Combine Gunship

"I gather you've disposed of that Gunship, Dr. Freeman. Your reputation, sir, is well deserved."

- Odessa Cubbage

The Combine Gunship, or simply Gunship, is a powerful, autonomous aircraft that combines aspects of an airplane and a helicopter with Synth technology.

Overview
Gunships are powered by an array of different jet engines on their belly, and maneuver using a rear helicopter-like rotor with insect wing-like blades. Compound eyes that bear a close resemblance to those of a dragonfly are positioned directly behind the gunship's pulse gun, and are thought to aim the weapon. In addition, the chassis itself has one large exposed compound eye on either side, which is assumed to be used to detect enemies under normal conditions. Like most Combine Synths and vehicles, the gunship is invulnerable to small arms fire and can only be damaged by heavy weapons, such as rocket-propelled grenades. Because of this weakness to explosives, gunships will give any incoming explosives a priority over enemies and will attempt to shoot them down.

Although lacking the Hunter-Chopper's explosive mines and rockets, the gunship surpasses it's aerial counterpart in maneuverability and accuracy with its pulse turret.



Tactics
The gunship is generally deployed to attack enemies not normally accessible to ground forces, due to their dangerous actions or in remote locations where air power would be more convenient. In urban environments or when protecting highly important facilities (such as the Citadel dark fusion reactor or the Overwatch Nexus) Gunships are deployed in what appears to be a buddy system, in which one Gunship protects the other from missile attacks. However, when deployed to oversee vast spaces (such as the coast) they are deployed only one unit at a time.

Counter Measures
Destroying a gunship with the RPG requires a unique strategy. Since gunships concentrate their fire on any incoming rockets and attempt to shoot them down, use the laser designator to guide the rocket in unpredictable loops and rolls on its way to the target, to make it as difficult as possible for the gunship to hit the rocket. Ideally, perform evasive manuevers with the rocket until it gets close, then steer it around the gunship and hit it from behind. It's also sometimes possible to fire straight up at a gunship directly above you and hit its belly before it has time to recognize the threat.

Gunships are one of the toughest enemies, and dealing with them presents a number of problems, doubly so if there are other enemies in the vicinity at the same time (or, worse, multiple gunships, they cover each other). Since it takes at least three hits (depending on difficulty) to destroy one, you can only effectively fight one if you have a steady source of replacement ammunition for the RPG. Its also important to have plenty of overhead cover to use in between firing at the gunship, because whenever you don't have a rocket in the air, it'll be firing at you.

Keep in mind that gunships will always prioritize rockets over any other target, so if you have, for example, one rocket left and need to get across open ground to resupply, just fire the rocket into the air and steer it around as long as possible while moving to the next spot of cover. The gunships will be completely distracted by the rocket, allowing you to get to safety and/or resupply.

Behind the scenes
Originally, the Gunship was to thrown projectiles, probably some kind of Synth rocket. Its appearance is very similar to the Headcrab Shell (and the Gunship itself), but it is unknown if this is intended or not.

Trivia

 * In the Half-Life 2 model viewer, the Gunship's "dragonfly" eyes possess the ability to extend downwards and sweep left and right.


 * In Our Benefactors it is shown that gunships are serviced and stored in the Citadel facing upwards with their backs to the wall.


 * According to the Overwatch dispatcher as heard in Sandtraps during your invasion into Nova Prospekt, the Gunships may respond to a different part of Overwatch called 'Airwatch'. This term is also heard on the Bridge in Highway 17.


 * Gunships are not fought in Episode Two, but they can be seen flying over a bridge escorting a Combine marching column right after exiting the Antlion caves in the chapter Freeman Pontifex. Although they were suppose to be in the Strider battle near the end of Episode Two.


 * Besides their Pulse turret, Gunships are also equipped with a "belly cannon" which releases a matter disintegration blast similar to that of the suppression device. This attack is never used in any of the Half-Life games, but additional gunships spawned by players have been witnessed using such an attack. Analysis of the single player missions that were released in an uncompiled format reveals that the gunships were deliberately set not to use this weapon. In Half-Life 2 Beta, however, the gunship wil freely use their belly cannon, and while it results in an instant kill, it's actually hard to hit the player with it.