Hanuman IFV

## Tactical Analysis

* **Bullets swift as the wind:** Armed with two 15mm very heavy machine guns, two coaxial 5.56mm light machine guns, and two hull mounted 7.62mm medium machine guns, the Hanuman offers punch that devastates infantry and can threaten to chew up light vehicles and battlesuits in kind. The storm of lead vomited out by a Hanuman is also very suppressive, bringing whole formations of infantry screeching to a halt.

* **Protective winds:** Despite not carrying anyone despite the title of IFV, the Hanuman still can provide some extra support to the men by diverting power from its ammo feeds to rapid cover deployers that spray instacrete to the sides; rapidly hardening into light cover.

* **Fragile as the wind:** The Hanuman is to put it lightly, doomed against tanks and only marginally effective against heavy structures. It at best can hope for rear shots, and when faced with heavier vehicles, hasn't a shot in hell. Its armor also is, like most IFVs, not up to par with a tank, and it is helpless against aircraft.

* **One with the wind:** The most experienced Hanuman crews are given kits to mount two M2 browning 12.7mm heavy machine guns in pintles on the top, giving even more firepower as well as a modicum of air defense.

## Background

"*I can barely breathe in this thing...*"
"*Better than being on foot, at least.*"
"*Who farted!?*"

- Typical conversation between Hanuman crewmembers.
The Commonwealth much admires the Red Army despite its many statements against its government. The reliable hardware, masses of men and materiel, and unrelenting firepower all are things that the Commonwealth seeks for its own military. When the Pincer ICV was unveiled, India soon decided it had to have one of its own. Dragging up a concept for a new APC meant to replace the Jackson in reservist armories, Indian brass began a long process of constantly changing demands. What had started as a supersized Jackson was mashed together with machine gun boat concepts and Polish multi-turreted tanks until the end result was a two-headed monstrosity couldn't actually transport anything due to the need to fit so many bullets and secondary systems.

Now armed with no less than six machine guns of various calibers, the Hanuman was quickly rushed to service not as part of the counter-offensive against communism as was expected, but in the defense of Southern Asia against the Imperial tide as the nation that once saved half of Korea from falling to Stalin revealed itself as both a world power and a would-be world conqueror. First the Hanumans were rushed to southern Indochina to shore up the ARVN, but the Imperials cut down the teething machines whose incredibly confined quarters thanks to its small turrets made for abysmal ergonomics. Then it was driven back from Thailand and Malaysia, then Myanmar, then Bangladesh, then deep into India itself before the larger turreted Hanuman mark II could come out.

While the new Mark II was still an uncomfortable, cramped space, the crew at the very least were merely half-blind rather than three quarters blind. Finally, a line in the sand was drawn and the new Hanuman earned far more respect as it held down Imperial infantry and drones and cut through light mecha with a storm of bullets. By the time the war ended, the Hanuman became an integral part of the Frontier Corps, especially thanks to the decision to implement barricade emplacers to quickly provide some cover for India's vast numbers of infantry.

Now seeing service in the war-torn areas of China, Africa, and the Middle East, the Hanuman can be quickly identified by the chatter of its machine guns and the sound of hardening goop. As much as the crew members hate to operate it, the infantry loves to have it by their side, all while being secretly thankful that they never tried finding some way to squeeze any infantry in there, in that dark, confined space where going through a mission without at the very least a bruise is a miracle.