AC-220 Vulture
From Halopedia, the Halo wiki
| AC-220 Vulture | |
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10.0 meters (32.9 ft)[2] |
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182 metric tons (179 LT; 201 ST)[2] |
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- "Death From Above[3]"
The AC-220 Gunship, colloquially known as the Vulture, is a heavy gunship manufactured by Ushuaia Armory and fielded by the United Nations Space Command.[2] It is the preferred aerial combat vehicle during prolonged air-and-ground engagements, particularly against heavily fortified enemy strongholds.[4]
Overview[edit]
Design details[edit]
The Vulture is the largest combat aerodyne currently fielded by the UNSC.[3][5] Unlike most smaller UNSC craft, the Vulture is suspended in the air by a series of ducted fans visible near the rear of the aircraft, housing jet engines like the D77 Pelican. Due to its much larger mass and cross-section, it is slower than other UNSC aircraft, such as the AV-14 Hornet and the AV-22 Sparrowhawk.
The Vulture requires a large number of highly trained UNSC pilots and gunners to operate servicing a crew of six.[3] This makes them expensive to deploy in terms of personnel (as opposed to the Sparrowhawk and Hornet, which require a single pilot and possibly a copilot). It lacks radiation shielding, preventing it from traveling in space.[4][6] Despite this, they have some level of spaceflight capability, and are typically deployed directly from an orbiting warship to the ground.[7]
Armaments[edit]
The Vulture is intended to act as a "flying tank", and boasts an according level of heavy weaponry. These include two twin medium-GAU-23/AW/Linkless Feed Autocannons, two top-mounted Argent V missile launchers and two pods of four internally-reloaded A-74 Sylver Vertical Missile Launchers, each boasting a single Anvil-IV air-to-surface missile[4][8] or Phoenix tactical missile.[5][2] The combined missile payload are specifically tailored to unleash a unified barrage on a given target, allowing it to overwhelm heavy armor and shielding.[4]
History[edit]
