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 ASM'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 and the Arbiter when a Pelican is present.

Trivia

• The ANVIL-II Missile is equipped on Pelicans and was the weapon used by the Spartan-IIs when they attacked the Covenant Destroyer around Chi Ceti IV.
• SPARTANs 087, 117, and 034 infiltrated and set off three ANVIL-II warheads around a source of radiation, destroying the ship. However, Spartan-034 stayed behind to hold them off and because of a hole in his MJOLINR Mark IV armor, which was not equipped with shields. He was the first Spartan-II lost in combat with Covenant forces.