Thanks to Louis Wu at HBO for pointing out that Ensemble Studios have posted more details on the UNSC Sparrowhawk. Here’s the lowdown:
Known more readily as just “Hawk” the Sparrowhawk is a formidable air to ground armor busting support aerodyne. The Hawk is still being assessed by command before full production starts while engineers are still working on an experimental propulsion system that has led to failures in the field making the future of this vehicle uncertain. The Hawk first saw actual combat against the Covenant on the surface of Harvest in the final months of that campaign.
For those of you (like me) that don’t know what an “aerodyne” is, Wikipedia defines it as:
An aerodyne is a heavier-than-air aircraft which derives lift from motion, as opposed to an aerostat which uses buoyancy (such as a balloon) to fly.
So, it’s a fancy word for plane, then 🙂
There’s also a new desktop version of the image available here in various resolutions. From this it’s clearer that what I thought were rocket pods are more like missiles or bombs.