The military gave it to him (discretely) as part of Project M.
And no, right up until the end the VF-11 was the bread-and-butter fighter of the majority of the fleet. It was the elite squadrons going around in VF-17 Nightmares and eventually Emerald Force was given a trio of VF-19 Excaliburs. With Max and Miria obtaining a pair of VF-22s.
Even during Operation Stargazer (ep 44 of 49 eps) the majority of the "elite" assault force was flying VF-11s.
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