The aircraft is capable of smashing its way past enemy interceptor craft and anti-air fire and safely landing its cargo of Astartes behind enemy lines, or deploying them into the midst of the foe.Ī Thunderhawk of the Red Scorpions unloading its cargo of Space Marines This armour has given the Thunderhawk a reputation as a very robust aircraft, and it is capable of taking large amounts of damage while still remaining in the air.
This special armour plating is comprised of a composite of ablative ceramite, absorption and dissipation materials, thermoplas fibre mesh, titanium rolled plates, and an adamantium inner hull all layered together to provide excellent shielding against heat, during orbital entry and exits and from energy-based weaponry. The armour used in the construction of the Thunderhawk is the same as that used in the creation of the Land Raider. Each and every Thunderhawk is packed with advanced targeting, sensory, communication, avionics, and navigational equipment, all of which is protected by its thick hull. The Thunderhawk gunship is amongst the most advanced and technologically sophisticated machines in use by the Imperium.
As a testament to the craft's design, and how easy they are to produce, the Thunderhawk has far outlived the Stormbird and Argo Drop Ships in usefulness and is still the main assault-craft used by both the Loyalist Astartes of the Imperium and the Traitor Legions of Chaos after nearly 10,000 standard years.Ī pair of Thunderhawk gunships of the Dark Angels Chapter in flight The craft was produced in such numbers that after the war ended and the Loyalist Legions were broken down into smaller Chapters many of the newly formed Chapters would find themselves with many Thunderhawks, and only a few if any of the larger craft. Eventually the Thunderhawk was widely used by all 18 of the Legiones Astartes during the Horus Heresy. The Thunderhawk was designed to bridge the gap in size and capacity between the smaller Legion craft such as the Storm Eagle and the larger, much more costly Stormbird and Argo Drop Ships.Įarly on, the Thunderhawk was not popular with some of the Space Marine Legions, as they had grown attached to their Stormbirds and their ability to transport more units into battle than the smaller and more compact Thunderhawk, yet by the outbreak of the Horus Heresy the Thunderhawk had proved itself a worthy addition to any Legion's fleet, and was mass-produced to meet the on-going demands of the war. The Thunderhawk gunship was first developed for service in the Legiones Astartes during the later days of the Emperor's Great Crusade in the final century of the 30th Millennium.
0 kommentar(er)
