Ogab'd-pattern anti-aircraft Wraith

The Ogab'd-pattern Skyhunter, is a Skyhunter variant of the Wraith line of armoured vehicles, used by the Covenant and its remnants.

Design details
The Ogab'd-pattern skyhunters are built by the Assembly Forges of Lodam Armory upon the chassis of the base tank - with some (though not all) models modified to feature a red-crimson colour scheme, as opposed to the standard blue-purple. As with the - the post-war era counterpart to the Ogab'd - weapon-smiths are required to incorporate stringent failsafes into the vehicle's design to ensure that they are destroyed should the vehicle operator be killed. This is done to prevent the vehicle and it's destructive potential from falling into enemy hands.

Armament
The Ogab'd-pattern anti-air Wraith differs in its primary armament from the standard Wraith models. While the standard forms of Wraith are equipped with a plasma mortar, which is used mainly against slow-moving ground targets, the skyhunter model is equipped with six rapid fire heavy fuel rod cannons as its main armament. These weapons fire Class-3 fuel rods, a heavier munition than the standard Class-2 fuel rods used by infantry-scale fuel rod guns outfitted for longer-distanced shooting expected of anti-aircraft work. The fuel rod cannons on the Ogab'd model act as flak weapons and explode in mid-air, furthering their anti-air utility. The weapons have heat-seeking capabilities built-into their operation, allowing them to automatically track enemy targets.

To defend the weapon at close-range, the Ogab'd is equipped with a secondary medium, mounted atop a cupola behind the cockpit - allowing a secondary gunner to provide limited fire support for the vehicle.

Usage
The role of the Ogab'd in the Covenant arsenal fits in below the larger scale sky strikers of the Covenant's heavy artillery loadout. They are typically deployed as an air defence solution in theatres where the limitations of time or environmental factors make the establishment of larger assets such as the, or  impossible or impractical. Their mobility provides a further advantage that many of these larger systems do not - something neither matched by the air defence variants of the smaller or.

While initially type-classified by the Office of Naval Intelligence for this reason as a purely air defence system, the Covenant did employ the Ogab'd in offensive ground attack roles. They were occaisionally used as a general tank in assaults against entrenched enemies in urban regions.

Human-Covenant War
Ogab'd-pattern Wraiths were primarily encountered late in the Human-Covenant War, and were in particular heavily employed in the final year of the war - seeing use against the United Nations Space Command during the Fall of Reach and Battle for Earth. During the Earth campaign, they were deployed into the city of New Mombasa to act as air defence in the flooded areas of Kikowani Station and later, the New Mombasa Waterfront Highway. Later on in the battle, anti-air Wraiths were deployed in a perimeter around the Voi Excession in conjunction with Mantis sky strikers to form a defensive line against incursions by UNSC aerospace assets. Several of these units in the port-city of Voi were engaged and destroyed by a battle led by John-117.

Anti-air Wraiths were deployed in the Battle of Installation 00 as part of the Prophet of Truth's final stand against the UNSC.

Post-war era
Following the war's conclusion, Ogab'd-pattern Wraiths were salvaged and put to use by the empire's various successor factions. These included Merg Vol's Covenant, who deployed anti-air Wraiths as part of their invasion of Draetheus V in 2554. Although the Ogab'd continued to see use in this era, it was supplanted by the Swords of Sanghelios and among portions of Jul 'Mdama's Covenant by the more modern - though the Ogab'd did continue to see service in Jul 'Mdama's Covenant during their conflict on Installation 03 in July 2557.

Unlike their counterparts, the Banished have by-and-large elected not to employ the use of anti-aircraft Wraiths - instead preferring the use of the Dovotaa Workshop Reaver for mobile air defence purposes.

Halo 3 and Halo 3: ODST
In the Halo 3 Campaign, like the Fuel Rod Gun and Energy Sword of Halo: Combat Evolved, it has a dead man switch, causing the vehicle to self-destruct when the driver dies or exits. Except for a glitch, the AA-Wraith is otherwise inoperable by the player.

Production notes
The Anti-Air Wraith's design dates back to early in the production of Halo 2. The vehicle mostly resembles the design that would later be finalised in Halo 3, albeit built upon the Halo: Combat Evolved model of the regular Wraith tank due to how early in production the vehicle was designed. The AA Wraith was one of many vehicles cut from the final Halo 2 game, though the files for the asset have been restored by the Digsite project for modders to make use of. Due to being built upon a Combat Evolved Wraith and having more visual consistency with that game's art direction, the Wraith has been formally restored for use in that game - though can be modded into any Halo game's editing kit. The Digsite iteration of the vehicle was restored by project contributor General_101, who worked to fix the vehicle's textures and UI.

The Halo 2 edition of the AA Wraith has a notable departure from the final vehicle; a purple colour scheme inherited from the base Wraith design. This facet was followed through into early builds of Halo 3 - March 2007 build of the Halo 3 Beta has an early version of the AA Wraith available to spawn on Snowbound in Forge. This early Wraith is purple like the regular mortar counterpart, and boasts a pair of automatic plasma cannons as opposed to the fuel rod cannons it has in the final game.

Trivia

 * It seemed that Bungie originally considered making the AA Wraith a drivable vehicle, since when the player takes control of it and then jump out of the Wraith, it features its own weapon retraction animation, much like the normal Wraith. The way Bungie rendered it nearly undrivable is likely due to the fact of dominating firepower. Hints also include that it also contains its own special aiming reticule. Similarly, there is no targeting reticule for the AA Wraith's gunner turret.
 * If a player takes control of an AA Wraith in Halo 3, it will not mitigate damage from incoming fire. This makes the player a substantially easier target.
 * A shot from a Fuel Rod Gun is more powerful than a single shot from a cannon on the Anti Air Wraith. This is probably because of the faster rate of fire and infinite ammo the Anti-Air Wraith has, making it overpowered otherwise.
 * The AA Wraith was added to Halo 3 Forge in Halo: The Master Chief Collection on July 14, 2020, but with its dead-man switch removed and the gunner given a crosshair similar to that on the Type-26 Wraith. The AA Wraith was also added to Halo 3: ODST Firefight in Halo: The Master Chief Collection on September 22, 2020.

List of appearances

 * Halo 3
 * Halo 3: ODST
 * Halo: Spartan Assault
 * Halo: Spartan Strike
 * Halo: Ground Command
 * Halo Wars 2
 * Halo: Shadows of Reach