The Stinger Site was a simple defense that served as the basic anti-air and anti-tank defense of the GLA.
Background[]
Consisting of a circle of sandbags with a camouflage net overhead, inside were three soldiers equipped with FIM-92A Stinger missile launchers. Should the crews be killed, the site will be slowly reinforced until back to full strength. If the structure itself was destroyed, no crew will survive, presumably killed by the crumbled structure. (Although seeing as the ‘structure’ only consists of a camouflage net and sandbags, the exploding missiles and ammo stored in the site will probably kill them.) Despite shown with a camo net by default, and separated upgrade is needed to camouflage it.
Upgrades[]
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Armor-piercing Rockets | Increased rocket damage. Dr. Thrax's faction has the missiles tipped with toxins, drastically increasing rocket damage to intercept missiles launched from Tomahawk and Scud Launchers and often taking out aircraft in one strike. | Purchasable at any Black Market for a cost of $2000. |
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Camo Netting | Gave the Stinger Site camouflage protection | Purchasable at the building for a cost of $500. Kassad's faction already has this upgrade when built |
Unit Analysis[]
Missiles fired from a Stinger Site will track their targets, similar to Patriot Missile Systems, though its missiles can be neutralized by Point Defense Lasers and disrupted by ECM Tanks. Like other base defenses, it can be frozen by the Microwave Tank, allowing other ground units to approach and destroy it. Unlike its American and Chinese counterparts, the Stinger Site does not require power to attack, though its crew can be killed by snipers, toxins, radiation and fire, rendering the building unable to attack until the crew respawn. Additionally the Stinger Site is larger then Gatling Cannons and Patriot Missile Systems requiring more space to build.
Trivia[]
- The GLA were originally meant to be able to construct fake Stinger Sites.
- For obvious reasons, it was removed, as fake structures cannot attack, train or research anything (apart from being upgraded to their real counterparts). As a result, it would have made it too obvious that the structure was fake, necessitating its removal. The cameo still remains within Generals' art archives, however, as seen below.
- The crew cannot exit the Stinger site (selling the structure will remove the soldiers from the field). However, the second USA mission in the vanilla Generals depicts the soldiers outside the Stinger site, shooting down Comanches in the city. They were not seen while during the mission itself. They were also seen in the opening cutscene of the first USA mission, shooting down a Raptor, and in the last USA mission, defending the GLA stronghold on top of the walls, but only during the first cutscene.
- For balancing reasons, stinger sites have a unique type of armor that provides excellent protection against Chinese Gatling weapons. Gatling damage is reduced to around 10% and missile operators will not be killed by Gatling rounds. In contrast, GLA's own Quad Cannons are super effective against the Sites.
FIM-92a "Stinger" missiles are US-made weapons. Many were supported to Mujahideen rebels in the 1980s to aid their struggle against invading Soviet troops. After the war, the US was unable to retrieve the most of them. Many fell into hands of global terrorists. Ironically, some were used against US troops in Afghanistan and Iraq, much like depicted in Generals.
Because of its fame, a common misconception is to refer to all shoulder-fired SAMs as 'Stingers', even if they are not original FIM-92s. Similar weapons are also built by Russians and Chinese, like SA-7, SA-16 or Chinese HJ series.
The fake version cameo.
