Sandstorm (Tiberian Twilight)

"If it's on terra firma, the Steel Talons can crush it like a soda can. It's when you kick a beehive full of Nod flyers that you start wishing there was a bunch of Sandstorms in your loadout."

- Major Albert W. Eckhart, Steel Talons 151st Special Armor Brigade

The AHV-8 Sandstorm is a GDI MLRS assault hover vehicle that entered service during the Incursion War.

Background
GDI's MLRS program lay fallow after the Second Tiberium War. The loss of the MLRS Mk. II's capability was derided by veterans during the Third Tiberium War. The concept revived after the war as Nod strike cells eluded GDI forces and the doctrinal reorganisation that occurred during the TCN Conflict and resulted in the Sandstorm.

The Sandstorm originally emphasized speed and armament over durability. Sandstorm-only patrols were effective pursuing Nod aircraft and stealth tanks in remote regions over rough terrain. However the hovercraft frequently took heavy damage during engagements. In response Steel Talons units received additional armor at the expense of speed. By the Fourth Tiberium War the most common variant featured a better balance between the attributes and earned a reputation for versatility.

Storm missile pods became available by the Ascension Conflict. The pods carry several smaller Storm missiles and fire them in quick succession at the expense of accuracy. Storms are used to better saturate a volume.

In-game
""Safety's off, I've got a bad feeling about this""

- AHV-8 Sandstorm

The Sandstorm is unlocked at Level 5 for the GDI Offense Class and is available at Tier 2. It is, in many respects, a heavier version of the Talon.

The Sandstorm is armed with 2 rocket pods by default, and launches a salvo of 5 rockets at a time. The rockets are highly effective against medium aircraft, and reasonably effective against light aircraft, infantry, light vehicles and even medium tanks. Blue-Tiberium cores add an additional 2 rocket pods for greater firepower.

Sandstorms have Medium-type armour that is rather resilient against most attacks, but is vulnerable to Cannon-type attacks.

When upgraded with the Missile Storm upgrade, Sandstorms can toggle between two attack modes: their default 5 rocket salvo and the Missile Storm mode. In Missile Storm mode, 10 faster, smaller rockets are fired that explode around the target, damaging units in the vicinity of the target. The rockets are far less accurate and not good at taking down single units in this mode. In addition to this, as a hover vehicle, Sandstorms can cliffjump, giving them excellent mobility and allowing them to bypass impassable terrain.

The Sandstorm's Nod equivalent is the stealth tank, which cannot cliffjump, but is significantly faster and is stealthed when not attacking.

An achievement can be earned if the player shoots down some enemy aircraft with the Sandstorm.