Smart money says missile launchers, Jump pod would be more effective centrally located on the Dorsal Support Rib. Less likely to burn out the walker joints if an emergency jump out is required, they nicely augment the 30 mike-mike "Puff The Magic Dragon" gunslinger set ups. Also I note that Ahta seems a bit trigger happy, of course living this close to his Imperial Douchyness probably understandable.
Actually they look an awful lot like rotary cannons. Very similar to the gun that the A-10 Warthog (Thunderbolt II) mounts. Two of them though would be awesomely terrifying to see in action.
the two pods on eather side are jump pods. the mech is Fusion powered. it can direct a blast though the pods to "leap" considerable distances. or even glide for longer distances.
The weapons are high speed caseless Cannons.. very similar to what the warthog uses. it just hits a bit harder. ( and burns though ammo quickly as well.. ) the cannons can also be used in three round "burst mode" and carrys several thousand rounds.
That is a variation of the "Puff The Magic Dragon" used in Nam, they could deforest a very large area if run on full auto, just cut the trees off at impact level. Very effective area denial weapon.
I remember reading about a rotery cannon on a Russkie plane that fired so many rounds of such high caliber so quickly that it would cause the plane to reverse, which surprisingly turned out to be a bad thing. "good news comrade, enemy is destroyed, bad news comrade, so is our plane."
Possible Cat. I mean, it is a known and functional technology.
As for the location of the pods, they may be there for the same reason the A-10 has its engines slung outside. In a high threat environment they thought that was the best arrangement for its mission. Separated would prevent one attack from easily disabling both engines at the same time. And they could still fly the A-10 with one engine.
The A-10 can not only fly, but complete missions and land safely with one engine, half a wing (other wing completely gone), no vertical stabilizer/rudder, and half the tail.
Well the one I saw had the wing, you could SEE thru it mind, but it was still there. In fact, here is the info on that one - A-10. I mean, the pilot did an AWESOME job to get it home, but that is one TOUGH aircraft.
And I remember this one from the back in the day - Battle Damage. And the pilot APOLOGIZED for failing to keep it on the runway!!! Man, just getting that bird home was an accomplishment!
As unofficial ambassador from Yooperland, and in light of the suspicion that 'Ahta' is Ottawa, I've decided that, as a public service, I'd translate the Ahta lines to Yoopanese (or Canadian, if you prefer) (dem cheeseheads over in Dairyland seem ta tink dat Yooperland is part o' Canadia instead o' the good ol' US of A, doncha know).
Panel 1: "Ya hey dere, transport 8833-02, bring it aboot to vector five-nine-two-four, eh?"
Panel 2: "The DNR needs to check yer hunting license, doncha know. Drop yer shields an' baffles, eh?"
Panel 4: "Hey dere transport 8833-02, dis is da Forestry service, doncha know. Park in landing zone two-four while I verify you ain't been poaching, eh?"
Panel 1 : Howdy Transport 8833-02, bring it over yonder on vector five-nine-two-four.
Panel 2 : A scuttle bug is runnin' it's legs off to come over to ya, and scan yer ass for hazzer... hazzum ... y'know, BAD stuff! Put them shields and baffles down, allright?
Panel 4 : Hey there feller, this is the runner, so squat down in landing zone two-four and I'll get it done right quickly.
Panel 5 : Allright now, don't squat with your spurs on while I run the scan, okay ?
Of course it isn't your FAULT. But you will be BLAMED!!! And judged guilty and thrown in the stockade on bread and water for your part in the affair. :-D
In Kaintuckian:
1. Hey Y'all squat yer fanny down on that thar 24 pad.
2. Drop all uh them thar citfied sheilds an stuff so's we kin see if'n y'all got revenooers long this time. Bubba be thar thu check y'all over 'n a bit
3. Well lookee here damn yankee kin half pilot that there hunk a junk drop on down cousin.
4. Whooee Jamie would ya look at this here scan file, bless yer heart Yankee sit tight uh minute.
It should be pointed out that those cannons are not going to have any longevity of fire. Don't know the bore size, but the 30MM GAU-8 gun on the A-10 has an ammo drum that is about 6 feet long and 3 feet in diameter. Can't remember exactly, but even that large drum holds less than a thousand rounds. That is much less than a minute of firing time. Based on the configuration of the unit on the page. I would guess less ammo storage and twice the usage rate for due cannons. Probably only a couple of volleys until the out of ammo sign lights up.
The big problem with rail guns on a small walker like that isn't the power requirement. After all, the DC-verse has power plants that can sustain single-person anti-gravity 'bikes'.
The killer is recoil. Kinetic energy =0.5 x mass x velocity squared...so recoil goes up geometrically w/respect to muzzle velocity, but only linearly w/respect to projectile mass. A small walker firing rail guns would almost have to use its jump jets to stay on its feet when it fired.
I remember reading about a research project that was looking into a hybrid rail-gun/compressed air ... the idea is that the rail gun consumes the most energy right when the bullet starts moving, but progressively less as it gets up to speed - So they used compressed air to start the bullet, and then coild to accelerate it.
It wouldn't quite have the same velocity as a pure railgun, but they still thought it would have a pretty brutal impact.
I dunno if they suceeded - But it was like reading something straight out of a science fiction novel. :D
true.. but.. there are various recoil suppression tricks that can be employed.. and who is to say that in the future.. some kind of recoil suppression hasnt been invented that we haven't thought of yet?.. that is the wonderful joy of Sci-Fi.. ... but.. in dealign with our 21st century tech and that rail guns are still very much in their infant stages.. this info is very much correct.... recoil is a bitch...
I'm looking at wikipedia now ... someone came up with turning gasses into plasma, in order to improve the railgun .... how mad is that ? :D
Waaaiiit a minute ... you could use expanding plasma/gasses to make a recoil-less gun ... only downside would be the massive plume of fire from both ends of the gun, setting fire to everything. >_<
There you go - Recoil fixed, now we just have to put out the fires. :)
these use a constant low thrust from the jump pods to offset the firing of the cannons on full auto. the ammo is caseless and provides more punch than fire. :D
and DC has fully functinoal plasma guns/cannons as well
The A-10 *can* carry up to 1,350 rounds (based on volume). Standard combat load is 1,100-1,200, which translates into about 20 seconds of cyclic rate fire...or about 6-8 main battle tanks' worth.
exactly .. and based on the "bullet" i could fit 2000 rounds in the torso easy.. yes the vehicle is easy to kill. relitively speaking. BUT its also fast , manuverable and able to do things tanks cant. however tanks still carry far better weapons.
there is also the fact that electronics are MUCH smaller. and very durable. meaning the control systmes take up much less space , leaving room for armor, ammo and power, and heat sinks.
yeah If you look at the Mass effect Universe their weapons are mostly railguns but they have that MAss effect field which compensates for 90% of the kickback thus keeping the rifle from snapping a soldiers spine when he fires a burst.
As for more moder recoil....As far as a hand held uinit would eb concerns... one possibly could redirect the displaced air from the shots movement through the barrel... angled backwars somewhat to help compensate for the kick somewhat. you'd not be able to *at present* go full auto on someone or thing but Conceivably you could fire single rounds or even snipe with it to great devastation
Well ... if we have to get into the discussion of "are mechs viable" then the answer is "absolutely not" ... because the limbs and joins are massive weakspots, compared to tanks ... especially if you could make hover tanks - Since they'd basically have perfect mobility, superior armor and would usually carry BIG GUNS.
... but that would mean adding real life science to it, and that's so boring ...
Mechs ARE viable......Just not at our current level of technology and robotics. Its not as easy to hit a Joint or such when the target is moving with human level of mobility
Tanks aren't easy to hit either when they're on the move .. but we manage to hit those just fine.
The simple fact, is that Mechs are not a good match to being on a battlefield.
In simple terms - When you are in a battle, you want to be as small a target as possible, with as much armor as possible, and the biggest gun you can find, that is still precise enough to hit the bastard shooting at you, preferredly from a range further than the enemy can shoot.
Mech would not be small, nor particularly well armored, compaired to tanks. That's the main problem, they'd be like big huge, expensive "HIT ME" neon signs, on a battle field.
Actually Spooky the A47D that started this whole thing used 7.62 mini guns that were fed with a MX-475 gun pod and could do suppressive fire for extended periods of time. They also used a "main gun" configuration a 40 mike-mike recoiless cannon set up and a 105 Howitzer set on recoil rails like the old blue water navy used with the iron barrel bore loaded cannon.
The bore size on these mini gun configurations doesn't look large enough for 30 mike-mike and 7.62 depleted uranium slugs would do one H of a lot of damage to something like the beast or to armored infantry.
The weapons are high speed caseless Cannons.. very similar to what the warthog uses. it just hits a bit harder. ( and burns though ammo quickly as well.. ) the cannons can also be used in three round "burst mode" and carrys several thousand rounds.
As for the location of the pods, they may be there for the same reason the A-10 has its engines slung outside. In a high threat environment they thought that was the best arrangement for its mission. Separated would prevent one attack from easily disabling both engines at the same time. And they could still fly the A-10 with one engine.
And I remember this one from the back in the day - Battle Damage. And the pilot APOLOGIZED for failing to keep it on the runway!!! Man, just getting that bird home was an accomplishment!
Panel 1: "Ya hey dere, transport 8833-02, bring it aboot to vector five-nine-two-four, eh?"
Panel 2: "The DNR needs to check yer hunting license, doncha know. Drop yer shields an' baffles, eh?"
Panel 4: "Hey dere transport 8833-02, dis is da Forestry service, doncha know. Park in landing zone two-four while I verify you ain't been poaching, eh?"
Panel 5: "Dis'll only take a moment, doncha know"
Tadaa ! :D
... hmmmm, I gotta try this ...
Panel 1 : Howdy Transport 8833-02, bring it over yonder on vector five-nine-two-four.
Panel 2 : A scuttle bug is runnin' it's legs off to come over to ya, and scan yer ass for hazzer... hazzum ... y'know, BAD stuff! Put them shields and baffles down, allright?
Panel 4 : Hey there feller, this is the runner, so squat down in landing zone two-four and I'll get it done right quickly.
Panel 5 : Allright now, don't squat with your spurs on while I run the scan, okay ?
1. Hey Y'all squat yer fanny down on that thar 24 pad.
2. Drop all uh them thar citfied sheilds an stuff so's we kin see if'n y'all got revenooers long this time. Bubba be thar thu check y'all over 'n a bit
3. Well lookee here damn yankee kin half pilot that there hunk a junk drop on down cousin.
4. Whooee Jamie would ya look at this here scan file, bless yer heart Yankee sit tight uh minute.
I completely forgot about this. THIS is why it's good to go back and re-read the comic from time to time, comments and all. :D
@Centcomm- Please tell me Bob and Doug McKenzie did not have surviving descendants. That would be a scary future for mankind. Eh!
because it's usually between 00 and 360 ...
Airport use value 00 to 36 (last zero is implicit)
Offcourse, it would also make the powerplant bigger ... but hey ... future space "magic"/technology! :D
The killer is recoil. Kinetic energy =0.5 x mass x velocity squared...so recoil goes up geometrically w/respect to muzzle velocity, but only linearly w/respect to projectile mass. A small walker firing rail guns would almost have to use its jump jets to stay on its feet when it fired.
I remember reading about a research project that was looking into a hybrid rail-gun/compressed air ... the idea is that the rail gun consumes the most energy right when the bullet starts moving, but progressively less as it gets up to speed - So they used compressed air to start the bullet, and then coild to accelerate it.
It wouldn't quite have the same velocity as a pure railgun, but they still thought it would have a pretty brutal impact.
I dunno if they suceeded - But it was like reading something straight out of a science fiction novel. :D
I'm looking at wikipedia now ... someone came up with turning gasses into plasma, in order to improve the railgun .... how mad is that ? :D
Waaaiiit a minute ... you could use expanding plasma/gasses to make a recoil-less gun ... only downside would be the massive plume of fire from both ends of the gun, setting fire to everything. >_<
There you go - Recoil fixed, now we just have to put out the fires. :)
and DC has fully functinoal plasma guns/cannons as well
there is also the fact that electronics are MUCH smaller. and very durable. meaning the control systmes take up much less space , leaving room for armor, ammo and power, and heat sinks.
As for more moder recoil....As far as a hand held uinit would eb concerns... one possibly could redirect the displaced air from the shots movement through the barrel... angled backwars somewhat to help compensate for the kick somewhat. you'd not be able to *at present* go full auto on someone or thing but Conceivably you could fire single rounds or even snipe with it to great devastation
... but that would mean adding real life science to it, and that's so boring ...
So, Mechs... OK ! :)
The simple fact, is that Mechs are not a good match to being on a battlefield.
In simple terms - When you are in a battle, you want to be as small a target as possible, with as much armor as possible, and the biggest gun you can find, that is still precise enough to hit the bastard shooting at you, preferredly from a range further than the enemy can shoot.
Mech would not be small, nor particularly well armored, compaired to tanks. That's the main problem, they'd be like big huge, expensive "HIT ME" neon signs, on a battle field.
The bore size on these mini gun configurations doesn't look large enough for 30 mike-mike and 7.62 depleted uranium slugs would do one H of a lot of damage to something like the beast or to armored infantry.
I always liked that design!