Riptide ACV

**Key Features** | »» Bulletproof ground effects cushion»» 1.6m drive propeller»» Browning .50 cal heavy machine gun»» Internal siren and deployable lights»» Seating for three

*"CALM DOWN OR WE WILL CALM YOU DOWN!"*

- Non-regulation graffiti found on a Riptide operating in Saudi Arabia

## Tactical Analysis

* **By Land or By Sea:** As a transport, the Riptide has room for up to three. While this is less than what other transports can manage, the Riptide's quick speed allows it to get its passengers to their destination quickly, and its amphibious design lets it cross bodies of water effortlessly.

* **Rip them up:** Of course, the Riptide is also far from defenceless. It is armed with a single Browning heavy machine gun, which makes short work of most infantry. This lets the Riptide to support disembarked passengers, as well as armoured forces lacking anti-infantry support. They can also switch to the less lethal, but more debilitating, flashbang launcher to blind and suppress multiple enemies.

* **Straight-Running:** The Riptide, true to its name, is also a terror on the sea. The Riptide is armed with torpedoes that can make short work of vulnerable targets, and combined with their speed, this makes the Riptide an able skirmisher at sea.

* **Crowd Control:** The newest models of the Riptide have a Gatling gun and tear gas launcher installed, and are being distributed amongst the ranks as fast as they can be. The gas greatly irritates infantry, making it impossible for them to attack, and slows vehicles much better than the flashbang, making them all the more vulnerable to attack by the Riptide or its passengers.

## WWIII Operational History

When the first **Riptide ACVs** barrelled full-speed out the warehouse doors of Kaario Hovercraft Company, nobody knew what to make of the strange machines. Part general purpose vehicle, part APC, part light combat platform, the ground effects vehicles glided effortlessly over ground and water, their turbine engines purring contently as they outraced the competition to replace the aging Retriever APC. Faster, sleeker, more flexible and altogether more representative of the new age of the Allied Peacekeeper, the Riptide is an instantly recognisable vehicle that has come to sum up the Allied war effort; swift, sophisticated and more than a little strange.

Invented by Finnish scientist Toivo J. Kaario in 1931, the early hovercraft would have amounted to nothing had its unveiling not been witnessed by a German military officer, and later famed WW2 hero Erwin Rommel. When the militant Restoration Party took power in Germany in 1933, Rommel wrote a letter to Chancellor Hess espousing the values of the hovercraft and its potential as a locomotive engine for military machines, and he humbly requested a grant be made to fund Kaario's work. Eagerly hoping to circumvent treaty restrictions preventing the development of such machines, the German government gave a massive grant to Kaario, which allowed him to fund his work, creating the world's first effective military hovercraft, the Kaario Omni-Lander, for Allied service in 1946. When Finland was overrun by Russian forces, they captured the Lander design and duplicated it, and after the war ended Kaario landers and their knock-offs were the most common amphibious vehicles in existence.

Kaario's company continued after his untimely death, and the Riptide was built as a police vehicle based on his exacting standards in 1963. It was almost immediately taken up by the Allied forces due to its sheer usefulness, and is now widely deployed in Allied forces. *"It has become"*, wrote journalist James Reston in 1968, *"the new Ranger. It is only a matter of time before the Riptide hovercraft hits the public market."*

Entering the war immediately,`thousands of Riptides were deployed and variants of the design have seen almost every role that can be imagined. The primary variation, the D-Class Combat Riptides, carry a squad of soldiers in an armoured compartment while supporting them with a heavy machine gun.

The D1s were rushed into combat, and were typically armed with Browning .50 caliber heavy machine guns taken from decommissioned Retriever APCs, while the D2s were equipped with British manufactured *"Brushclearer"* 20mm miniguns, which were faster firing but lacked the stopping power of the D1. In addition, a special launcher on the D2 allowed torpedoes to be launched into combat while over water, allowing Riptides to clear obstructions while moving in for an amphibious assault. This hidden weapon proved surprisingly deadly, leading to ad hoc formations of D2 Riptides being refitted with dedicated naval torpedoes and used to surprising effectiveness as aquatic raiders.

On land, Riptides proved themselves worth successors to both the Retriever APC and the Ranger Scout Car, engaging Soviet infantry and the hated Sickle patrols in hundreds of skirmishes while carrying the Peacekeeper divisions into the heart of combat. Their armour and bulletproof cushions providing more than enough protection, the Riptide would lead the charge, and (unsurprisingly) proved to be effective over all terrain. At Normandy they led the amphibious assault on Fortress Europe, speeding onto the shores ahead of the Assault Destroyers and Landers and bouncing Soviet defenders from their clifftop bunkers. In Paris they glided effortlessly down narrow streets chasing the fleeing Soviet forces, and in Berlin they engaged the Soviets in vicious street-to-street fighting, forcing back Sickles and Scythes to deposit infantry behind enemy positions.

## Post-War Operational History

 File:AN RiptideD3Render.jpeg  The new D3 Riptide models have been equipped with MX-19 .50 cal gatling guns and tear gas grenade launchers that slow and disorient enemy infantry, which do a far better job of keeping the heads of the enemy down while troops are disembarking than the previous designs. However, the D3 models are fairly rare and are only just starting to be introduced. With Allies using retrofitted D2 models, dubbed D2.5, as a stopgap, which is equipped with the same launcher but fires flashbangs instead, thanks to newer disembarking systems allowing the installation of secondary weapon systems for all transport vehicles (which wasn't possible in WW3 due to needing passenger space).

However, the dangers of high-powered anti-naval torpedoes laying around armed in the launch tubes are well documented, thus a down-powered, safer variant is in widespread use now. This is not seen as a strategic disadvantage, due to the dolphin's new training regimen, as well as deployment of dedicated ships meant to hunt submarines.

Recently a problem has arisen with the introduction of the new launch tubes and the introduction of the D3 model. The sheer amount of new additions on the D3 forced Kaario Hovercraft to devote some of the room used normally for transporting passengers to holding the ammunition and systems for said additions. In the case of older models, the Allies have begun to retrofit them for conversion into D3 models, already changing up the inside of them. Though they can't carry as many troops, Allied Command sees this as a trivial problem since recent advancements in Allied infantry technology has arguably given a single soldier the ability to fight for two men.

## Just the Stats

 **Armour Type** | Light Armour

 **Kill Reward** | 6000

 **DPS** | 75

 **DPS** | N/A

 **DPS** | 80