Crossover Battles: AAT vs. Wraith

Welcome back to another episode of Crossover Battles. In this battle, we pit 2 very similar-looking vehicles against each other to see which one will come out on top: the AAT from Star Wars, or the Wraith from Halo. But before we can do that, we need to take a look at their stats first. So without further ado, let’s begin with:

Contestant 1: AAT

In this corner, we have the Trade Federation’s Armored Assault Tank (AAT) from the Star Wars universe!

The AAT is a medium-sized repulsor tank that was the primary armored unit of the Trade Federation, and then the CIS. The vehicle’s measurements vary depending on whether you follow canon or Legends, but canon has it at 9.19 meters (30.15 feet) long. To put that into perspective: it’s only a third of a foot shorter than an M60 main battle tank with the gun pointed forward.

The AAT has a top speed of 55 kph (34 mph). It seems decently fast until you remember that even a modern M1A2 Abrams MBT can reach 42 mph on roads, and still could manage a decent 25 mph off-road.

Each AAT is “manned” by a crew of 4: driver/pilot, 2 gunners, and a commander. Said crew normally consists of B1 battle droids for some bizarre reason. 3 of said droids sat in the main hull, while the commander sat in the back in the turret.

As befitting its size though, the AAT has a lot of weapons. Sitting on top of the hull is a heavy laser cannon mounted on a 360-degree rotating turret. Mounted on stubby “wings” on either side of the hull are a pair of antipersonnel laser cannons and a pair of laser rangefinders, the latter of which may actually be lasers. Finally, there are 6 forward-firing energized projectile launchers at the base of the hull in the “prow”. Those launchers can fire anything from high-explosive shells to armor-piercing shells. The total magazine capacity for these launchers is 57 rounds.

Contestant 2: Wraith

In the other corner, we have the Covenant’s Type-26 Assault Gun Carriage, or Wraith, from the Halo universe!

While the Covenant had no true tanks, the Wraith was the closest they came to it. It measures 8.8 meters (28.9 feet) long, 9.2 meters (30.2 feet) wide, and 3.8 meters (12.5 feet) high. Funnily enough, this is probably very similar to the AAT in terms of dimensions, if a bit shorter.

The Wraith has a surprising top speed of 82 kph (51 mph). To put that into perspective: this thing will almost catch up to most armored cars.

Unlike the AAT though, the Wraith has a crew of 1-2: a driver/gunner/commander, and an optional cupola gunner depending on whether there is a cupola gun to man. Although given the cupola gunner’s position, I would not want to be that guy.

The Wraith’s weapons vary from model to model. The one weapon that remains constant though is its Type-26 35 cm Directed-Energy Mortar, or more commonly called the plasma mortar. It fires a low-velocity blob of plasma guided by magnetic fields into a ballistic trajectory, although theoretically, this should also mean that the magnetic field can guide that blob directly to targets instead of taking that ballistic arc. The plasma blob can both penetrate armor and has a small splash zone that kills infantry within it.

As I said before, the Wraith has multiple variants. The base model has only the plasma mortar. Another model has a single medium plasma cannon in an unmanned turret on top. Another model amps this up with a pair of medium plasma cannons on either side of the vehicle, on top of the prow, also in unmanned turrets. Finally, a late war model has a medium plasma cannon in that cupola mount with the exposed gunner, but let’s not put out any hopes for that one.

The Battle

In the words of a certain famous announcer that we’re all familiar with:

But before we can begin this battle, we need to set some ground rules. Both figuratively, and literally.

The crews of both AAT and Wraith have to be equal in skill for this to be a fair fight. Yes, this means that we either have some very smart battle droids or a very dumb Wraith crew. Take your pick.

We also have to choose the battlefield, since that will make or break a battle. Since unfortunately, neither armored vehicle does well in cover-rich environments like forests, we’ll just have to go with an open field, with both AAT and Wraith starting off out of each other’s weapon range.

Scenario: Open Field

Although both our contestants look outwardly similar, they have very different roles. The AAT is a true tank, while the Wraith is more of an armored self-propelled artillery gun. The plasma mortar was designed for use against slow-moving and stationary targets, not against something as fast-moving as a repulsor tank. Moreover, the Wraith’s plasma mortar is a limited traverse weapon that not only can’t turn 360 degrees but is also unable to fire at the AAT indirectly without spotters. Thus, despite the Wraith’s higher top speed, it’s definitely at a disadvantage here.

The AAT’s best tactic here is to drive forward to close the distance between it and the Wraith. Once it’s inside the Wraith’s dead zone (the area in which the Wraith can’t fire without damaging itself), the Wraith is doomed. The AAT’s weapons will slaughter it with ease in spite of the Wraith’s heavier armor. Heck, even at longer ranges, the AAT still has the advantage because its weapons are more accurate and have a higher velocity.

Theoretically, though, the Wraith can one-shot the AAT. We see that the Gungan energy ball things will knock out an AAT with one hit. This would require a direct hit though, which given how slow the plasma mortar rounds travel, is no easy feat. And even if the Wraith did get lucky and hit the AAT directly, the low speed of the mortar round, again, means that the AAT will almost certainly kill the Wraith first with the last shot.

All in all, I’d give this round to the AAT 9 times out of 10. Even on the rare occasions, the Wraith gets lucky, the Trade Federation tank still likely gets a post-death kill-in.

Conclusion

Despite how similar they look, it’s clear that the AAT is by far the superior vehicle over the Wraith. To be fair though, the latter is a specialized artillery vehicle, not a repulsor tank the way the AAT is. Maybe one of these days, the Covenant will introduce a proper tank into its forces so that we can have a more fair Crossover Battle.