Anvil-II air-to-surface missile

A ANVIL-II ASM missile pod mounted on a D77-TC Pelican.

The Anvil-II Air-to-Surface Missiles, sometimes referred to as SAM's are normally mounted via rocket pods on Pelican dropships or SkyHawk atmospheric jump-jets for clearing ground targets and drop zones of enemies.

This explosive is seen used three times in game play in Halo 2, once or twice when you are assaulting the Scarab in Metropolis. Another time is in Quarantine Zone, when a Flood-controlled Pelican flies by and shoots down some Sentinel Majors and hits the one Enforcer that is there. It is also on the second Pelican that shows up at the start of the level Delta Halo, though this flier only fires very rarely.

It is also used at the end of Sierra 117 in Halo 3, to clear out the ending area and allow the Pelican to land and give the player evac to the next level.

The player can also be killed by Anvil-IIs if you start killing the surviving marines as well as the Arbiter, or if the player is just stupid enough to stand around in the open, the missiles will kill him due to friendly fire.