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If you all care for a more recent reference...
IA3: Taros Campaign, page 208, circa 2005
MANTA
The Manta is the Tau's Super-heavy dropship, it is so large that it is actually a small spacecraft. The Manta is the Tau's closest equivalent of the Imperium's Titans or Ork Gargants, and carries comparable firepower. It is well armed and armoured for use in frontline combat, where it is expected to deploy and fight as an attack craft.
A Manta carries a fearsome amount of firepower. Its main weapons are twin heavy railguns. These guns fire a fin stabalised round for extra lift (and therefore extra range) whilst in an atmosphere. The heavy railgun's submunitions shell is equipped with a drone processor, which is programmed to direct the shell to its target. This is mostly used during starship combat, to find weak points in the armour of enemy ships (sub-munitions lacking the penetrating power of the standard round), but is also useful in ground combat. As back-up to the main weapons, the Manta mounts twin ion cannon batteries in its wings. These provide shorter ranged saturation fire when in the thick of battle.
The rest of the manta's arsenal consists of prow-mounted launch ports for up to ten Seeker missiles. These can be controlled by the crew, or by other Markerlight operators on the ground. The Manta's last weapons are its sixteen drone-controlled burst cannon turrets. These are positioned all around the Manta's hull for close defence whilest landed and as anti-aircraft weapons when in flight. The turrets are positioned so that all angles of approach are covered by multiple burst cannons.
The Manta is the Tau's smallest interstellar capable spacecraft. It has limited etherdrive capacity, but because of its size a Manta can only make very short hops, restricting its use. For longer trips it must be transported inside the far larger carriers. As a spacecraft, Mantas are entirely crewed by members of the Air Caste.
As well as its firepower the Manta has a large transport capactiy. The ships main body is split into two tranport desks. The upper deck holds troops or battlesuits, whilst the cavernous lower deck can hold up to four (fully loaded) Devilfish or Hammerheads. The entire lower transport deck is an elevator, which is lowered to allow access. It can also be fitted to carry extra troops, battlesuites, Kroot, or just about any vehicle or equipment operated by the Fire Caste.
As well as its own cockpit, each Manta also contains a sophisticated command bridge. From here a Tau commander can oversee battlefield operations. This allows a Manta to act as a forward command post, fire control and communications hub.
On Taros, Mantas were widely used to transport the Hunter Cadres and their heavy equipment into the deserts, positioning the troops for counter-attacks and quickly extract them afterwards. Their fleet of mantas gave the Tau forces superior strategic mobility over the ground-based Imperial Guard. This allowed the outnumbered Tau Hunter Cadres to match the Imperial Guard in equal force for local counter-attacks and battles.
I think its pretty much undeniable that Tau field the manta as an Attack Craft on the 40K / Epic battlefield.
On Taros with mass open desserts, the transport capacity was of notable value though.
Cheers,
_________________
Rob
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