSSG on two SuperPrototype drones who turn out to be the FinalBoss.
* FragileSpeedster: MQ-99 and MQ-101 drones are absolutely inhumanly agile, but they go down in a single missile hit, while manned jets [[spoiler: and the somewhat less agile drone-controlled versions of normally-manned jets]] take at least two normal missiles, and some, such as the A-10C, can survive even that.
* FrameUp: [[spoiler:Harling's death]] in Misson 04 seems to be the result of [[spoiler:you firing a missile while your plane was pointed at his]], but in Misson 16, [[spoiler:Labarthe reveals that an Erusean drone disguised as an Osean fighter was the one that fired the killing shot, and that an Osean (you, in particular, but he doesn't seem to be aware of it) was made to take the fall. Count is relieved to hear that you were innocent all along.]]

** [[spoiler: For the part in Mission 4 when you shoot a missile in the general direction of former President Harling, triggering the cutscene in which he gets killed, it turns out that another missile gets fired from off screen at the same time. In Mission 16, it is mentioned that a drone disguised as a friendly fighter was the actual culprit. After Harling is shot down, the cutscene shows the drone flying past your plane from behind and to the right.]]
*** [[spoiler: If you splash those last two drones harassing Harling's transport with guns, [[https://youtu.be/qFXMFT7PjI0?t=11 the off-screen missile gets launched anyway]], with the cutscene triggering on impact. And that missile actually [[https://youtu.be/zHrjpafvxKQ?t=9 spawns out of nowhere]].]]
** In Mission 10, a [[spoiler: [[VideoGame/AceCombat2 Z.O.E. emblem]]]] can be seen on the unknown drone, hinting who is supplying Erusea with drones and helping drive the war, but it's so small and fast that it's very easy to miss.
** In the cutscenes that have Dr. Schroeder in them, if one were to look really closely when his namebadge is in the frame, [[spoiler: they’ll notice that the letters ‘Z.O.E.’ is directly underneath his name.]]

** Tabloid is the one who came up with the idea of sticking with Trigger in order to make it through each suicidal battle the 444th goes through. This is reflected in gameplay where his plane will stick close to you no matter where you go, [[spoiler:even as you're on the run from the enemy F/A-18 drones with spoofed Osean [=IFFs=] in Mission 9]].
** After [[spoiler: the Osean and Erusean satellite networks go down]], you start having to manually ID targets to determine if they're friend or foe, and until those forces get that data, they don't know if ''you're'' friend or foe, either and even forces that turn out to be friendly once [=IDed=] will shoot at you.
** The briefing screens change not only based on who Trigger is deployed with, but they also differ [[spoiler: before and after the satellites go down. Before they go down, the briefing map will update slideshow-style with enemy territory, movements, and objectives automatically updating from data forwarded from high command. After the satellites go down, you can actually ''see'' the person operating the briefing computer manually clicking and inputting the information, and the briefings are a lot more simplified due to the loss of communication.]]

** During the final two missions, [[spoiler:it's stated that secure comms are still down and the plan isn't subtle at all, so everyone's just communicating on open frequencies. Accordingly, allied Eruseans still have red tags in radio subtitles, normally reserved for enemies.]]

** You unlock planes through the [[TechTree Aircraft Tree]]. However even when you're supposed to be doing time for Spare Squadron, players still have access to the Aircraft Tree, which allows you to unlock military grade airplanes and put in military grade customization that have been unlocked. You still have the Queen's Custom bonus to apply to newer planes even after being separated from the Scrap Queen for a good chunk of the game. Later in the story where you're most likely unlocking late-game planes, it happens [[spoiler: after the simultaneous anti-satellite operations which disrupted the chain of command and military resupply lines]].

*** You can still get [[spoiler:an S-rank even though you've been accused of killing the former President of Osea.]]
*** The game doesn't take into account if you're going for the Gun Run, as the cutscene will rather jarringly [[spoiler:still show a missile shooting down Mothergoose One]].
** Although [[spoiler: Brownie's death in Mission 3]] is intended to present Mihaly unfavourably as he attacked two retreating pilots, several of the named aces that can be shot down for bonus points also spawn fleeing and will only start engaging Trigger if he fires first. As ''Skies Unknown'' doesn't track the player's "[[KarmaMeter Ace Style]]" (unlike ''Ace Combat Zero''), Trigger's choice of targets doesn't affect the story.

* GetBackHereBoss: At least six of the 24 secret ace pilots you can spawn in the campaign not only appear in out-of-the-way locations; they actually flee the battlefield the moment they spawn instead of joining the fight. Others don't actively flee but head in weird directions that can make it just as difficult to track them down (and some of those guys pilot stealth planes, to boot, making them even more elusive).
* GlassCannon: The [=MiG-21=]bis has tremendous offensive capabilities with its gun pods, but it also has the lowest defense rating in the game and is one of the few planes that cannot get enough hitpoints to withstand an EML hit in multiplayer, which most other planes can with the level 2 hitpoint boosting part.

** The penal unit's fake military base puts effort into look as important and convincing as possible in order to distract enemy forces and make them waste their time focusing on them. It works, to the point where Erusea is willing to send several bombers to flatten them.
** Colonel [=McKinsey=] stresses the successes of the 444th Squadron to make himself look better to his superiors in the hopes of a promotion. Later, he indeed does get a promotion, [[spoiler:but as a leader on the frontlines of the conflict instead of a cushy office job that he was gunning for]].

* GoroawaseNumber: One of the achievements requires flying a total of 76,500km in the campaign mode. "7 6 5" is spelled as Na Mu Ko, or "Namco".
* GottaCatchThemAll: The game has 24 named aces that spawn on Normal difficulty or above once specific conditions are met after you've finished the campaign once. Defeating one unlocks his unique skin for the plane he's flying, and downing them all is rewarded with the Bird of Prey achievement. Some aces also need to literally be caught first because they [[GetBackHereBoss start fleeing the op zone]] the moment they spawn.

** Osea returns the favor by taking over Stonehenge and reactivating the one cannon Mobius One didn't destroy (prior to the events of '' VideoGame/AceCombat04ShatteredSkies'', one of the cannons' electrical or control systems was smashed by a rogue fragment of Ulysses, silencing the otherwise intact asteroid defense cannon) and uses it to bring down one of the Arsenal Birds. Unfortunately, while the shot tears through the Arsenal Bird's shields like a hot knife through butter and splits the Arsenal Bird in half, the stresses placed on the old gun by firing it once more render it as inoperable as the other seven.

* GratuitousFrench: The ending song, "pensées", sounds like it's a love song, but is really a long string of gibberish to even French speakers, as the lyrics simply do not make sense and lack coherence, despite being sung in phonetically correct French.
* GuideDangIt: While the Campaign Assault Records screen does give hints toward spawning certain ace pilots (some of them are quite specific), many of them still require some seriously tricky precision at times. Be it flying through an absurdly tiny tunnel in the Roco Rojo desert, or downing every enemy on screen inside a ridiculous time limit, there's a lot of trial and skill required to get them all.
* HegemonicEmpire: Erusea is revealed to be a collection of different nations and ethnicities that have all at one point been annexed and assimilated by the old Erusean kingdom, among them being Mihaly’s homeland. [[spoiler: Following the communications blackout caused by the Osean and Erusean ASAT attacks, several of these nations take advantage of the chaos to declare independence from Erusea.]]
* HeirClubForMen: The epilogue reveals this is in full effect in Erusea. The king and any sons or brothers, as well as presumably any uncles or nephews he may have had died during the Lighthouse War, leaving Princess Rosa Cossette D'Elise the sole living member of the royal family. Erusea's legislature is mentioned to be working on changing the law so Cossette can become queen, but until they can manage that, the throne is vacant.
* HeroicMime: {{Lampshaded}} in Mission 14, when Count mentions that the best part of Strider squadron is how Trigger never runs his mouth off.

** The Arsenal Bird's first appearance in Mission 3 boils down to the IUPF being unable to even get close to it as it spams a ridiculous amount of missiles and drones at them, while taking advantage of the game's cloud mechanic to cover itself. The best Trigger can do is dodge until a retreat order is issued, as firing missiles will only prompt some [=UCAVs=] to [[TakingTheBullet take the hit]] for the Arsenal Bird, despite the airship having multiple target hitboxes. [[spoiler:Even if the IUPF pilots do manage to inflict some damage on the Arsenal Bird, it just activates a set of DeflectorShields which destroy all missiles and force away all aircraft within the shield's radius. After that, command orders all squadrons to retreat.]]

** [[spoiler:Brownie's plane gets hit by a missile but is still able to fly. Her squadron leader orders her to return back to base with another escort plane while the rest of the squadron hold off the enemy force. Just when the two planes are about to exit the combat zone, they fly straight into [[HeroKiller Mihaly]].]]
** [[spoiler:The mission to rescue ex-president Harling goes roughly at first, with the Sea Goblin squad that sent in completely annihilated, but Colonel Johnson manages to rescue Harling and the two fly a V-22 Osprey out. Just when it seems like they're going to make it, the plane catches a missile and Colonel Johnson is killed, and for some unknown reason, Harling decides to pilot the plane back to the space elevator. When Trigger tries to shoot the drone that is trailing the plane, the missile instead hits Harling's plane directly, downing the aircraft and killing everyone onboard.]]

*** [[spoiler:During the Battle of Farbanti itself, after Wiseman is killed by Mihaly, Trigger duels Mihaly one-on-one and actually scores a few good hits, and is implied that he got within one missile shot of bringing Mihaly down and avenging Wiseman. Unfortunately, the satellite network is destroyed in ''just that exact moment'' and everyone's [=HUDs=] on both sides of the battle subsequently malfunction. Mihaly takes that moment to slip away in the confusion, while Trigger and the rest of the squadron are left reeling and unable to pursue them.]]
** [[spoiler:Osea then attempts to back an anti-war Erusean general who has the influence to reunify the country. However, despite Trigger's best efforts, the general is killed by an Osean fighter under orders from an AWACS who had been given false intel from the Erusean Radicals.]]
* IDidWhatIHadToDo: [[spoiler:Strider Squadron]] feels bad for having to raid the countryside of Shilage. They know how culturally important it is, [[spoiler:but the Squadron ''needs'' the food, fuel, and ammo supplies stashed in the castle. Húxiān mentions that she feels like a burglar, but Jaeger reassures her that it's for the best, even if he himself vows to never tell that part of the story to his son. They start feeling even ''worse'' when the notice the lines of refugees crowding the roads, now realizing that they're not just stealing from rebel militants, but ''innocent civillians'' as well. The reluctance extends even to Long Caster, who drops his usual casual demeanor to broadcasts demands of surrender to the defending enemy forces and making it clear Strider Squadron doesn't want to fight anyone that they don't have to, but unfortunately Sol Squadron is having none of it and [[WhatTheHellHero gives Strider an earful]] for acting like common bandits. Mihaly's entrance puts an end to the discussion, as he uses the event to challenge Trigger to a duel.]]
* IHaveManyNames: as is traditional for the franchise, you start out with just one callsign -- "Trigger" -- but gradually accumulate notoriety as the game goes on. Trigger starts to be referred to as "Three Strikes," referring to the three sin lines painted on his plane's tailfin(s) whilst in the 444 Squadron, and which Trigger retains as personal heraldry. When Trigger joins the Long Range Strategic Strike Group, their first mission results in the Eruseans nicknaming them "the Snowbirds" because of the long migration from the nearest Osean airbase to Snider's Top, site of Mission 11. And during the next mission, Trigger and Wiseman become known as the "Osean Big Shots," as they are, unquestionably, the best {{Ace Pilot}}s on their side. All three nicknames are referred to repeatedly during Mission 15, amongst others.
* IllKillYou: Once one half of Mimic Squadron is shot down, the other will [[SanitySlippage go even more insane]]: in between Scream's mood-swinging and grief and Rage's anger, they'll start screaming this between any (barely) lucid moments they might have.