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1 / 4 · Click to enlargeLore & origins
The Rhino is the most common armoured vehicle of the Adeptus Astartes. It derives from a Standard Template Construct design made in the Dark Age of Technology for colonists and explorers. It was meant to be simple, durable and easy to repair. Those qualities have made it a workhorse of the Imperium for ten thousand years, and its chassis is the basis of many other vehicles, including the Predator, Razorback, Whirlwind and Vindicator.
The traitor Legions took the same vehicles into the Eye of Terror after the Horus Heresy. Chaos Space Marines still ride Rhinos today, often decorated with spikes and blasphemous icons.
The Rhino is the most common Space Marine transport, an STC design that is simple, rugged and easy to repair. It can run on almost any fuel. Its chassis is the basis for the Razorback, Predator, Whirlwind and Vindicator, and the forge worlds have produced it for ten thousand years.
Chaos warbands use Rhinos widely, taking them from defeated Imperial forces. They burn off the insignia and add spikes, blades and trophies. Word Bearers Rhinos are hung with parchment covered in Lorgar's writings and carry braziers of daemonbone incense. World Eaters Rhinos are daubed with blood before every battle until it builds up in thick layers. The Heresy-era Castellan Rhino had a modular design that let several be linked together into a makeshift fortified line.
Appearance & wargear
The Rhino is a boxy, flat-topped tracked vehicle with side doors, a rear ramp, a roof hatch and a single pintle-mounted storm bolter. Optional upgrades include a hunter-killer missile and a dozer blade. It is small for a tank but heavily armoured for a transport.
It is a boxy, tracked hull with side doors and a rear ramp, a pintle-mounted storm bolter, a searchlight and smoke launchers.
Weapons & Vehicles
A twin-barrelled, double-chambered automatic bolter wielded one-handed by Space Marine Terminators, Grey Knights and battle tank pintle…
A heavily armed infantry fighting vehicle built on the Rhino chassis, trading half of its troop capacity for a roof-mounted twin heavy …
The signature .75-calibre rocket-propelled mass-reactive firearm of the Adeptus Astartes, firing self-propelled explosive bolts that de…
The Space Marines' main battle tank, a Rhino chassis with a heavy turret, built to hunt infantry or enemy armour.
Explore all 48 entries in the Weapons & Vehicles armoury.
Battlefield role & tactics
The Rhino carries up to ten Space Marines across the battlefield, protecting them from small-arms fire. Tactical Squads use it to reach objectives, and Assault Squads may ride it if they are not using jump packs. Its ruggedness means crews can often repair battle damage themselves in the field.
The Rhino carries ten Marines into battle and protects them from small-arms fire. It is simple and reliable.
Rhinos are the standard Astartes transport. They are cheap and widely available, allowing ten Marines to cross open ground or reposition quickly. They are lightly armed and not durable enough to survive concentrated anti-tank fire.
Munitorum & Ordo Xenos Technical Dossier
Classified under Ordo and Departmento Munitorum threat-index protocols as a primary The Rhino carries up to ten Space Marines across the battlefield, protecting them from small-arms fire. Tactical Squads use it to reach objectives, and Assault Squads may ride it if they are not using jump packs. Its ruggedness means crews can often repair battle damage themselves in the field. asset of Adeptus Astartes (all Chapters), Rhino relies on a tightly coupled symbiosis between operator conditioning and primary armament. Field maintenance and biological recovery logs indicate that extended deployment without liturgical recalibration or bio-stasis rest degrades targeting and metabolic stability by less than 4% per solar week—far outperforming standard sector baselines—while post-engagement recovery teams prioritize the immediate extraction of their core wargear, neural/gene-seed components, or machine-spirit memory cores before enemy scavengers can exploit them.
Notable battles & users
- Betalis III: the Space Wolves fielded Rhinos defending the world against the Eldar.
- Taros Campaign: the Raptors and Avenging Sons Chapters used Rhinos against the T'au.
- Kaurava Campaign: both the Blood Ravens and the Alpha Legion used Rhinos in the Dawn of War: Soulstorm conflict.
- Barbarus: a World Eaters Chaos Rhino reportedly present at the Siege of Terra and later identified as the personal vehicle of Chaos Lord Kossolax.
- Nocturne's Hammer belongs to the Salamanders and is said to be the oldest working Rhino in the Imperium. Tradition holds that Vulkan himself rode it out of Devlin's Fastness into the Word Bearers surrounding the place. It has served the Chapter for more than 8,000 years and sits in the Salamanders' Reliquary. At the start of each century the Master of the Forge strikes its activation rune, and if the engine does not catch first time, the Chapter believes doom will follow. On the traitor side, the World Eaters Rhino Barbarus is reported to have been at the Siege of the Imperial Palace and has since been identified many times as the personal transport of the Chaos Lord Kossolax the Foresworn.
Related
Characters (2)
Roboute Guilliman · Primarch of the Ultramarines, Lord Regent of the Imperium
Pedro Kantor · Chapter Master of the Crimson Fists, Lord Helblade
