M28 Infantry Fighting Vehicle

M28 Infantry Fighting Vehicle "Angel"
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Production information
Manufacturer:	BAE Systems
Line:	M
Model:	M28
Class:	Infantry Fighting Vehicle
Technical information
Length:	10.7m
Width:	5.4m
Height/depth:	5.7m
Max acceleration:	60 kilometers per hour
Engine unit(s):	1 Element Zero engine
Power plant:	1 Element Zero engine
Sensor systems:	Radar LADAR
Armament:	M-101 autocannon M-20 heavy machine gun
Crew:	1 driver 2 gunners 3 support crew
Usage
Commissioned:	11 May 2156 CE
Decommissioned:	8 October 2175 CE
Role(s):	Infantry fighting vehicle
Era:	Asari Cycle Pax Galactica Era
Affiliation:	Systems Alliance Systems Coalition United Republics of Asian Nations Empire of Oceania

"All the lessons of warfare learnt throughout centuries of killing each other, and you'd think at this point we'd have perfected the art of building a killing machine. And yet the M28 Angel would have you believe we're newbies at this shit."

— Damien Drewski, former operator of the M28 Angel and veteran of the First Contact War.

The M28 Infantry Fighting Vehicle (M28 IFV), colloquially named as the Angel, was a class of tracked armoured fighting vehicle that was employed by the Systems Alliance as one of the first combat platforms for the then-nascent Systems Alliance Army. Designed and built by BAE Systems for use with the Alliance military, the M28 Angel was one of 15 designs that was suggested and brainstormed for use by the Alliance Army in the new realm of interplanetary warfare, with the Army asking for an all-terrain infantry fighting vehicle that could be used in a multitude of environments. The M28 model won out due to its practical and feasible design, although it possessed no kinetic barriers. Construction of the M28 platform began in 2156 CE with an order of 300, which was quickly boosted to 500 when the First Contact War broke out. Only a few M28s were fielded over the course of the Shanxi conflict, with combat performance being rated as extremely poor. The vehicle had fatal flaws in its design that the turians very quickly took advantage of, knocking many of them out in brief engagements with the M28 having little to no time to make use of its armaments: the lack of shields only exacerbated this.

Immediately after the First Contact War, the Alliance contracted Leonidas Defense Systems to develop a replacement vehicle. This program would ultimately produce the M35 Mako, considered the best Alliance combat vehicle ever built. Another company contracted to compete with Leonidas to develop a replacement, named NEO Ordnance Dynamics, produced the M29 Grizzly, which was considered a favourite among the Systems Alliance Army due to its heavy firepower and ability to take a beating in combat, but heavily criticized for its speed and inability to be dropped from orbit, both problems resolved in the Mako design, which would ultimately replace the Grizzly in active service entirely by 2185 CE. All M28 Angel tanks were either decommissioned and scrapped, mothballed or sold by 2175 CE, with the majority of the mothballed fleet being brought back into service during the Reaper War where all would end up being destroyed or knocked out. Many of the M28s bought were by nations on Earth, with the URAN and Oceanic Empire possessing many in their armed forces prior to being lost during the Reaper War. The Alliance reactivated much of its mothballed fleet during the Reaper War, where most if not all of them were destroyed or knocked out, and those that remained were finally deactivated and fully scrapped in 2204 CE.

The M28 Angel was named for the angel shark on Earth, as per the Alliance's naming convention for tanks and other armoured land vehicles.