Bellona

Description
In the late 3060s, under Khan James Cobb's command, Clan Hell's Horses began preparation for a renewed presence in the Inner Sphere. The scientist caste saw this as an opportunity to create a new cavalry vehicle, which they called the Bellona. Designed as a striker and flanker, the Bellona carries enough firepower on a nimble enough frame to keep up with even the fastest-advancing lines.

The original specs called for tracks, but test pilots for the vehicle cited that "speed is armor", which led to the Bellona being redesigned as a hovertank. The vehicle has eight tons of armor to protect the hull and motive systems.

Coming off production lines on Tiber in the Kerensky Cluster, a large number were sent through the long chain of JumpShips to front-line Clusters fighting trials against Clan Wolf in the early 3070s.

The vehicle has been seen in combat operations with variety of factions in Inner Sphere as late as the mid-3130s.

Weapons and Equipment
The main gun is a Type 9 Ultra-Class 10 Autocannon with two tons of ammunition. It is mounted with two Type 14b Flamers in its turret. To deal with unarmored infantry, the vehicle has a pair of Series HL-II Light Machine Guns in its nose and one for each of its left and right sides.

Variants

 * Laser : To reduce ammunition dependency, the autocannon and one Flamer are dropped for an Extended Range Large Laser and an LRM-10. Although the LRM is still ammunition hungry, it is primarily for harassment. The variant was still on the drawing board as of 3075. BV (2.0) = 1,262, 1,270


 * Bellona XL : This variant is based on the Laser model. The tank carries a Targeting Computer and Armored Motive System, while using an XL Engine and Streak LRMs.