Warhawk MKII DataCard

ARMAMENT:
Turret Twin .50 Calibre Range Autocannon's (Dorsal)
Turret Twin Gauss Cannons (Ventral)
Twin High Energy Particle Rail Cannons (wings)
Turret Mounted 13mm minigun for squad support (nose)
Possible Wing Mounted Mission Specific Ordinance (up to 60,000 pounds)
Twin Internal Ordinance Bays for various mission specific paylods (50,000 pounds per bay)

COMPLIMENT:
7 Crew: Pilot, Co Pilot/EW Officer, Navigator/Comms Officer, Primary Weapons officer, Secondary weapons officer, Two Bombers/Ordinance Officers. Due to expected long flight times to target, despite expected deployment from carriers, the Warhawk is configured for two pilots to allow flying in shifts, as well as to allow one pilot to double up as an Elecetronic Warfare officer or navigator if needed. Either of the pilot stations may take control of the nose mounted 7.62mm minigun. The craft does have a dedicated station for a navigator and communication/electronic warfare officer, however. The twin gunnery seats are intended to allow one gunner to control each of the Automated weapons turrets seperately, or for either weapons officers to control the Rail cannons. When the Warhawk is deployed with wing mounted ordinance,
this ordinance is under the direct control of the Bombers/Ordinance Officers.

VARIANTS:
The most notable variant to be introduced and see mass production was the Warhawk MKII-B. The MKII-B replaced the ventral Gauss Cannons with a second .50 Calibre Twin Autocannon turret, which vastly improved the Warhawk's ability to defend itself in air and space engagements with fighters and interceptors.
A second common variant of the Warhawk MKII converts the internal ordinance bays into electronics bays that house powerful banks of comms, sensors, and electronics warfare equipment. This variant turns the Warhawk into a command and control platform suitable for reconaisance, and the joint coordination of multiple operational assets within a theatre of operations. These electronics bay also require additional crew and support (4-6) which reduces the crafts operational endurance before require refuel and resuply.

HISTORY:
Having been commissioned into service just prior to the start of the corporate insurections, the Warhawk has a long and venerable history. The crafts design lineage, though having seen multiple revisions and variants over the nearly 2 centuries, has changed very little. The Warhawk MKII is fully capable of carrying Strategic loadout ordinance in addition to conventional explosives). The Warhawk MKII is the preeminent tactical bomber in use by the E.O.C. as well as smaller planetary militias, and has become a Ubiquitous sight in the domain of airial siege warfare.
While the Warhawk MKII represents a significant evolution of the Warhawk class of bombers, it has seen several additional developments and variantions since its introduction. Despite being designated the Warhawk MKII this craft was actually the fourth generational evolution from the Warhawk - which saw so many variations and updates over time as technology changed and developed it became a whole new craft every few decades. Part of this resulted from the factories continuing to produce the same basic frame, only retooling internal electronics, or external armor and skin composites as nescessary. In Essence every previous Warhawk prior to the MKII was built upon the same basic frame, and from a distance would be virtually indistinguishable. The MKII, while having a similar overall profile, has a number of significant redesigns and alterations not just to the overall shape and base frame, but the frames structure and composition as well. The Warhawk MKII is the first evolution of the Warhawk to be essentially redesigned from the ground up.
As with the previous generations of Warhawks, the primary role of the Warhawk MKII is as a theatrewide tactical precision bomber and strike craft. It is deployed into a campaing theatre (planetwide or star system wide) either from ground operational bases or a dedicated carrier craft. Sadly, the MKII suffers from the single biggest drawback of all of the Warhawk Lineage, and that is it's lack of any form of independant faster than light travel. As a result, despite the Warhawk MKII's capability to strike at any point on a planetary surface, or at multiple locations on multiple planetary bodies, the Warhawk MKII is still not classed as a Strategic Bomber (a role reserved for those bombers capable of interstellar travel in this age of interplanetary warfare). A detachable Langstrom Drive sled was introduced in limitted production runs to add interstellar capabilities to the Warhawk MKII. As the result of not only increased costs and maintenance timnes, but reliability issues, these booster saw very limitted deployment before beying retired and forgotten. The Booster sled proved to be unreliable, resulting in the loss of many craft and crew to the depths of the endless void between worlds.


CREDITS: Davorama (a.k.a Davo, Beyondbent, Powerfusion3D, PoserFusion3D), All the great Kitbashers who have posted images of assemblies with Davo's sets that inspired me.