"Got something fun for me?"
—Harbinger
The FTAC-X2 Harbinger gunship was an advanced Allied gunship in Red Alert 3: Uprising.
Background[]
Dwarfing even the Allies' own Century heavy bomber, the Harbinger is a veritable flying fortress, and is armed to the teeth with nothing less than the power of the Allies' ultimate weapon, the Proton Collider. The Harbinger's advanced sensors and weapon systems allow it to hold and secure large areas, as well as to provide heavy fire support to any surface forces in the vicinity.
Being larger than any turbofan jet to date, the Harbinger's ability to fly hinged on the need for an on-board Collider fuel cell -- one that was "small" enough to fit on such a gigantic plane. The production model of the gunship features not one but two starboard-mounted 120 mm Collider Cannons, each one packing the explosive punch of a howitzer of roughly the same size. Because the fuel cell provides the Collider Cannons with their ammunition and also runs the Harbinger's four redundant turbofan engines, the gunship can remain airborne for days.
To make up for the Collider Cannons' inability to strike precisely at a chosen destination, the Harbinger features a nose-mounted 25 mm chain gun linked to targeting systems that track the gunner's eye movements. These extremely accurate weapons can shred lightly-armored surface threats without causing significant damage to the environs.
Unlike other aircraft in the Allied arsenal, the Harbinger eschews a VTOL design and needs to continually orbit while trained on a target. This, together with the Harbinger's sheer size, also means it is incapable of landing at a standard Allied airbase. Fortunately, the Harbinger features FutureTech's proprietary self-diagnostics-and-repair system, which makes up for its inability to touch down for repairs while out in the field. Meanwhile, an elaborate array of sensors and communication equipment lets Harbinger crews keep a lock on terrestrial targets during flight.
Harbinger gunship crews are hand-picked by FutureTech from its private flight schools, as men demonstrating the coolness under fire and whichever other rare personality traits and skills that FutureTech strictly demands of its teams. Both the Allies and FutureTech Corporation have since denied or dismissed rumors of ongoing tensions between Harbinger crews and the Allies' own fighter jocks, even though the latter see the former as "a pack of vultures circling the skies sniffing for blood," according to one Allied pilot who wished to remain anonymous.
Overview[]
The Harbinger Gunship is the toughest aircraft of the Allied Forces.
Notes from the field[]
Pros[]
- Devastating against everything on the ground and sea
- Good escort for Navy warships and other slow vulnerable units
- As durable as a Kirov and less vulnerable with its higher speed
- Secondary weapons are effective against infantry
- Able to stay in the frontline due to the fact that it is not required for the gunship to land to rearm or refuel
- Not limited to the number of empty slots on an airfield and therefore can be somewhat massed produced
- Self-repairing. Repairs can be speed up when near the vicinity of an Airfield
- Can be upgraded with advanced Aeronautics and High-technology upgrades to make it even more effective than it already is
- Formidable both as solo or in large numbers
- Collider cannons are particularly good against slow moving targets like Apocalypse tank or King Oni
- Collider cannons do Splash damage
- Much cheaper than the Giga-Fortress and can go solo against one in Sea Mode
- Cost effective and versatile despite it being the most expensive unit of the Allies
Cons[]
- The Allies' most expensive unit
- Somewhat average speed compared to other aircraft, cannot outfly enemy fighters
- Very long build time (0:40)
- Lacks anti-air weapons, requires fighter or anti-air escort to maintain its staying power
- Circling around instead of being static, prone to get lost or (unintentionally) fly into hostile fires
- Circling can also cause Harbinger to fly off-map and become much more difficult to manage when operating in areas on the edge of the map.
- Collider cannons have a hard time targeting fast moving targets with their lack of accuracy
- Secondary weapons are useless against heavier vehicles
- Collider cannons have a slow rate of fire
- Could cause friendly fire incidents when not managed properly
- Can be instantly destroyed by Yuriko Omega
Trivia[]
- A Harbinger Gunship tends to use bullets for tanks and base defenses and Collider cannons at buildings when used by an enemy AI.
Gallery[]
