Barracuda

The Barracuda is the Tau Empire's air superiority fighter, roughly equivalent to the Imperial Navy's Lightning Fighter. In the lore, the Barracuda is supposed to be slower than the Lightning and Thunderbolt, while being more maneuverable (than the latter, anyway), but in the rules, all three are exactly as fast as each other, and both the Lightning and the Barracuda are equally agile and armored. The Imperial and Tau vehicles do differ in one major respect: Imperial flyers have armored cockpits, while Tau cockpits also function as escape pods. Truly, the cowardice of the alien knows no bounds.

The Barracuda's primary air-to-air weapon is a heavy ion cannon as long as the fuselage. This is supported by burst cannons in the wingtips, and supplemented with missile pods in the wings for ground attack. It can also take up to four seeker missiles to lend additional anti-armor support to markerlight-equipped ground forces.