Vanguard

"First to the fight."

-Jackson Murray

The Vanguard is an USA infantry unit who have several advanced tricks up his sleeve.

In When the Cold Breeze Blows Away,

Lore
Armed with a fully automatic AA12 assault shotgun, these rugged Marine CQB specialists form the spearhead of any American infantry operation, making short work of enemy foot soldiers at close range. The military role of the Vanguards is brutal, up-close and archaic, but at the same time surprisingly intricate due to the contents of their large backpacks: These contain a number of autonomous weapon systems that can be deployed by the Vanguard and perform a variety of combat tasks without any additional human input: A mini scout drone that can spot stealthed units, an Attack UCAV that follows its human master to provide additional fire support with its rocket launchers, and a lightweight aircraft that is propelled into the air by a simple throw in order to launch itself into garrisoned structures with a powerful explosive payload.

With the success of the Cypher support drone, a even more lightweight drone was commissioned for infantry fire support. The AQ-51 Dragonfly is an ultra-light weight combat UAV capable of being deployed in the field at the squad level. Using a tri-rotor design, the inexpensive Dragonfly is armed with two Pike 40mm laser-guided rockets. Due to the low cost and light weight of the munitions, the AQ-51 can be easily restocked in the field by allied troops.

The latest in area denial weaponry, the M20 "Rolling Ricky" is an infantry deployable smart mine used by the United States Armed Forces, designed to supplement the M15 and M19 anti-tank mines and M2 SLAM. Despite its disposable nature, the mine drone is capable of quickly distinguishing between enemy and allied vehicles and can roll towards a target to disable or destroy it via detonation of the 10 kg of IMX-101 based shaped charge high explosive within the mine's shell. Should the enemy evade its sight, the mine drone will replant itself and wait for another hostile to enter its detection range, as long as its battery still holds charge.