Ace Combat 2/Aces

All of the ace pilot medals

Ace Combat 2 is the first Ace Combat game to introduce enemy aces, also known as named aircraft. These aircraft are marked as "DANGER!" on the briefing screen before each mission. The player earns unique medals for shooting them down.

Named aircraft are split into two types: command aircraft and rival aircraft.

Command Aircraft

Command aircraft always show up in their own designated missions with no specific conditions required.

#	Aircraft	Callsign	Mission
1	1x F-4E Phantom II	SUPERFLY	"Easy Money"
2	1x MiG-29A Fulcrum	RICOCHET	"Tin Castle"
3	2x Su-25 Frogfoot	D.COWBOY	"Opera House"
4	2x F-117A Nighthawk	RAZORBACK	"Midnight Assassin", or "Bear Tracks"
5	2x F-16C Fighting Falcon	TALLMAN METAL SPHERE	"Swordsmith"
6	1x MiG-31M Foxhound	STALKER	"Toy Box"
7	2x Rafale M	HANGMEN	"Seagull"
8	2x Tornado F3	MAX GOOSE	"El Dorado"
9	3x Typhoon	D.R.2000	"Dark Star"
10	3x F-15E Strike Eagle	DAO JIAN XIAO	"St. Elmo's Fire"
11	4x YF-23 Black Widow II	F.F.F.	"Dead End"

Rival Aircraft

Rival aircraft are red aircraft labeled "Z.O.E.", and they appear in five missions.

Shooting a Z.O.E. aircraft will trigger the next type of aircraft to spawn in the next possible mission. If the player does not shoot down a Z.O.E. aircraft in one of the missions, the same aircraft will return in the next possible mission.

In order to encounter a Z.O.E. aircraft in the final mission "Fighter's Honor" in a playthrough, the player must shoot down a Z.O.E. aircraft in "Kingpin" and successfully complete "Last Resort", or else the game will end with either a normal or a bad ending. The ADF-01 only appears if the player shoots down a Z.O.E. aircraft in all missions where they spawn.

#	Aircraft	Mission	Notes
1	F-14A Tomcat	"Sledgehammer", or "Seagull", or "Power Play", or "Kingpin"
2	F/A-18E Super Hornet	"Seagull", or "Power Play", or "Kingpin", or "Fighter's Honor"
3	F-22A Raptor	"Power Play", or "Kingpin", or "Fighter's Honor"
4	F-15S	"Kingpin", or "Fighter's Honor"
5	ADF-01 FALKEN	"Fighter's Honor"

Etymology

All of the named aircraft in Ace Combat 2 are references to classic movies:

• Superfly is named after the 1972 film Super Fly.
• Ricochet is named after the 1991 film Ricochet.
• D.Cowboy is named after the 1941 film Dude Cowboy.
• Razorback is named after the 1984 film Razorback.
• Tallman and Metal Sphere are references to the 1979 film Phantasm. The film's main antagonist is known as the Tall Man and uses metal spheres as one of his weapons.
• Stalker is named after the 1979 film Stalker.
• Hangmen is named after the 1959 film The Hangman.
• Max and Goose are references to the 1979 film Mad Max and two of its protagonists: Max Rockatansky and Jim "Goose" Rains.
• Death Rave 2000 is named after the 1975 film Death Race 2000.
• Xiao, Jian, and Dao are named after the 1994 film The Three Swordsmen, known as Dāo Jiàn Xiào in Mandarin.
• Fox Force Four is a reference to the 1994 film Pulp Fiction which makes mention of a failed TV pilot titled "Fox Force Five".
• Z.O.E. is named after the 1994 film Killing Zoe, but Z.O.E. was later retconned into the Zone of Endless artificial intelligence.
• The player's squadron, Scarface Squadron, is named after the 1983 film Scarface.