T'au Wargear

The race that came to be known as the Tau were first discovered by the Imperium of Man in the late 35th millennium. They were at a hunter-gatherer stage of development at this time, and were earmarked for cleansing. The combination of warp storms and the outbreak of the Age of Apostasy within the Imperium prevented this from occuring, and during the next six millennia of isolation the Tau were able to evolve, unite, and develop an extremely advanced level of technology. Also during this time, the Tau have incoporated numerous alien species into their fledgling Empire, the most significant of these being the Kroot and the Vespid.

This list will describe the various weapon types, common equipment, and vehicles used by the Tau military, along with their allies.

Pulse weapons
The standard infantry weapon of Tau Fire Warriors, pulse weapons use electromagnetic induction fields to convert particles to a plasma state and propel them out the barrel of the weapon. There are several different types of pulse weapon:
 * The pulse rifle carried by Fire Warrior teams is comparable to the boltguns used by the Space Marines (Warhammer 40,000.
 * Pulse carbines are used by Pathfinder teams and are fitted to gun drones. Although as powerful as pulse rifles, carbines are smaller, trading decreased range for portability. Pulse carbines are almost always fielded with an underslung photon grenade launcher.
 * Pulse pistols are small hold-out weapons issued to battlesuit pilots and the controllers of sniper drones. They have an extremely short range, but are slightly more powerful than an Imperial bolt pistol.

Burst cannons
A multi-barrel weapon capable of sustaining high rates of fire, burst cannons are an offshot of Tau pulse weapon technology. They are usually mounted on battlesuits and vehicles.

Kroot weaponry
Originally designed to use chemical propellant and solid ammunition, when the Kroot were absorbed into the Tau Empire, these weapons were upgraded to utilise the charged pulse rounds favoured by the Tau. Standard 'Kroot Rifles' are also fitted with blades near the barrel and stock, a throwback to fighting staves used by primitive Kroot.

The Kroot have adapted Tau pulse technology to produce a large calibre weapon. This heavy weapon is equevilant in range and firepower to the autocannon used by the Imperial Guard, and is primarily used to engage light vehicles. The 'Kroot Gun' is significantly heavier than the rifle, and must be mounted on the back of the ape-like Krootox.

Railguns
Linear accelerator weapons, known more colloquially as railguns, are high-power weapons mounted on Tau battlesuits and tanks. These weapons fire a single, solid projectile at hypervelocity, although the vehicle-mounted version can also fire a sophisticated bundle of submunitions.

Railguns have been used for some time by battlesuits and vehicles, and the technology has been scaled up to the point where massive railcannon batteries are mounted on Air Caste starships. However, it was only recently that the Tau began to experiment with man-portable weapons based on railgun technology. Although weaker than its larger relatives, the rail rifle is still powerful enough to be an effective anti-tank weapon. To use a rail rifle, the bearer must also be equipped with a hard-wired targeting device. During trials, one of the main flaws of the rail rifle was that the massive energy requirements needed to power the electromagnetic linear accelerator would overload the targeting device, causing feedback in the hard-wire interface, which in turn would kill the rifle's bearer. This flaw has been fixed through constant field-testing, and was authorised for use by frontline Pathfinder teams just prior to the declaration of the 'Third Sphere Expansion'.