XV22 Stealth Battlesuit

Tau Portal

Shadowsun in the upgraded XV22 Stalker^[5]

The XV22 Stalker Stealth Battlesuit is an experimental Tau Stealth Battlesuit design.^[1]

Overview

The XV22 is a new stealth battlesuit that is still in the field-testing stages.^[1a] It was first issued to Commander Shadowsun at the beginning of the Third Sphere Expansion, and is armed with two Fusion Blasters. In addition to its stealth field generator and jetpack, the XV22 comes equipped with a Multi-tracker, an advanced version of the Target Lock system, and a Drone Controller with a Command-link Drone and two MV52 Shield Drones.^[1b]

Since its first introduction, other Tau Commanders have been granted access to the XV22 suit, although these sometimes lack the stealth field generator common to Shadowsun's suit.^[2] The Earth Caste hoped to introduce the XV22 en masse to replace the XV15, however the Kappa Mortis Incident forced them to instead bring the easier-to-produce XV25 into full-scale production.^[3]

Since the formation of the Great Rift, Shadowsun has been issued the upgraded Stalker variant of the XV22 Battlesuit.^[4]

Images

• 

  Original XV22 Stealth Battlesuit^[6]

• 

  XV22 Stalker upgraded variant^[7]

Sources

• 1: Codex: Tau Empire (4th Edition)
  • 1a: pg. 35
  • 2b: pg. 46
• 2: Warhammer 40,000: Dawn of War - Dark Crusade
• 3: White Dwarf 321 (UK), pg. 76
• 4: Warhammer Community: New Tau, Titans, and More (posted February 2 2020) (last accessed 2/3/2020)
• 5: Warhammer Community: A War For Hearts and Minds (posted January 28 2020) (last accessed 1/28/2020)
• 6: [1] (Dead Link) (last accessed 12 December 2015)
• 7: Warhammer Community: Reveals from the New Year Open Day 2020 (posted January 4 2020) (last accessed 1/4/2020)