Stingray

The Stingray missile gunship is a Tau vehicle developed after the Damocles Gulf Crusade, where the Tau Empire’s contact with Imperial forces led them to consider the development of a non-line-of-sight and beyond-line-of-sight weapons to break up the waves of Orks rampaging through the sector after the Imperial/Tau ceasefire. A single large warhead, similar to the simple shell used by Imperial Earthshaker Cannons, was considered, but was determined to be less effective than a modified Seeker Missile, with a large number of Smart Missiles loaded into the payload bay. The resulting weapon was first fielded on modified Sky Ray air defence tanks. The first field tests were promising, but revealed shortcomings in the vehicles used for the test. First among these was the sheer size of the new missile, making the vehicle extremely dependent on resupply in an extended battle. A new turret was then developed that could carry more missiles, but this required changes to the basic hull such as the reduction of protective armour plating to allow the unit to keep up with Devilfish and Hammerhead formations. This new version of the vehicle that would become the Stingray was significantly less dependent on resupply during battle, and the larger turret allowed refinements to the missile itself, increasing the number of Smart Missile submunitions.

Armament
A Stingray missile gunship primary weapon system is a number of Submunition Missiles mounted on its turret. Each of these missiles contains a number of Smart Missile submunitions built into their warhead. When a Submunition Missile detonates, these Smart Missiles scatter over a wide area and individually search for and home in on targets using basic Drone intelligences. A Stingray is also armed with a Smart Missile System for basic self-defence, and can be fitted with several normal Seeker Missiles to provide long-range fire support on targets designated with a Marker Light.