Where is the air support?

[Quester]

Any chance of us seeing the ablity to strafe a target prior to phalanx landing?

[geever]

Any chance of us seeing the ablity to strafe a target prior to phalanx landing?

No. I told you this already!

PHALANX's job is to protect people. It cannot bomb area full with civilians.

-geever

[Nutter]

You could gas them, though. Doesn't seem to have any recorded permanent effects.
Well, as long as you're going for the Spetznaz approach, anyway. It'd certainly cut civilian losses in the bloody parking lots.


And some precision SHIVA fire would be fun. No real reason to have the dropship just sit there.

[Borsti67]

And some precision SHIVA fire would be fun. No real reason to have the dropship just sit there.

This is a point to consider IMO. The pilot is aboard. The ship is armed. Possibly the dropship has order to stay grounded for some reason (not giving a target, waiting for emergency return of the soldiers, whatever).
We can also assume that rockets cannot be used due to the short distance, but lasers and the SHIVA should work nicely.
So I'd say it would be logical to have the pilot sitting behind his weapon controls during the mission. He only needs 2 or 3 commands:

• Ready for liftoff (i.e. don't shoot - may be handy if you're trying to catch aliens alive)
• Open fire on enemies
• Optional: shoot only safe targets (NO civvies or soldiers can be hit by accident)

The only limitation is that the weapons are aiming frontwards and probably won't have a wide angle. But since a hit with that kind of weapon is a 100% kill it would be well worth the effort. 

[Nutter]

Actually, the SHIVA gun is the same calibre as the sniper rifle if the fluff is to be believed. A pity you can't use it's bullets on it.
Of course, there's probably also the thing of the a dropship mounted cannon probably firing bursts rather than single shots making any potential target a cloud or red or green mist in an instant. It'd even make the HEI rounds useful for something. At the expense of the unfortunately invulnerable environment, of course.

[TallTroll]

I don't think the national governments would be terribly pleased with "Nuke the site from orbit. It's the only way to be sure" as a response by PHALANX. They could do that themselves, probably better than PHALANX could, since they would have access to much heavier weaponry too.

When UGVs are implemeted, you'll see a huge boost in PHALANX firepower. Why would you need air support when you'll have what amounts to tank support?

[Nutter]

Because no ammount of tanks beat death from above.
Not to mention that UGVs are more along the lines of automated drones than tanks.
Much, MUCH smaller making it more useful in tight spaces but at the cost of firepower. Probably fares better in cities, though.



Unless there's AAA involved.

[geever]

There won't be air support, dropships' guns won't fire in tactical combat. This discussion is useless and annoying.

-geever

[jerm]

Besides, friendly-fire might become an issue if the ship-mounted weaponry is used. I don't think your troops will be very happy to be hit in the back with laser cannons/Shiva.

[Nutter]

They wouldn't care much. They couldn't. A hit would mean you need a mop to find them.
Though, a UGV mounted SHIVA would be pretty damn fun.