AV-22 Sparrowhawk

Hawk

"Known more readily as just “Hawk” the Sparrowhawk is a formidable air to ground armor busting support aerodynamic. The Hawk is still being assessed by command before full production starts while engineers are still working on an experimental propulsion system that has led to failures in the field making the future of this vehicle uncertain. The Hawk first saw actual combat against the Covenant on the surface of Harvest in the final months of that campaign."

- Quote

The Hawk is a United Nations Space Command VTOL aerial support aerodyne that will appear in the upcoming Halo Wars.

History
The Hawk is a formidable air-to-ground anti-tank aerodyne. It is used by the UNSC in a support and anti-armor role to hunt tanks and support advances.

Appearance
The Hawk has design elements from a mixture of modern VTOL aircraft, most prominently the Harrier Jump-Jet, and attack helicopter gunships such as the AH-64 Apache and the AH-1 Cobra. It also bears a marked resemblance to the Hornet gunship in Halo 3 and bears similarities to the deleted Kestrel from other versions. It consists of an elongated fuselage with stubby wings on each side of it.

The cockpit is forward mounted, and the tail section juts out from behind the fuselage at a downward angle. Each wing incorporates a Ducted Air Fan for lift and thrust, and carries three missiles/rockets on pylons on each wing. Each wing also carries a twin auto-cannon, with a dual auto-cannon mounted underneath the cockpit.

Performance


The Hawk is a fast and maneuverable aircraft, much more so than the AV-14 Attack VTOL that it replaces. It uses ducted fans in the wings for propulsion rather than tilting jet thrusters, and is equipped with wing-mounted GUA-23/AW/Linkless Feed Autocannons autocannons and a nose-mounted M6 Laser, excelling at anti-vehicle operations but more than capable of engaging most types of units easily. The Hawk is the unique unit of Professor Ellen Anders.

Trivia

 * The original announcement of the Hawk as well as the unveiling of the first concept art for the design was accomplished through a "decrypting" image set. Community Manage Graham Somers posted the first full-static image at the end of an update. Over time the image cleared itself up. The following update contained larger versions of the Hawk and a short description.
 * The Hawk strongly resembles an early concept of the Hornet.
 * The addition of the Hornet to the game, and the introduction of the Vulture gunship, was thought to indicate that the Hawk had either been cut from the game, or its purpose has been retooled. Recent screenshots, however, revealed that the Hawk is still a playable unit.
 * The Hawk has a resemblance to the Orca Gunships of the Command and Conquer series.