HOVERCRAFTS

Hovercraft have their uses. They're faster than anything else on the ground (except rockets and dragsters) and they have no problems with land/water interface, since they can drive right off the water and right onto the beach. Militarily, that ends their usefulness, they can't traverse wooded or rough terrain, their lack of manoeuvrability makes trucks look graceful, they're too lightweight to haul much armor or weaponry, they eat a lot of fuel, and they make a lot of noise. In addition, in dusty conditions, a hover kicks up a lot of dust; you can see it miles off. The same wind blast makes smoke dispensers useless with hovers.
"Panzers", armored fast hovercraft, are popular with some mercenary units and smugglers. Introduced by the Navy as hovercraft gunships, they accompanied the Marine Corps landing hovers onto the beach and inland to provide some fire support. Off the beach, their abilities became apparent, and when the military was reduced in force, a lot of panzers were dropped with them. Many of them went to National Guard and Coast Guard units, where they served well in the Gulf of Mexico and on the Mississippi.


GEB Duster
Type : Hovercraft
Top speed : 240 km/h
Acc/dcc : 25/15
Crew : 1
Passengers : 3
Range : 640 km 		Cargo : 800 kg (1 espace)
Maneuver : -1
SDP : 25 (Body 1)
SP : 10 (Armor 1)
Mass : 2,5 tons
Cost : 85 000 eb
Reference : Maximum Metal
A small hover, the basic Duster (unarmored, without the pintle mount) is a pleasure watercraft on the civilian market. The military Duster is more of a hoverjeep than an armored vehicle, but it serves a great many corporations as a maritime patrol craft; the hovercraft equivalent of the Arasaka-Mitsubishi Kuma.

Special Equipment :
Radio, pintle-mount.

 

GMI Hovertruck
Type : Hovercraft
Top speed : 160 km/h
Acc/dcc : 25/15
Crew : 2
Passengers : 12
Range : 640 km 		Cargo : 5 tonnes (12 espaces)
Maneuver : -2
SDP : 100 (Body 5)
SP : 20 (Armor 1)
Mass : 10 tons
Cost : 220 000 eb
Reference : Maximum Metal
A variant of the U.S.M.C. APC, the hovertruck has been refitted to serve as a combination troop/cargo vehicle.

Special Equipment :
Military radio, fire extinguisher, radar.

Weaponry :
Pintle-mounted auto-GL on the cab, accessed by a hatch over the passenger seat.

 

Militech A-20 ACAV
Type : Hovercraft
Top speed : 320 km/h
Acc/dcc : 30/15
Crew : 3
Passengers : 0
Range : 1040 km 		Cargo : 3 tonnes
Maneuver : 0
SDP : 100 (Body 5)
SP : 50 (Armor 3)
Mass : 10 tons
Cost : 730 000 eb
Reference : Maximum Metal
The "Panzer" made famous by Combat Cabband numerous movies, the A-20 sheds the varied armament of the original Navy model, but is otherwise very similar to the one the Navy still has in service. Like the Arasaka APCs, it's really too lightly armored to slug it out with the Big Boys. The panzer hopes to strike fast with its missiles and cut out before the enemy can respond.

Special Equipment :
Cyber-assisted, reactive armor, fire extinguisher, 4 man-hours life support, ejection seats, radar rangefinder, auto-pilot, mili­tary radio, military radar with terrain-following capability, sonar, military radar detector, auto-pilot, navigation system, passive IR, thermograph, light amplification.

Weaponry :
25mm cannon and Light ATGM in stabilized turret. The cannon has 2 magazines (one loaded with AP), and the ATGM has five extra rounds.