Fuel rod cannon

Were you looking for the closely related shoulder-mounted Fuel Rod Gun or for the Hunter's variant?

The Fuel Rod Cannon is a Covenant direct-fire energy weapon and a larger, more powerful, vehicle mounted version of the Fuel Rod Gun with anti-vehicle and anti-air applications. It is featured in Halo: Combat Evolved, Halo 2, Halo 3 and in Halo 3: ODST as part of the arsenal of various Covenant vehicles. It is the secondary weapon of the Banshee and the primary weapon of the AA-Wraith.

Background
The Fuel Rod Cannon is used by their vehicles as a heavy weapon. Banshees and Anti-Air Wraiths have been seen using this weapon. It is a vehicle-mounted version of the infantry issue Fuel Rod Gun. The Banshee's version of the weapon can only fire one shot before having to reload, but it makes up for this with its virtually unlimited ammunition. The Hunter's Assault Cannon is a Fuel Rod Cannon variation.

Usage
The Fuel Rod Cannon is a very powerful weapon, thus vehicles equipped with it are very dangerous, especially on higher difficulties. The Banshee in Halo: Combat Evolved and Halo 3 often use the weapon to soften you up before firing its Plasma Cannons, especially if you are using a Warthog or a Shade. If using a very light vehicle (Ghost or Mongoose) the enemy Banshee may just use its Fuel Rod Cannon, sending you cart-wheeling into the air. It will not bother with its Plasma Cannons, especially if it is in a group of Banshees as they can fire almost continuously. It is possible and desired to avoid the shot entirely, as they often fire it while they are still far away. This is harder in Halo 3, as the shots now partially home in, while in a Banshee/Hornet in Halo 3, shots from an Anti-Air Wraith home in quite fully, but shots from a Banshees only partially home in, as you can see them curving round in the air. In the Halo 2 campaign, enemy Banshees never use the weapon and the issue does not come up.

The AA Wraith's Fuel Rod Cannon's are extremely powerful and can bring down Hornets in just a few shots.

The Fuel Rod Cannon is included in Halo Wars being used as an upgrade for the Covenant turret, if you choose to make it an Anti-Vehicle turret.

Trivia

 * In Halo 3, on Heroic or Legendary, (although it is rare for one to target a player on the ground) if an Anti-Air Wraith gets a direct hit on the player it will kill him instantly.
 * In mulitiplayer, the fuel rod cannon has been removed entirely, due to balancing issues