AC-220 Gunship

Vulture "The Vulture is one of the UNSC's most powerful units. Basically a highly armed flying assault tank packed to the brim with weapons. The UNSC Vulture is the largest aircraft fielded by the UNSC. It is designed to deliver massive damage to enemy ground troops after air superiority has been achieved. It is slow moving but carries an impressive armament of two twin-autocannons and rocket silos that can be used to deliver a devastating barrage to enemies in a wide area. Crewed by highly trained UNSC pilot and gunners, the Vulture is an expensive unit and is usually reserved for difficult or lengthy battles. Being slow, it is vulnerable to anti-aircraft fire and enemy aircraft, but it is surprisingly resilient."

- Halo Wars Official Site.

The Vulture is a heavy gunship used by the UNSC during the early years of the Human-Covenant War. It is suspended by a series of ducted fans visible near the rear of the aircraft, or jet engines like the D77-TC Pelican. Two ducts underneath the vulture barely visible make it able to hover. It is slower than otherUNSC aircraft, such as the Hornet or the Hawk, but is armed with a number of devastating missile artillery pods for engaging enemy ground and air units, able to fire off huge barrages of missiles, as well as a pair of humm-mounted autocannons. It is considered an "über unit" constructed at the UNSC Airpad, and requires 6 population, 900 resource points, and 4 energy units to deploy. It can be upgraded with the Mega Barrage upgrade, potentially doubling its barrage power; this upgrade is purchased at the Air Pad and costs 800 resource points and requires 4 energy units. The only upgrade specifically for the Vulture is Mega Barrage, which allows double the amount of its destructive missiles to be launched in one strike.

Combat
A slow unit which can take massive amounts of damage before destruction, the Vulture is the largest ground-based aircraft fielded by the UNSC. It is able to fight against both air and ground units due to its weapon configuration (Argent V Missile Pods for aircraft, GUA-23 Autocannons for tanks). Thanks to its "Barrage" ability, it can deliver massive damage to slow and/or static units. The Vulture main drawbacks are its cost and the large amount of time it takes to build one; it is also vunerable to fast counterattacks and very hard to repair.

Trivia

 * For balance, the Vulture is the only UNSC unit in Halo Wars that cannot be commandeered by SPARTANs.
 * It is the only UNSC unit in Halo Wars that does not come out of the Fire Base upon deployment. Instead, it seems to descend from the sky, decelerating just before touching the ground.
 * It takes multiple Vultures, in Halo Wars, to take down 1 Scarab despite them both being uber units.
 * The Vulture is more powerful than a fully armed pelican drop ship.