Mosquito AA

The Mosquito AA is an extremely rare self-propelled anti-aircraft vehicle used by the Venezuelan Army in Mercenaries 2: World In Flames.

Overview


"Well-armored anti-air tank with a powerful surface-to-air missiles."

- Stockpile caption

The Mosquito AA is essentially a Jaguar Tank hull with a SAM turret replacing the tank turret. It has the armor and maneuverability, but its only armament is four Surface-to-Air Missiles, meaning that it should never be brought to the front lines alone. When crewed by an NPC, it bears the SAM diamond above it.

The Mosquito is only used for anti-aircraft duties with limited effect due to its limited armament of only four missiles. It does not have any coaxial weaponry such as mounted machine guns.

The Mosquito's armor is good in comparison to other SAMs (Guardian SAM, Messenger SAM, etc.) for the simple reason that it is mounted on a tank chassis. The Mosquito, like its Jaguar Tank counterpart, is a slow moving vehicle, and when it is at top speed hard to maneuver. This can be considered as an early game version of the Iron Dove Heavy AA.

The Mosquito is extremely hard to find in the field. Occasionally it can be found just north of Merida circling a small hill (confirmation needed), a guaranteed way to find a few is when they provide SAM coverage during General Carmona's attack on the Villa. An easier way to acquire it is to buy it from the Pirates.

Tactics
This vehicle is best used when in need a SAM that can take some punishment, or when there is a maximum of four helicopters (while also being aware that the missiles may miss). However, with only four missiles, this vehicle's effectiveness is limited. The four missiles have very limited effect when used against ground targets. Against aircraft, the vehicle can be very useful simply because of its armors ability to withstand .50cal and rocket fire to a certain extent.

The Mosquito AA's armor is very useful for survivability, however; its slow speed and morsel of ammo are major drawbacks. Basically, when player controlled, it can be very useful against a small amount of helicopters. When in the hands of the NPC soldiers, especially when deployed in groups, this unit will wreck an entire air fleet; this can be witnessed by attacking Carmona's Villa raiding troops with a helicopter.

Real life
Like the Jaguar Tank, the Mosquito AA appears to be based off the French AMX-30. The Mosquito replaces the normal tank turret with a smaller turret with an air-radar and four Surface-to-Air Missile versions of the AIM-120 AMRAAM.

Related pages

 * Jaguar Tank
 * Iron Dove Heavy AA