Part of a series on TritonAerospace's lore. | Separated from Main post to keep simplicity.
With the CEO of Rokugou Systems returning to the company, he brought a lot of energy to burn through. having rested up and recharged his batteries, he immediately got to work on the biggest issues with the F-4, then worked his way down.
The most important issue was spacing. Ground crews constantly complained about having to play tetris to get weapons to fit into the primary bay properly, and even then, it was a 50/50 the chosen weapon would even fit. so, the CEO and engineering team realigned the internal weapons bay pylons to allow for better fitting.
next on the list was maneuverability. the original MLU update was terrible with maneuverability, so RDD went to investigate why. eventually, they found that fuel imbalances caused poor alignment of center-mass and center-lift, so they respaced it across the entire aircraft. this ended up bringing maneuverability from 17°/s to 23.5°/s, a huge change in control authority. While they were at it, they ended up changing a few things inside FCS, primarily split throttle.
Another problem came from Recon missions: targeting random terrain was practically impossible. you'd have to manually input the position you wanted to look at, in PCI coordinates, and even then, you'd only get a few seconds to look at it. this was a pretty big issue for 14th Fighter-Reconnaissance Squadron, AKA The Gravewatchers, since 40% of missions they flew were armed Recon over Ali Base. Hearing this, EOTS was updated to receive slightly better zoom control, as well as the ability to target specific coordinates on the ground. it was a bit janky and jittery, but it got the job done much better than before.
There was also the issue of not being able to keep track of eachother during night formations, as the anti-collision lights and nav lights were too dim. this was fixed with new formation Lights that were much brighter and more prominent.
The final change to be received was faster landing gear operation. Gravewatchers and ground crews often complained that the slow speed of the landing gear couldn't keep up with the fast acceleration of the F-4C which caused fast wear and maintenance issues. this, however, was a quick fix with a few software and hardware tweaks.
With all of these changes, the team decided it was time to give the F-4C a new paint job. Intake warnings were painted on the side for ground crews safety. DSC Air Guard's roundel was added to the right wing, and the squadron's name and Triton aerospace's logo were added to the tailfins. a refuel port was also added to the top of the aircraft.
With all of these major changes, Rokugou Systems decided the best way to go about such a massive change was through symbolism. they selected the oldest F-4 in service, F-4C 60F04, as the first to receive the upgrade package.
60F04 was originally one of the first F-4Bs to roll off the production line. it was then upgraded to F-4C block 1 standards, then block 2 MLU, and now Equipment Refresh 3. So, it'd make sense to have one of the oldest standing in the fleet to be the first to receive the upgrade.
With this, Rokugou Systems also chose one of the most seasoned pilots of The Gravewatchers to pilot the flagship aircraft: Captain Jada "Sky" Mona. She was previously mentioned in the original Block 2 post, and is one of the most seasoned pilots, with 6000 logged hours in the air, 2 confirmed fighter kills, and 3 confirmed cruise missile kills. Safe to say, she is one of the most experienced pilots in the entirety of DSC's Air Guard.
Sky was absolutely thrilled to take the aircraft, and her name and kill markings were painted onto the side. she and 60F04, which was named Grandma Grande by the squadron, would take to the skies as The Gravewatchers' flagship aircraft.