M306 MRAP

Weyland Engines (Ground Division) WGD-09, later reclassified as the M306 in UNSCDF service, was the key protected mobility vehicle of the United Nations Space Command Defence Force between 2511 and 2554. 
It saw service in the interrim stages of the Insurrection and furthermore in the Human-Covenant war, albeit in a reduced capacity due to its relative expense and maintenance demands. 
The vehicle, though officially sold under the name "Bushking", was given the monkier of the "Boar" as a direct result of its replacement of the significantly lighter Warthog within light cavalry and motorised infantry units. 
Though initially seeing popular service within the Army and Marines, it would ultimately be used longest by the Air Force and Navy as a utility and protected transport vehicle. 
== History ==
=== Development & Integration ===
In 2504 an inquiry into the loss of 46 UNSC light cavalrymen in an ambush concluded that the UNSC Army, and by extent, the UNSCDF lacked adequate protected mobility to operate in hostile, insurgent-controlled territory. This was further exacerbated within a week of the inquiry's release by the death of UNSC Marine Corps Lieutenant Colonel on Eridanus II after his M12 LRV collided with a Seccessionist anti-vehicle mine.
While more than adequate in its flexible utility, the M12 FAV and its derivatives lacked any form of protected mobility from small-arms fire or explosive ordnance. The inquiry determined that the M312, M313, and M318 were unsuitable to bridge this role due to poor mobility and high signiature. 
As a result of the inquiry, contractors developed a variety of vehicles to suitably provide light protected mobility for the UNSCDF. Among these, AMG Transport Dynamics produced an enclosed, up-armoured variant of the M12 replacing the rear mounted turret with roof hatches and weapon mounts at the fore and rear, Chalybs Defence Solutions produced a tracked, all-terrain troop transport, and Ushuaia Armoury produced an 8x8 light armoured vehicle. Ultimately, however, Weyland Industries WGD-09 Bushking Multirole Transport would be selected for service after trials on Reach.
The Bushking would be put into production for the UNSCDF in 2506, filling a variety of Army, Navy, Air Force and Marine Corps roles. 
Largely, the WGD-09 MRT, rebranded the M306 MRAP under UNSC service, replaced the M12 FAV in most combat-ready Army motorised infantry and light cavalry roles. The Air Force and Navy likewise received M306 variants for utility service and protected mobility. 
By 2507, the M306 was pushed into service with the UNSC Marine Corps with initial reluctance. Marine Corps technical support elements immediately received the vehicle with hostility due to already poor funding and supply of maintenance facilities, stacked on top of the extra demands of having to maintain a vehicle almost completely unlike any other in service. Despite this, it's ruggedness, modularity and excellent combat service made it popular among combat units.
Certain UEG counter-insurgency units received, toward the end of 2507, law enforcement models of the M306.
=== Insurrection Period ===
Throughout the Insurrection the M306 demonstrated its excellent capacity for protected mobility, support by fire, reconnaissance and surveillance, and general logistical utility.
By 2508, two hundred and fourty-two seperate incidents involving M306 vehicles colliding with roadside explosives had been recorded. Despite this, officially, not one UNSC service member had died as a result of these explosions. 
The Bushking, more prominently referred to as the Boar by personnel of more North American heritage, would see extensive service as a troop transport for motorised elements of the Army and Marines, primarily supporting infantry, artillery, and engineer movement. In addition to this, combat engineering elements of the UNSCDF made particular use of its resilience to explosives to employ it in assault pioneering roles. 
A plant variant made front-line engineering in large scale offences in hostile territory infinitely more viable, while R&S models offered advanced platforms for information gathering, integral to the production of critical intelligence.
Although the UNSC Marine Corps continued to favour the M12 for close reconnaissance, the M306 would be favoured by Army cavalry scouts and some infantry reconnaissance elements. 
Behind the lines, the protection, carrying capacity, and armament opportunity of the M306A and sub-variants opened crucial supply lines and furthmore enabled mounted convoys the ability to safely transport vulnerable stores in tandem to their own movement.
Despite its evident strategic value, the vehicle's place in the UNSC was frequently questioned. News outlets with association to AMG Transport Dynamics, the producer of the M12, frequently emphasised the controversies of the vehicle to the public, in particular, the immense strain in placed on maintenance teams, its high cost, and the excessive expendiature on the Bushking program. 
In 2513, Weyland Corp sued Askalon after an AMG-owned media outlet published a particularly slanderous article regarding the vehicle. This highly publicised case bought to an even greater light a menagerie of the very real issues with the Bushking line, but also with UNSC military organisation with some anti-military journalists jumping onto the opportunity to expose the shortcomings and ineptitude of the UEG and the UNSCDF, somewhat vindicating the case of the M306. The case was ended almost four months later with Askalon agreeing to an undisclosed payment to settle the case.
However, in spite of this, the program's reputation was irreversibly damaged, which would ultimately lead to the programs massive cutbacks during the Human-Covenant War.
=== Human-Covenant War ===
In 2525, humanity's contact with the Covenant sparked interspecial warfare on Harvest. 
In 2529 the M306 would see it's first use in the Human-Covenant war in the Harvest Campaign with the UNSC Marine Corps. While aptly suited to the protection required against the Covenant, the complex design of the vehicle made repairs to plasma damage inflicted infeasibly diffcult. While maintenance units were able to find work-arounds, they continued to complain of the same issues raised in the Insurrection. 
The M306 would continue to play a gradually diminishing role in the UNSCDF resistance of the Covenant as cheaper and more expendable M12s filled UNSCDF ranks and the vehicles were drawn back to the inner colonies. 
Then-Major General Imran Sachin, an Avalon native, became particularly taken with the M306 in the conflict, using connections with Weyland and UNSC HIGHCOM to equip the 111/3 Marine Division and all subordinate elements with appropriate variants to serve their needs. Sachin's 'Bushking Division' became an almost celebrity element of the UNSCDF, participating in the Battles of Eridanus II, Vodin, New Constantinople, Meridian, Paris IV, Fumirole, Reach, and ultimately Avalon where the Divsion would be obliterated in OPERATION: CAMLANN. The loss of Sachin's division marked the last major use of the M306 in the UNSCDF.
Many militias throughout the war came to inherit M306 vehicles as the M12 was reintroduced into principle service, likewise, in many longer-term resistances against Covenant invasion, civilian variants were refitted for combat service. 
M306 vehicles served in some capacity on Tribute, New Jerusalem, and ultimately Earth.
=== Post-War ===
After the war, with most of the line having been destroyed in the conflict or otherwise retired due to extreme damages, and with the loss of Weyland Industries and its capital on Avalon, the M306 would be retired from UNSC service in 2554, with the Air Force and Navy continuing to operate a small fleet for logistics and utility. 
Paramilitary organisations as well as private contractors and reemerging colonial governments took a keen interest in acquiring the remaining vehicles from the UNSC Army and Marines. With permission from the UNSCDF, the Enhanced M306 (E-M306) was produced, based on the M306, by Askalon for limited military and civilian development.
A memorial was built by Askalon in in the ruins of Camelot on Avalon commemorating Sachin's Bushking Division and the M306. AMG Transport Dynamics also officially sponsored a museum of UNSCDF Technologies, featuring a wing dedicated to the lost Weyland Corp.
== Design ==
The M306 is based on a universal 4x4, 6x6, or 8x8 frame-work chassis (depending on the exact variant). The chassis incorporates a V-shaped hull to augment deflection of blast energy during contact with an explosive device. The chassis is plated with heavily reinforced alloy resistant to extreme forces and tested resistant to 12.7mm ammunition between ranges of 50 metres and 2000 metres. During a blast, lockers, wheels, and other attached items are designed to give way, absorbing energy an protecting the chassis. 
Internally, the front-most section of the vehicle houses a 400 horsepower, six-cylinder engine. Behind this is the crew cabin housing a driver, a commander, and a gunner on an RWS system. The commander has access to a battle management system, UHF, VHF, and HF radio systems, and an internal crew communication system. Behind the crew cabin is the main module. This section varies strongly depending on the model. In the standard transport variants comprising a bulk of the vehicles used by the UNSC, this compartment is comprised of 12 seats, a water tank, an equipment locker, and several heavy weapons mounts. All passengers have access to headsets granting communication to all personnel in the vehicle. Both the crew cabin and the rear compartment are air-conditioned and any seats are complemented by a weapon holster fitting most standard UNSC small-arms. 
The vehicle has a single downward opening hatch at the rear of the vehicle, opening downward. The hatch can be set to be closed electronically or manually by two soldiers. An outward opening door is built into the hatch should it fail to deploy or should it be decided to be more effective to use the door. Regulation Standard Operating Procedure dictates that these doors and hatches be closed with a degree of care as not to compromise sealing or locking capability, rendering the vehicle unsafe to use. Top-side hatches are built in on the vehicles rear-left and rear-right corners, each availble to fitted with a weapon mount. These dually serve as escape hatches. in the case of hatch failure, or a roll. 
Top surfaces of the vehicle are coated in a rough skin to provide traction for walking personnel. Additionally, various step-ladders and support rails are built onto the vehicles exterior. 
All vehicles are equipped with fire-suppression systems and advanced air-filters. 
== Variants ==
=== Military ===
M306A - Standard, 4x4, stripped model. The rear compartment is empty save for several features supporting cargo carriage. In service to logistics, ordnance and transport elements of the UNSCDF. 
M306A6 - 6x6 variant of the M306A, up-armoured
M306A8 - 8x8 variant of the M306A, up-armoured
M306AM - Maintenance variant of the M306A6, rear compartment is less armoured and accessible from the exterior. The rear compartment is replaced with a massive array of lockers, drawers, and devices for technical support elements on the ground. 
M306AM6 - 6x6 variant of the M306AM, the rear compartment is divided so that the maintenance suite and lockers are located along the vehicles left side while 6 seats are added on the right side for passengers.
M306TT - 4x4 Troop Transport model. Rear compartment consists of 12 seats, complemented with small-arms weapon holsters. Rear compartment houses a 100L water tank, a weapons locker, and various heavy weapon mounts. 
M306TT6 - 6x6 Troop Transport, additional 6 seats are added, access hatches at the centre left and right of the rear compartment
M306TTA - 6x6, maintains 12 seats, toward the fore of the rear compartment, the space is stripped for cargo carriage and a hatch on the right side of the vehicle opens to allow for cargo insertion
M306CP - 6x6 Refit of the M306TT6, seat capacity is reduced in favour of additional communication and battle management assets
M306MS - 6x6 Refit of the M306TT6, this manoeuvre support variant exists to support the needs of a weapons squad of a motorised infantry platoon
M306LA - 6x6 Refit of the M306TT6, this variant exists to support a mortar section and their specific requirements
M306MEV - 6x6 medical extraction variant, room for four stretchers and a full medical suite available
M306PI - 4x4 Assault Pioneering Vehicle, similar configuration to the M306TT, equipped with ground sensors, additional mounting capacity on the exterior of the vehicle, and mounting compatibility with engineering equipment such as dozer blades and mine rollers
M306S - 4x4 Surveillance Model, rear compartment consists of a two surveillance stations operting motion sensors, ground scanners, feeds from deployed cameras, and two cameras on 12m masts deploying from the rear of the vehicle. Furthermore, various functions of the base M306 were reduced to provide extra power, efforts were made to smother the vehicle's noise, and radiation absorbent plating reduced its sensor signiature. 
M306MS - 8x8 heavily modified variant of the M306 used by UNSC specialist units as a mobile CP. Radiation-absorbant plating, reduced armour and weight, four rear compartment weapon mounts, two command and communication suites, a single surveillance suite. 18 seats, three extra equipment lockers. 
M306LR - 4x4 heavily modified variant of the M306 used by UNSC specialist units and elite reconnaissance elements. Radiation-absorbant plating, reduced armour and weight, crew cabin weapon mount is removed, 4 seats, additional ammunition and equipment lockers. Enhanced communication systems.
M306TTE - 4x4 Environmental survival enabled variant of the M306TT
M306E - 4x4 Environmental survival variant of the M306A
M306PL - 4x4 Military Plant vehicle, rear compartment is replaced with a recovery crane and an excavator arm, mounts to the vehicles front are affixed to enable fixture of plant equipment such as dozer blades
=== Law Enforcement ===
M306UA - Urban Assault variant for siege breaking, a 4 barrel grenade launcher is mounted on the vehicle while additional reinforcement to the vehicle's structure to withstand blunt impact is present. Additional mounting capacity for plant equipment is incorporated, sirens and floodlight mounts are also added to the system. 
M306AT - Armoured transport for escort, priority protection, or prison transfer. The crew cabin and rear compartment are seperated by a locked door which can only be opened outward from the crew cabin. The crew cabin weapon mount is removed while two hatches sit over each crew cabin seat. 
=== Civil Service ===
CI306AM - 4x4 ambulance variant, used by many colonial regional rescue organisations as all-terrain extraction solution. As with all civilian variants, weapon mounts or holsters are not present.
CI306AR - 4x4 patrol vehicle used by rangers, contractors and miners, and in particular, the fire departments and special emergency services across the UEG. Improved environmental survival function drawn from the M306E allows for exploration and reconnaissance in deeply hostile areas
=== Civilian / Contractor ===
CI306A6 - 6x6 civilian utility civilian vehicle
CI306CV - 8x8 civilian charter vehicle