Gunship
EDF Gunship:
Cost: 1800
Armor: Light
Speed: Medium-Fast
Weapon: 5x 7.62mm Miniguns
Range: Medium
Airforce Command Tech, Tier-2 Anti-Infantry Helicopter
The Mil Mi-30 Gunship is the largest and most powerful helicopter in service with the EDF- and world. Sharing a design heritage with the infamous Red War Mi-24 Hind, nicknamed the "Grim Reaper's Scythe" by the Allies, the Mi-30 was purpose-built to not to survive in high-danger scenarios, but to thrive in them.
Sporting a formidable arsenal of five 7.62mm miniguns, the Mi-30 saturate targets with over 400 infantry-erasing, building-shredding bullets every second. The centerpiece of the arsenal is a single "overclocked" minigun in the chin turret, which can throw out 150 rounds per second for brief periods. This maddening rate of fire means that over 30% of a Mi-30's weight is in 7.62mm bullets- matter of fact, the rocket pods on most Mi-30s are for intimidation value only- there's no room for such large weapons!
The Mi-30 entered production in 1992, replacing aging Mi-28 and Ka-44 helicopters in the traditional Russian role of anti-infantry duties. It was rushed into service with the Russian military, which was dealing with separatists like the Chechens as well as communist revolutionaries, who were causing terrific losses among Mi-28 and Ka-44 crews using man-portable flak cannons and imported Stinger missiles. It was these early encounters that had soldiers referring to it as a "flying battleship" (compared to just "flying tank")- the Mi-30's armor was shown to be immune to all machine guns and autocannons under 25mm caliber, as well as any man-portable flak cannons.
Even when the first Mi-30 was lost, it was a coup for the Mi-30's popularity- the crew survived and the helicopter withstood 6 direct Stinger missile hits before disintegrating in mid-air. Most other helicopter crews would be lucky to fly home after taking just one Stinger hit.
The Mi-30 also showed it was capable of dueling other VTOL aircraft when the First Incursion occurred in 2013, with Mi-30s shooting down around 150 Invader Fightercraft for only 67 losses- one pilot remarked that "the only thing saving ET from us was that they could flee much faster than we could pursue."
The immense staying power of the Mi-30, combined with its unbelievable arsenal is only offset by its low top speed and high deployment costs- both of which have not seemed to impact the EDF High Command's impression of this magnificent piece of flying annihilation.
Variants:
None.
Voxel by Yurisarmy
[/Nitpicky]
