Home › Units › Astra Militarum › Valkyrie
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The Valkyrie is an assault carrier and ground-support gunship. Its crews belong to the Imperial Navy's Aeronautica Imperialis, not the Astra Militarum, but it is used mainly to carry and support Guard troops. Airborne regiments such as the Elysian Drop Troops and Tempestus Scion squads depend on it.
The Navy assigns Valkyries to Guard regiments when they are needed. Some regiments, such as the Elysians, have Valkyries permanently provided by attached Aeronautica squadrons. Guardsmen sometimes call it the "Wings of the Emperor", especially those who have seen a Valkyrie blast a Carnifex apart or carry them out of the path of an Ork horde.
The Valkyrie Airborne Assault Carrier is the workhorse of the Imperial Guard's air cavalry and drop regiments. Imperial Navy aircrews fly it, and it has been in service for millennia on countless worlds. Its two vectored-thrust engines let it hover, take off and land vertically, and its troop bay carries a full squad. Troops leave either by landing or by jumping out with grav-chutes from low altitude. The Elysian Drop Troops are especially associated with it, and their whole way of war depends on it. Forge World's Imperial Armour series covers many variants, including the heavier-armed Vendetta gunship and the Vulture.
Appearance & wargear
The Valkyrie is a hovering gunship with a central fuselage, two wings and swivelling engines. A multi-laser sits beside the cockpit and two Hellstrike missiles hang under the wings, and door-mounted heavy bolters protect the troop compartment. Rocket pods can replace the missiles. Troops deploy by grav-chute or ramp.
The Valkyrie is a slab-sided, twin-engine gunship with a stubby wing, a forward cockpit and a rear ramp. It is armed with a nose-mounted multi-laser or lascannon, underwing hellstrike missiles or multiple rocket pods, and door-mounted heavy bolters crewed by gunners.
Weapons & Vehicles
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Explore all 48 entries in the Weapons & Vehicles armoury.
Battlefield role & tactics
Valkyries insert airborne troops behind enemy lines, evacuate them and provide air support. Their speed lets a commander place Scions or drop troops wherever the battle needs them.
Its main job is getting troops to the objective fast: seizing bridgeheads, landing zones and high ground, or inserting squads behind enemy lines. It provides fire support while it does so. It is fast and versatile but lightly armoured for a front-line vehicle, so it is vulnerable to anti-aircraft fire and to staying too long over a hot landing zone.
Munitorum & Ordo Xenos Technical Dossier
Classified under Ordo and Departmento Munitorum threat-index protocols as a primary Valkyries insert airborne troops behind enemy lines, evacuate them and provide air support. Their speed lets a commander place Scions or drop troops wherever the battle needs them. asset of Astra Militarum, Valkyrie relies on a tightly coupled symbiosis between operator conditioning and primary armament. Field maintenance and biological recovery logs indicate that extended deployment without liturgical recalibration or bio-stasis rest degrades targeting and metabolic stability by less than 4% per solar week—far outperforming standard sector baselines—while post-engagement recovery teams prioritize the immediate extraction of their core wargear, neural/gene-seed components, or machine-spirit memory cores before enemy scavengers can exploit them.
Notable battles & users
- Elysian Drop Troops: an airborne regiment built around Valkyries provided permanently by the Navy.
- Taros campaign: Elysian Valkyries fought against the T'au.
- Taros Campaign: Valkyries carried Elysian drop troops into the Imperial attempts to retake Taros from the T'au, and Forge World documented them in detail.
- Some regiments, such as the Elysian Drop Troops, have Valkyries permanently assigned to them by attached Aeronautica Imperialis squadrons rather than borrowed for a single campaign. The Inquisition can requisition the aircraft from any branch of the military and also keeps its own permanent Valkyries and pilots to carry Inquisitorial Storm Troopers into battle. The Sky Talon variant swaps the troop bay for magnetic clamps so it can drop light vehicles such as Tauros or Drop Sentinels from low altitude.
Related
No profiled character is closely tied to this unit type yet.
