Talk:Thunderhawk

The Weapons section could use some work. It's nice knowing all the weapons, but without knowing how they're arranged, it's fairly useless.

Info from "Imperial Aircraft" page

I am dumping some info here from another page - will incorporate it into main article when I get a chance (+ can find sources) Thelemur 03:01, 1 December 2011 (CET)

Thunderhawks

The Thunderhawk is a heavily armoured space and atmosphere aircraft designed to be the ultimate Space Marine aircraft, providing air support/transport for the brothers of the Chapter.

Only available to the Space Marine Chapters (and the Traitor Legions since the original design has been known since the Great Crusade) the Thunderhawk performs various duties for them: during high level space battles they act as assault/attack ships for high speed attacks toward enemy battleships or transport for boarding squads. Otherwise they are used as drop ships for planetary assaults or ground bombers for close air support and heavy bombardment missions.

Despite its bulky design, the Thunderhawk is a condensate of technology including many of the elements used in Land Raiders (Machine Spirit, remote targeting surveyors, long range transmitters, jamming devices and sensors as well as a Flare Launcher) however the ship foregoes speed and manoeuvrability for armament and heavy armour - said to be a 240mm conventional steel equivalent. This allows them to perform perfectly their task of landing rapidly and disembarking their cargo of troops. The Thunderhawk is well loved and respected by the Imperial forces for is ability to endure an amazing amount of damage and still keep flying. A Thunderhawk is especially resistant to fire/heat based weapon due to is ceramite shield design to resist the heat of multiple atmospheric entries.

Thunderhawk Transporter

The Thunderhawk Transporter is a transport variant of the Thunderhawk Gunship and is used for ground vehicle deployment with less weaponry (only twin linked Heavy Bolters) as a trade-off for 2 additional motors. Specialised variants are not unheard of, especially for high level Inquisitors, Chapter Masters or great heroes of the Imperium. As some Chapters do not possess the industrial equipment or manpower, Thunderhawks are frequently built on Forge Worlds. Even though most of the Chapters use their own facilities they make special efforts to ensure the security of the high level technology needed for the construction of the gunships.

Thunderhawk Gunship

The standard pattern Thunderhawk Gunship' (also known as the Thunderhawk Cruiser) has 3 motors (RX 9200 "Mars" pattern turbofans fuelled by the onboard Fusion Reactor). It is able to carry 30 Space Marines or half this number of Terminators/Jump Pack equipped Space Marines. It can also carry up to one Dreadnought (with 25 space marines) or 7 individual Bikers. The ships's weaponry includes 4 twin-linked Heavy Bolters (2 turrets mounted on front wingspans and 2 turrets on the wings), a twin linked Lascannon and a Turbo Laser (even if some Chapters prefer a Battle Cannon). It can also carry up to six Hellstrike Missiles, which for some rare missions can be replaced with Heavy Bombs. The crew consist of 4 specially trained Space Marines. Thelemur 03:01, 1 December 2011 (CET)