AH/G-24 Banshee

"Relax, hotshot. I got something useful for ya'; Banshees. These babies can blow the snot outta ground forces. Got cloaking too. Gotta love that!"

- Rory Swann

The AH/G-24 Banshee Tactical-Strike Aircraft is a terran air unit in StarCraft II.

Overview
The Banshee is a terran aircraft designed by Procyon Industries in response to the Terran Dominion's requirement for a dedicated ground attack aircraft. Experience had shown that it was unlikely that adapting an existing design would prove satisfactory. Thus, Procyon designed an entirely new craft. After much experimentation, the Banshee was in use by the Dominion by 2502, and within the same year, the Kel-Morian Combine. The Banshee is heavily optimized for its intended role. Armament was limited to air-to-ground Backlash cluster rockets, eschewing any anti-aircraft weapons. As the Banshee was never intended to operate outside of an atmosphere, only relatively low-thrust turbofans were fitted, wholly unable to achieve escape velocity, but much cheaper than engines capable of achieving space flight. Later Banshees were fitted with cloaking devices taken from Wraiths. By the Second Great War, the Banshee had its own DN51 cloak generator and was one of the most sophisticated pieces of equipment in the Dominion's arsenal. Special teams are deployed to recover or destroy generators from crashed aircraft. Wolfe Industries has further increased the Banshee's cloaking prowess through its own Banshee model, which features cross-spectrum dampeners that embed light-dampening materials into the craft's hull. This new hull material requires far less energy to conceal and makes it much easier for the Banshee to maintain cloak once initiated. The Shockwave missile battery is another possible upgrade for the Banshee, which fires multiple missiles in a straight line with each shot, allowing the Banshee to hit multiple ground targets. In contrast to these loadouts, Kel-Morian Banshees have rapid-firing projectile weaponry capable of striking aerial targets.

The Banshee has proven successful in service. Easily transported from world to world (even able to be dropped through a planet's atmosphere), its mobility and firepower has proven most useful, in urban and rural settings and especially in inhospitable terrain and against hostile irregular forces. The Banshee has also acquired a reputation as a Dominion terror weapon, a result of a significant number of civilians being killed by Banshees employed in urban combat. However, while its original purpose was to terrorize rebellious colonists, its agile, sneaky capabilities quickly propelled it onto the front lines against zerg, protoss, and terran foes, used as light-infantry support. Banshees can also operate in tandem with Vikings as air cavalry.

Game Unit
Banshees can quickly destroy buildings, even powering through anti-air defenses, and are strong against heavy armored ground units like the, , and colossus. Other races should deploy specialized anti-air units like corruptors and phoenixes to keep them in check. Ground unit counters include s, thors, s, stalkers equipped with blink, and psionic storms.

In the Wings of Liberty single-player campaign, Banshees can be upgraded to fire their missiles in a straight line, doing splash damage to units in a line similar to the hellion or lurker. They can also be upgraded to consume less energy while cloaked, letting the Banshee remain cloaked longer.

Banshees bank on turns like some other air units.

Wings of Liberty
Banshees are unlocked by playing the mission "Supernova". Their cloaking ability is automatically researched.

Development
In early builds, the Banshee delivered an area of effect attack, though this has since been removed as of March 2008.

The Banshee was made to be both similar and different to the Wraith, the key difference being the nature of their attack. As many cloak detector units are aerial, this would prevent the Banshee from attacking the units which presented the greatest threat to it. As such, the Banshee fulfills the role of a base raider of a "combined-arms" terran force.

The original portrait was female, but was replaced by a male as of April 2009. By June 2009, the portrait was female again but at some stage, switched back to being male. However, with the release of the StarCraft II beta, the portrait had again gone back to being female. In addition, a variant Banshee profile was available for players in the StarCraft II beta, used instead of the in-game one. The portrait was later updated.

Quotations

 * See: StarCraft II Banshee Quotations

Known Squadrons

 * Dusk Wings