M48 Chaparral

In Team Yankee

The Stats

The Chaparral is the only long-range anti-air missile system available to the United States in Team Yankee.

While worse than the other two SAM units in NATO, the Tracked Rapier and the Roland Flak Batterie, at least its better than nothing right? The MIM 72 Sidewinder missile has a range of 72 inches which enough to cover your entire force, your friends force, and the force of the player on the next table over. .

One down side is that, despite having IRL armor comparable to the other NATO anti-air missile carriers, the chaparral lacks an armor value, instead relying on the standard save. Maybe the crew just likes rolling around with the ragtop down, who the heck knows. This means that the M48 is very vulnerable to enemy machine guns and small arms fire. A squad with FALs or AKs have a very real chance of blowing your Chapperals off the board in one turn. The lack of a machine gun may be a minor problem if you are the sort of player who likes to leave your support vehicles open to enemy probing.

At 2 points per vehicle in a platoon of 2 or 4, the unit is rather overpriced considering the other options you have available.

Nevertheless, the Chaparral serves a key role in the US air defense net. With abundant access to anti-helicopter weapons in your list, the Chaparral could be seen as the last line of defense for any holes unguarded by a Vulcan.

IRL

Now availible with both hard and soft tops.

The Chaparral was the only truly mobile weapon of this class ever fielded by the US military. It was meant as a stop gap after the cancellation of MIM 46 Mauler SAM forcing the rush development of the Chaparral and M163 VADS to cover the gap. All units were removed from service in 1994 and the unit never saw combat service.