Nighthawk
Sarna News
- This article is about the battle armor. For the BattleMech, see Night Hawk.
| 191px | |
| Nighthawk | |
| Production information | |
|---|---|
| Manufacturer | ComStar, Word of Blake |
| Use | Scout |
| Weight Class | Power Armor (Light) |
| Tech Base | Inner Sphere |
| Cost | 295,000 C-bills |
| Introduced | 2720, reintroduced in 3065 |
| Technical specifications | |
| Mass | 400 kg |
| Top Speed | 10 km/h |
| Armament |
None |
| Armor Type | Standard Stealth |
| BV (1.0) | 9 |
Contents
Description
The Nighthawk Mk. XXI is a power armor (light) [PA(L)] design and the progenitor of battle armor. The original Nighthawk was based upon exoskeletons that were used for commercial purposes during the Star League. It took fifteen years and twenty prototypes before the SLDF finally saw the design that would eventually be produced. Nighthawk numbers were never large as the SLDF wanted to keep its existence a secret, an endeavor there were successful in, thanks in no large part to the accomplishment of their black ops forces, the Blackhearts. The design was lost following the fall of the Star League and the onset of the Succession Wars, however Word of Blake and ComStar were successful in creating a design that duplicates the abilities of the Nighthawk.
The Nighthawk itself is little more than a heavily-armored sneak suit. It only has enough armor to stop a support Machine Gun and no integral weapon systems. Its armor does have stealth capabilities, enabling Nighthawks to move undetected, and it makes them more difficult to target if they are fired upon. They are also quite mobile, able to leap up to ninety meters at a time.
Armament
Though the Nighthawk has no integral weapon systems, it does utilize two armored gloves, enabling the trooper to wield infantry-scale weapons. Though these are not very powerful, they are useful when a squad makes anti-'Mech attacks. Nighthawk may also utilize the handholds on OmniMechs to travel into battle mounted.
Variants
A Mk. XXII was prototyped for use by the SLDF Royal Divisions, but the Amaris coup prevented it from seeing standard production.