“Il-2EA” was the first successful adaptation of a military airplane to the presence of the Signal. Its easy production and reliability of operation made “Il-2EA” the most mass-produced airplane of the late XXI–early XXVI century. During the religious wars, “Il-2EA” was used as the basis for the development of a multimode fighter jet plane called “MF-2SC” (multimode fighter), which became known worldwide as “Bark”, capable of independent entry into near space and combat operations in space.

After the beginning of the active expansion of the Direktorium, “Bark” was equipped with a shield and improved radars and was included in the list of technology accessible to any colony. Some were against the production of a spaceship that uses such an old structural base, suggesting the use of modern aircraft and spaceship designs for planetary defense forces. Because of this, “Bark” was produced in small numbers until the First War for the Bartle Sector. Then the Direktorium expanded the production of the ship and even attempted to use it in attacks on the Jericho fleet. Immediately after the Purity Revolt, the Commander in Chief ordered a multifold increase in “Bark” production on all planets; every colony with at least a billion inhabitants began producing thousands of ships annually. The large number of squadrons patrolling the systems deprived Jericho of the surprise factor when attacking Imperial worlds.

At the same time, the Emperor realized that this ship could be used to conduct assault raids on Jericho’s mining facilities. The ability to use tens of thousands of cheap ships in a single battle allowed the Commander in Chief to buy time to mass-produce “Harpy”.

Upon gaining control of a great number of planets, the Federation completely shut down the production of “Bark”, arguing that its technological base was too primitive. Nevertheless, the Federation engineers did not create any alternative for the ship, so the planets’ self-defense forces still use a few “Barks”.

During the Third War for the Bartle Sector, the ship was thoroughly modernized and became known as “Bark-2”. Squadrons of the new version of the multimode airplane-ship were able to slow down the Jericho counterattack, improving the Empire’s stance in the battles.

When the war with the Aliens began, the Emperor issued a decree to modify and produce versatile aircraft and military spaceships. “Bark-2” proved to be a decent ship, but battles with Crystallids were still too much of a danger for it. Nevertheless, the ability to utilize huge fleets with the new fighter helped slow the advance of the Aliens. It is estimated that about 125,000 “Bark-2s” were involved in the operation to defend Earth.

The New Empire worked on improving the mass fleet and created a “Bark-2” modification in 4623. It was based on the mass application of iridium technology. The resulting ship had firepower and durability on par with modern Imperial fighters, but was quite expensive to produce. In 4624, the New Empire signed a contract to supply fighters to the UMC mercenaries.