The Essential Guide to Force Exile/ScorpTail IFV

Description
The ScorpTail IFV was designed as a rugged infantry transport and support vehicle. However, it was also designed to serve as the Yanibar Guard’s primary anti-air vehicle after compromises in the number of vehicular chassis available to the Yanibar Guard Army had to be made during its development. The Army wanted a separate IFV and anti-air unit, but the lack of space for additional vehicles and transport space on Yanibar Guard Fleet ships, as well as reduced funding and personnel to buy and equip the vehicles meant that both roles had to be combined into a single chassis.

For further cost reductions, the ScorpTail used the same repulsorlifts and chassis as the CargoMax transport. However, the interior was completely redesigned to repurpose the new role. A driver, commander, and gunner crewed the vehicle, and it could carry up to 8 infantry, or up to 12 unarmored individuals. The relatively small passenger capacity was due to the vehicles’ need for space to accommodate its other combat systems. > The vehicle was equipped with light shielding, but was vulnerable to anti-armor weapons, particularly missiles.

The ScorpTail had a robust sensor suite designed for detecting, tracking, and engaging aerial targets as well as fast-moving speeders and repulsorcraft. A heavy turret with four rapid-fire blaster cannons provided direct fire support, while twin tri-fire missile pods provided a limited anti-vehicle and anti-air capacity with dual-mode seekers on the warheads. The blasters and missile pods were identical to those carried by the JRF Support Droids, which was thought to give the vehicle the fire support capacity of six droids. However, during initial trials, the blasters literally overheated themselves and destroyed the turret. Due to the power draw and heating concerns of the blasters, their rate of fire was reduced to half of the usual amount, reducing the firepower to the equivalent of four droids.

The ScorpTail’s compromised design led to several design limitations. The high-mounted turret (from which the vehicle derived its name) limited the downward traversing of the blasters and gave the ScorpTail a high profile. Furthermore, the missile pods were mounted on the flank of the vehicle rather than the turret, limiting their firing arc. This concession was necessary in order to retract the missile pods into the vehicle for reloading by an auto-loading mechanism, rather than having them have to be loaded externally. The blasters and missile launchers also had fairly limited range and such the ScorpTail had little standoff capability against vehicular threats.

History
The ScorpTail was first designed in 8 BBY as the Yanibar Guard Army expanded rapidly. Its controversial design history and overlapping roles gave it a less than glamorous role in the army’s ranks. They were initially fielded at the battalion and regiment levels, but there were not enough ScorpTails fielded to carry all of the infantry in each unit. Instead, they were assigned to armored formations to provide limited infantry support to Mauler and Challenger formations, disgorging their infantry near the battle site and adding fire support from the edges of the armored units. Due to these shortcomings, an initial run of 120 ScorpTails with 30 spares were produced and allocated by 2 ABY. The vehicles saw their first combat use in 4 ABY at the Battle of Yanibar against the Zann Consortium. They were highly effective against Zannist heavy infantry, but struggled against plasma tanks and heavier Canderous battle tanks. After several losses, the ScorpTails were pulled back to a supporting role using their missiles. The ScorpTail did well enough to merit its continued use, but other than replacements, only a contingent of 120 were maintained by the Army with a smaller number in use by the Yanibar Guard Marines. They saw only occasional combat use. By 20 ABY, the design of the ScorpTail was thoroughly obsolete. It was replaced by the Dauntless IFV in the infantry carrier role by 26 ABY. A dedicated anti-air droid unit known as the Reaper-AA droid replaced the ScorpTail in that role and in much greater numbers.

Behind the scenes
The ScorpTail IFV was one of the last vehicles designed by Atarumaster88 to fill the gap of an armored infantry transport and air defense role. The design took some inspiration from American Bradley IFVs as well as fictional vehicles in the Command and Conquer universe.

Appearances

 * Force Exile IV: Guardian
 * Yanibar Guard Sourcebook