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Sabre Strike Tank

Sabre vehicle without a weapons mount[2]

The Sabre Strike Tank or Sabre Tank Hunter was an Imperial attack vehicle based on the Rhino armoured carrier, incorporating a fixed, forward firing weapon in its front hull. It was used during the Horus Heresy and Great Crusade.[1]

History

The Rhino itself was conceived to be easily modified to answer various specific needs. Many Rhino variations have their origins during the Horus Heresy, when variations of existing vehicles to fulfill new roles became a necessity. The Sabre was one of these modifications, seeing its first use during the earliest days of the Heresy, its design spurred by the need for heavier firepower. The Sabre was one of the type of Rhinos modified during the Heresy wars to mount heavier weapons, this type becoming known as "Tank Hunters" for the role they played during the Heresy. It carried a variety of technological wonders that were newly forged by the adepts of the Mechanicum, from advanced cogitator arrays to multi-axle drive cores, all intended to allow the tank to be operated by a single Space Marine.[6] Besides the Sabre, various types of Tank Hunter were developed, each mounting different heavy weapons, such as missile launchers or lascannon. However, the Sabre was the most common form of Tank Hunter.[1] The Sabre was devised as a part of a new generation of Astartes vehicles alongside the likes of the Sicaran Tank and was developed from experience gathered during the Great Crusade. It embodied a new mobile style of war that departed from the static gun lines of the early Crusade.[4]

Fast, rugged and heavily armed, the Sabre served the Legiones Astartes as a strike tank, attacking key enemy targets and destroying them long before they can pose a threat. Once the immediate foe was annihilated by its advanced weaponry, the speed of these vehicles allows them to evade any further counter-attack and reform to strike at the vulnerable flanks of the enemy army, keeping heavy armor suppressed as the infantry advanced.[3]

The most well remembered combat use of the Sabre was during an incident in which Dark Angels Space Marines had retaken a city from a combined force of Ork Freebooters and Chaos Renegades, only to be pushed back by Ork reinforcements. The Dark Angels fell back past a great bridge spanning the mile-wide crack called the Black Gorge. The bridge itself, a structure of adamantium from the Dark Age of Technology, could not be destroyed; instead, the Dark Angels set up a single squadron of Sabres at a site overlooking the bridge, and allowed the Orks to cross much of the bridge before the Sabres began to fire. First the lead vehicles were destroyed, blocking the bridge's front. With the column halted, the Sabres began firing at the column's rear, blocking any retreat. Then began the slaughter of the entire Ork column.

Armament

The tank was designed to quickly close the distance to its target, before utterly destroying it. To achieve this, the Sabre could be fitted with a range of advanced weaponry and fielded in squadrons of up to two tanks. Primary weaponry included a Anvilus Snub Autocannon, Neutron Blaster, or a Volkite Saker. It also sported a top-mounted weapon which included a Heavy Bolter, Multi-Melta, Volkite Culverin or Heavy Flamer. Lastly, it was fitted with side-mounted Missile Launchers which fired low-velocity advanced shaped warheads.[2]

Images

Sources


Legiones Astartes Forces of the Great Crusade and Horus Heresy
Command Primarch • Lord Commander • Praetor • Consul • Centurion • Space Marine Command Squad • Decurion
Elite Troops Veteran Squad • Terminator Squad • Destroyer Assault Squad • Mortalis Destroyer Squad • Honour Guard • Nullificator • Chaplain • Librarian • Techmarine • Apothecary
Troops Tactical Squad • Assault Squad • Heavy Support Squad • Breacher Squad • Hussar Squad • Tactical Support Squad • Reconnaissance Squad • Despoiler Squad • Newbloods
Fast Attack Seeker Squad • Outrider Squad • Sabre • Sky Seeker Squad • Sky-Hunter Squadrons • Javelin Attack Speeder • Proteus Land Speeder •
Dreadnoughts Contemptor • Castaferrum • Deredeo • Leviathan • Lucifer
Armored Vehicles Rhino (Advancer) • Predator (Executioner • Infernus) • Mauler Tank • Land Raider (Phobos • Proteus • Achilles) • Termite • Plutona • Mantolith
Heavy Support Spartan • Kratos • Sicaran • Behemoth • Cerberus • Typhon • Fellblade • Glaive • Falchion • Mastodon
Artillery Basilisk • Medusa • Scorpius • Vindicator (Laser Destroyer) • Arquitor • Rapier • Heavy Quad Launcher • Tarantula
Aircraft Drop Pod (Deathstorm) • Dreadclaw • Kharybdis Assault Claw • Stormbird • Thunderhawk • Storm Eagle • Fire Raptor • Stormstrike • Xiphon • Primaris Lightning Strike Fighter • Caestus Assault Ram • Orgus Flyer • Apis • Lotus • Wrath • Lightning Crow • Stormhawk • Stormcrow • Corsair • Deathbird • Swordstrike • Castellan • Pythos • Harbinger • Hawkwing
Support Forces Imperial Army (Imperialis Militia • Solar Auxilia • Imperial Armada) • Mechanicum (Collegia Titanica • Taghmata Omnissiah • Skitarii) • Sisters of Silence • Custodian Guard
Legion-specific
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