Codex/Special Vehicles: The Hammerhead

M-44 Hammerhead
The M-44 Hammerhead infantry fighting vehicle is a highly maneuverable mass-effect-assisted armored vehicle.

Using three solid-fuel rocket thrusters instead of wheels, the Hammerhead hovers over the battlefield at up to 120 kilometers per hour, allowing it to maintain formation with swift armored units, skim across calm water, and even leap terrain obstacles. Backup microboosters guarantee locomotion, so even destruction of two main thrusters leaves the vehicle capable of full mobility.

The Hammerhead retains most features of interplanetary fighting vehicles: an airtight interior, 360-degree kinetic barriers, and a guided missile system ensuring accuracy during even aggressive maneuvering. Its electronic countermeasures extend to laser detection, chaff, active thermal masking, and ground-penetrating weapons-sniffing radar.

The Hammerhead's navigation control emulates that of tanks, so tank drivers can operate Hammerheads without additional training. Factory-issue Hammerheads therefore have no altimeter or similar sensors and are best used at the standard cruising attitude: two meters off the ground.