Tank Buster

"Clear out a whole roadway!"

- Merchant of Menace store caption

The Tank Buster is an anti-armor close air support airstrike featured in Mercenaries: Playground of Destruction and Mercenaries 2: World in Flames.

Mercenaries: Playground of Destruction


"Don't let a little thing like a an armored tank column stand in your way. Rat out those North Koreans to Allied Air Command, and they'll take care of everything for you, while leaving buildings and infantry alone."

- Merchant of Menace store description

Overview
The Tank Buster is an extremely effective anti-armor air strike that can destroy several armored vehicles in a single run. It is comparable to the Surgical Strike, Cluster Bomb and Gunship Support I, II, III.

The Tank Buster is fairly costly and is recommended to use when surrounded by tanks and other armor vehicles, or to clear an area densely populated with armored vehicles.

Specifications

 * Unlocked by: Complete 'Reactor Retrieval'
 * Cost: $200,000-$280,000
 * Guidance: Satellite
 * Delivery: A-10 Thunderbolt II

Mercenaries 2: World in Flames
"Air support attacks enemy armor in a wide area."

- Stockpile caption

Overview
"Tank Buster, not cow buster."

- Misha explaining a Tank Buster

The Tank Buster is an extremely cheap and commonly found airstrike when compared to what it can do. When called in, Misha will fly over the target area with an A-10 in the direction the player was facing when the smoke grenade started. During this fly by, he will fire enough or more AGM-65 s to destroy all ground armor above APC status (APCs, IFVs and Tanks) on the minimap.

One thing that should be very clear is that the Tank Buster will not affect anything else than APCs, IFVs and Tanks, Misha enthusiatically and slightly incorrectly repeats that it will only bust tanks (and not cars or cows).

During contracts when faced with heavy and a lot of armor, be sure to stockpile a few Tank Busters, these can make a contract significantly easier.

Specifications

 * Unlocked by:
 * Cost: $200k at the PLAV, Allied Nations and Chinese Shop
 * Guidance: Smoke Grenade
 * Fuel: 200 gallons
 * Delivery: A-10 Thunderbolt II

Real life
In both games, the Tank Buster air strike is performed by the real life Fairchild Republic A-10 Thunderbolt II.

Related Pages

 * Air strikes in Playground of Destruction
 * Air strikes in World in Flames
 * Cluster Bomb
 * UP Tank Attack