AV-22 Sparrowhawk

Sparrowhawk The Sparrowhawk is an aerial vehicle of the United Nations Space Command. It is planned to appear in Halo Wars.

Background
The Sparrowhawk is a formidable air-to-ground air vehicle. The Hawk first saw actual combat against the Covenant on the surface of Harvest in the final months of the battle.

Appearance
The Sparrowhawk has design elements from a mixture of modern VTOL aircraft, most prominently the Harrier Jump-Jet, and attack helicopter gunships such as the AH64 Apache, and the AH-1 Cobra. It also bears a marked resemblance to the ORCA Gunship from rival RTS Command and Conquer 3. 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 autocannon, with a dual machine cannon mounted underneath the cockpit.

Performance
It is currently not known how the Sparrowhawk performs. Released footage shows it to be at least as fast and agile as a Pelican Dropship, though it never uses its weaponry. It is described as being designed for engaging enemy ground armour, so its air-to-air capabilities remain unknown, if it even has any. It is likely that it fills a role similar to the modern day A-10 Warthog

It is unknown whether production of the Sparrowhawk will continue, as the propulsion system it uses is experimental, and has failed during field use.

Trivia

 * It is a similar vehicle in design to that of Halo 2's deleted Kestrel.
 * The new Hornet is also similar to the Sparrowhawk.
 * The Sparrowhawk looks remarkably similar to the Orca VTOL from the Command & Conquer RTS games.