Banshee

The AH/G-24 Banshee Tactical-Strike Aircraft was a terran air vehicle built to provide ground attack for frontline infantry. Designed by Procyon Industries to meet a Terran Dominion requirement for a dedicated counter-insurgency aircraft, it entered Dominion service by 2502 and was adopted by the Kel-Morian Combine within the same year. Though it began life as an instrument of suppression, the Banshee became best known as a cloaked raider and gained a permanent place in the Dominion air force despite an infamous reputation as a terror weapon. (StarCraft II: Wings of Liberty; StarCraft II unit profile: Banshee; StarCraft II: Heaven's Devils; StarCraft (comic))

Design and propulsion#

The Banshee was powered by relatively low-thrust and inexpensive VTOL turbofans capable of operating only within an atmosphere, coupled with a fantail rotor assembly for steering and banking. The turbofans were sturdy, simple in design, and easy to maintain, and they allowed the aircraft to loiter indefinitely with minimal noise, which suited it well to stealth operations. The fans permitted the Banshee to be dropped from orbit but could not attain escape velocity, so the craft was outfitted with special propulsion systems used only in space. The Dominion Special Forces fielded a variant with upgraded twin VTOL turbofans and a new rear vertical stabilizer for superior stability and performance. (StarCraft II unit profile: Banshee; StarCraft Field Manual; StarCraft II: Wings of Liberty; StarCraft II: Legacy of the Void)

The aircraft's cockpit was fully pressurized, and an oxygen generator was integrated into the design, both added after the ship's initial deployment. These features allowed quick orbital deployments to support troops on the ground and to strike at targets of opportunity. Banshee pilots were outfitted with RS fusion suits. (StarCraft II unit profile: Banshee; StarCraft II: Legacy of the Void)

Armament#

The Banshee was built to be both economical and effective, intended specifically to provide air support for frontline infantry and well optimized for that tactical-strike role. Its standard armament was air-to-ground Backlash rockets, munitions designed to burn through the heaviest neosteel plating known to humanity. The shoddy guidance systems of those rockets, combined with the massive collateral damage they caused in urban settings, earned the Banshee its infamous reputation. (StarCraft II: Legacy of the Void; StarCraft II unit profile: Banshee)

Additional armament options were developed over the craft's service. Banshees of the Kel-Morian Combine carried rapid-firing projectile weaponry capable of hitting aerial targets. By the Second Great War, Banshees could mount the Shockwave missile battery, which allowed the rockets to be fired in a straight line and bombard a longer linear area ahead of the aircraft rather than the smaller circular point struck by the default Backlashes. (StarCraft (comic); StarCraft II: Wings of Liberty)

Cloaking and the raider role#

The Banshee received cloaking devices only after it had entered service with militias and guerilla forces, which adapted salvaged cloak generators recovered from Wraiths. With these devices the Banshee became an effective raider and, in the Dominion's hands, its "stealth darling." The later DN51 cloak generator offered higher uptime, tighter field cohesion, and more significant light refraction than any previous terran cloaking system. By the Second Great War the Dominion Armed Forces were equipping their Banshees with the DN51, a system so sophisticated that special teams were deployed to recover the generators from crashed aircraft. Mercenaries, by contrast, flew heavily modified Banshees cobbled together from a variety of parts, some incorporating bulldozer components into their armor. (StarCraft II unit profile: Banshee; StarCraft Field Manual; StarCraft II: Wings of Liberty; StarCraft II: Legacy of the Void)

Service history#

The Banshee was an entirely new design rather than an adaptation of an existing one, since modifying an older airframe was judged unlikely to satisfy the Dominion requirement. After much experimentation it entered Dominion service by 2502 and was in use with the Kel-Morian Combine within the same year. Its initial deployment was disappointing; the aircraft was judged too inflexible, and many were relegated to minor roles with backwater militias. Over time, its ease of interstellar deployment, its ability to deliver strikes over difficult terrain, and the addition of the cloaking device led to far wider use within the Dominion. (StarCraft II unit profile: Banshee; StarCraft II: Heaven's Devils; StarCraft: Frontline Volume 1; StarCraft (comic))

The Banshee gained a reputation as a Dominion terror weapon owing to the collateral damage it caused in urban combat, a result of the poor guidance of its Backlash rockets, and guerilla and resistance forces likewise found it useful against the Dominion. Despite its origins as a counter-insurgency weapon, it went on to serve against protoss, zerg, and terran frontline forces, operating as light-infantry support and serving alongside Vikings as air cavalry. Little could alter the public's negative perception of the craft, but its low cost and easy maintenance secured it a permanent place in the Dominion air force. (StarCraft II unit profile: Banshee; StarCraft II: Wings of Liberty)

Raynor's Raiders gained access to the Banshee during the Second Great War. Through a series of backdoor deals the Umojan Protectorate acquired a limited number of the aircraft from Procyon Industries, though the manufacturer maintained that they had been stolen. Banshees were used in planetary defense by forces such as the Knights of Tyrador, who flew them with distinction against Cerberus Program ultralisks at the Battle of Tyrador IX. By the time of the Defenders of Man Insurgency the aircraft was in use on several sides: Nova Terra's Covert Ops Crew deployed advanced Covert Banshees in combat, the Umojan Protectorate fielded them, and some were infested by the zerg on Jarban Minor. After the End War, Dominion engineers made critical upgrades to the craft's twin VTOL turbofans, pairing them with the new rear vertical stabilizer for superior stability and performance. (StarCraft II: Wings of Liberty; StarCraft II: Legacy of the Void; StarCraft II: Nova Covert Ops)