Eridonia Archives
(IFV) ILT-4412 Barghest
The Barghest was designed to operate with highly mobile Force Recon Mechanised Companies in the Imperial Planetary Forces and Marine Corps. It provides a flexible, lightweight Infantry Fighting and Support Vehicle able to keep pace with forward recon elements, while still providing full support for an embarked Infantry Fireteam.
Like all ATIS Military Vehicle designs, the Griffin's chassis was built to fulfil a variety of roles in the Planetary Forces, simplifying design and construction, to mass production of the new vehicle. As such, the large rear-loading door on the Griffin now serves the Barghest for troop access, with seating for a full Fireteam (6 soldiers) of medium-class Imperial Planetary Forces Troops or Marines, although the vehicle has internal space for a maximum of 2 Fireteams (12 soldiers) if it does not carry spare ATGM Pods and some troops stand in the Crew Compartment. This places emphasis on the fact that the design was intended to be as compact as possible for the Griffin Light Tank's low mass and high mobility, carried over to the Barghest.
Due to internal space and mass limitations, the Griffin's large turret with 150MM Fusion Impulse Mass Driver was replaced with a modified version of the IT-4405 Minotaur IFV's turret; with a modified armament consisting of only a single FIMD-75 Cannon in single, Semi-Automatic operation, with a co-axially mounted FIMD-45 fully automatic cannon. The Barghest, like the Minotaur, can carry up to 8 externally mounted MPM-3AG ATGMs in two 4-tube pods, giving it excellent firepower in any situation.
Like the Griffin, the Barghest has only limited armour protection focused almost entirely on the frontal arc of the vehicle; the sides and rear lack internal NPLMA Composite Arrays but the sides are almost always fitted with an external Dynamic Armour Package for high first-hit survivability. The Vehicle is equipped with a 2-point CVPCAPS, like the Minotaur, one-point fewer than the Griffin, largely due to the fact that the Barghest uses the smaller Minotaur turret design.
Barghests are deployed by IPF Force Recon Mechanised Companies alongside Griffins, typically with one Barghests for every 3 Griffin Light Tanks, depending on the required unit composition. The Barghest is also exclusively operated as the primary Infantry Fighting Vehicle of the Imperial Marine Corps, due to its low mass and high mobility, it is able to be easily orbital dropped without the need for heavy dropships such as the GS-TT required for larger vehicles such as the Minotaur.