The Scorpion is a Venezuelan Army static Anti-Air Artillery and Surface-to-Air Missile platform featured in Mercenaries 2: World in Flames.
Overview[]
This is the the only static SAM platform in the game. It is painted in standard VZ army camouflage; it is easy to see with its SAM diamond floating above it. This Anti-Air unit can be seen in some specific areas such as Maracaibo Airport parking building roof, Isla de la Fortelaza northern barracks, before and during Misha's recruiting mission on the Bunker Buster island, the VZ occupied Maracaibo Oil Rig during Blanco's meeting, Solano's Bunker, the VZ controlled Pirate Mainland Outpost and probably a few others scattered around. They are often placed in areas where the player will have acquired a helicopter or needs to call support; likely intended to be a challenge during contracts and some HVT captures. It can be locked into a helicopter's winch but cannot be lifted or transported around unless destroyed.
Tactics[]
When using helicopters, it is good to have prior knowledge of the location of these units and take them out quickly to avoid letting things get out of control. The main threat posed is that it will fire several fast SAMs in quick succession, dodging one missile may seem fine, but waiting for 3 more is not a good tactic if helicopter well-being is on the list of priorities. Even if this unit is Anti-Air, it does not stop it from being an excellent weapon against infantry and any light vehicles or armor type 2 or less, its disadvantages are that it is static, the gunner is exposed and that it is poorly armored.
Real Life[]
The Scorpion is a repainted real life variant of the Soviet made ZU-23, more specifically, it looks like the ZUR-23-2S "Jod" or ZU-23-2M variant. It is likely that it is currently used by the Venezuelan Armed forces.