UASV-8 Wasp

The UASV-8 Wasp was developed by Günther Aerospace Industries (GAI) as a lightly-armored, unmanned, and decently well-armed support vehicle.

While existing ICS MI drones (namely the MI-3B Taipan) were adequate for their role, and the UASV-6 Falcon was adequate for its aerospace dogfighting and limited ground support and anti-ship capabilities, it was decided that a new, much more maneuverable, flight-capable drone should be introduced into the ICS Armed Forces to provide a flexibility that could not be found in MI units and give a level of ground support that could not be found in the Falcon, which, while reliable, was a fighter at heart. Thus, the UASV-8 Wasp was designed. Combining light armor, poor top speed, excellent maneuverability, and heavy armaments payload, the Wasp was ideal for the kind of urban warfare found deep inside Alliance space in the late stages of the Second Interstellar War.

Wasps were easy to kill, requiring at most several hits to render it useless, but, on the other hand, they were able to be mass produced. Easy to nanufacture, low raw material consumption, and expendability meant that Wasps could be deployed in massive numbers to compensate for their poor survivability. Despite that, the UASV-8 is not a terribly armed machine. For its size, it is quite well-armed, with four hardpoints (2 per side). In addition, its huge amount of maneuvering thrusters and spherical shape meant that it could generally point all of its guns at a target even against the most maneuverable enemy fighters. And, if one couldn't, there would be hundreds more that could.

Most Wasps are equipped with either two 12.7 mm quadruple barrel rotary machine guns and two quadruple missile racks or four 12.7 mm machine guns. In addition, there are dedicated recon/surveillance versions of the Wasps in use, as well as several different weapons configurations.

Spoiler:

The UASV-8 is primarily used by the Army or Naval Assault Corps for urban fire support.

Specifications:
Model: UASV-8 Wasp
Developer: GAI
Used by: ICS
Developed: 2595
Produced: 2596 - present
In service: 2596 - present
Combat service: Second Interstellar War

Crew: unmanned, but remote operated with computerized assistance

Armor: 26 mm Minsk composite armor

Armaments: 4x hardpoints

Top speed: 278 km/h (~170 mph)

Designer's Notes: I've had several drone ideas floating around for about a year, though most were abandoned, except for MI of course. Based it somewhat off of the drones from Oblivion, although it almost looks like a gyrosphere now.