The Hospitaller multi Doctor has been a personal Vanilla staple for me because of this. Granted the Aquila is more expensive and is massively worse in CC, but he's also a better shot, doesn't Frenzy, and ignores negative mods which can be a roadblock for the Hospitaller (if it can't get close enough for Burst 2 DAM 15 DA hits in CC :P ).
The Aquila's not quite the strategic badass that his lore describes, but being able to plug into a gameplan with Fire Team Options and button-pushing is pretty good. Slightly off-topic, but for a long time, I kind of thought that the MSV3's abilities weren't just tech, but also reflected the Aquila's superior battlefield awareness and ability to coordinate with other units. Ignoring Surprise Shot, revealing everything with a Short Skill for himself and other units, etc. When you look at the other MSV3 pieces (Asura, Charontid) they're both super-human battlefield gods. They're walking supercomputer mini-tanks built specifically for combat, so it's no surprise that they can see everything, process everything, and communicate that information in an instant to the force they're coordinating. But the Aquila's just a guy in a suit. So maybe his strategic and tactical super-prowess is reflected in the fact that he can actually manage and utilize the sheer amount of data the MSV3 is feeding him? But yes, yay for the Aquila getting a unique thing. We do like unique things.
What other piece can fight solo for Objectives in NCA without too much trouble against templates and Mines? Being a Specialist puts the Aquila right at home in Multirifle rangebands, and he is a lot better suited for that role than a Swiss AHD. We had the discussion why the Swiss generally outperforms the Aquila as a HMG gunner time and time again, so let's just assume that's how it is for now and compare their Specialist kits in <16". The Swiss is in a lot of danger against threats that circumvent his great defensive tools. Against KHDs he is a WIP13 guy gambling with his life despite Stealth and Marker State - being immune to that is just preferable. His natural enemies like Sensor and MSV troops are more common in the midfield compared to HMG Rangebands. A Swiss can't contest Smoked Objectives and has trouble fighting heavy midfield rambo troops with MODs like Achilles, Sphinx, Avatar and Anathematic as well as Myrmidion Links. Losing a FTF against a Shaolin or Galwegian will be very awkward for a Swiss and there are enough Smoke chugging Warbands out in the field that this will come up sooner or later. CC troops can also actively engage your expensive Swiss in his Reactive Turn with Smoke. The Aquila fixes a bunch of those problems. MSV3 is right at home in close encounters, Auto Discover, not being bothered by Camo Mods or annoying Smoke clouds. Even better if someone puts down a Smoke against lets say your Hexa MSR, the Aquila can punish them for that. He still has issues with Eclipse and no Marker State but is a lot cheaper as a tradeoff. Most important the Aquila can link to be vastly more deadly and versatile. NCA can feel a bit toothless against tough targets and having a B4 gun with AP that can punch right through the Avatar's defenses is something new for them. Not to forget the ability to drag Dropbears and E/Maulers around and combine him with that. I really like what the Aquila does for NCA so far. It's not a fix as the HMG has the same old problem and the fluff still doesn't seem represented on the table. But as a bandaid he is a better addition than the Techbee (who was a really nice bandaid).
I still really think the Aquila should get Strategos L1 or maybe that new Strategic Deployment skill, but that's not a bad head-canon idea.
Especially since we have a total of 1 Character in the game using this skill. It's high time it got more widespread. Every faction has a Lt. option that could use such boost to be a viable option against their competition.
2 actually. Sunny T and Neema Saatar get Advanced Command. T: Though I am not opposed to more command tokens. 'Cause I like command tokens. Useful things.