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The C-21 "Dragon" Assault Ship is a quad-rotor VTOL heavy transport and assault aircraft used by the Dark Angels Air Force for full-scale military operations or as support during small incursions into otherwise hostile territory. It is coupled with heavy armor, devastating firepower, and a large cargo bay for additional room for cargo or forces, making the C-21 Dragon Assault Ship a fully-functional, multi-purpose airship.
Specifications/Overview
Military Usage
Compared to both the AV-14 Hornet and AT-99 Scorpion, the C-21 Dragon is significantly larger, slower, and less maneuverable. However, with its panoply of heavy machine guns, dozens of rocket and missile pods, and possible complement of door-gunners, it can function as an excellent lead gunship when mainline Scorpions are not around or available. To prevent potentially catastrophic friendly-fire incidents resulting from careless use of such firepower, all but the door guns are constrained by friendly fire IFF (Identification Friend or Foe) avoidance codes for safety. Otherwise, it acts mainly as a military air transport and air assault vehicle, utilizing its ability to land numerous infantry, droids, and other military vehicles.
Weapons/Armament
The Dragon Assault Ship has the ability to deploy many infantry units and droid units at once from its loading bay and is armed with a variety of missiles and rockets such as: four TK-411 WAFAR (Wrap-Around Fin Aerial Rocket) Air-to-Ground rocket pods with each pod carrying 285 rockets for a total of 1,140 rockets, two incendiary AG-MFM 332 thermobaric warheads missile pods with each pod carrying 285 missiles for a total of 570 missiles, two Hawkeye HELLFIRE Air-to-Air missiles pods with each pod carrying 4 missiles for a total of 8 missiles, sixteen GUA-23/A Heavy Autocannons (four dual-linked and two quad-linked), two 6x2 grenade launcher pods that can be changed with gas canisters, four additional rocket pods, plus two dual and two quad automatic gatling gun systems. The air-to-ground missiles and rocket pods are mounted on three huge stub pylons at each side, which are all in a symmetrical set.
Rather than aiming manually, a Tauran gunner indicates targets and delegates tasks to the multiple gun and missile systems, which then execute orders accordingly.
Design
Its standard propulsion system has been modified, granting it much more forward velocity. The Dragon's original system relied solely on its four rotors for speed, which made it very maneuverable, but unsurprisingly slow. However, jet thrusters have now been added alongside its original four rotors to allow for much higher velocities while moving forward, while maintaining its impressive maneuverability.
The Dragon is equipped with instruments for navigation such as FLIR (Forward Looking Infra-Red) for night time sorties and operations and radar capabilities for low visibility circumstances.