Hey guys! Not a lot of work on this over the past several months but I have one new weapon system.
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The Mk 5 Mod 2 MMLS. This launcher is designed to be a modular bolt on anti-ship missile system suitable for installation on a broad range of vessels, both commercial and military. Like similar systems before it, the design was made to fit contemporary intermodal container mounts for the quick conversion of various cargo carriers into auxiliary cruisers. Displayed is a series of cutaways showing the various mechanisms of the launcher/magazine system. A rare follow on version, the Mod 5, included a basic active sensor package but was only used by special and clandestine forces and never saw recorded use. The system is reliant on third party targeting or a coincident MASS module.
The launcher consists of an self contained drum with standard intermodal hardware for HEX-II container positions. The drum has positions of twenty-two missiles along a spiral rail magazine system, though in practice the last position inside the transfer box was left empty for safety. Missiles are back loaded through the central launch guides, with the first missile loaded being the last fired. There is no way to rearrange ordinance once loaded, making this MMLS unsuitable as a utility launcher.
The transfer box consist a pass through hoist to move missiles to the launch rails. The box is armored to prevent penetration while moving ordinance. After cycling missiles the carrier carts are reversed to be stored along the under side of the spiral rail. The aft section of the drum contains a fire suppression system consisting of a ring tank with a quick expanding foam designed to suppress the nuclear rocket engines of carried missiles. The drum is armored for and aft with conventional laminar facings, while the flanks are covered aerogel filled whipple shield tiles.
Missiles used in this launcher require an ejection charge to jettison the missile out of the launcher and away from the ship before the missile engine engages. These charges are conventional and make the system resemble historic recoil less rifles. The drum is equiped with exhaust area hardening to withstand the significant energies of these charges. This is required due to most vessels using this launcher not being purpose built warships with armor that can handle the radioactive jet wash from military missiles.
The launcher is fitted for size 3 standard configuration missiles. In practice only four ordinance types were designed for the ejection charge required for this launcher, all being ASM warshots, and only two of those were ever used in anger from this launcher (by state militarizes). The launcher here is shown with a Gladius B ASM, the most common ordinance used along with the eariler Gladius A. The Gladius series weapons are two stage intermediate range missiles designed for massed volley fire from unconventional platforms. Under powered and under charged compared to other contemporary ASMs, they made up for their poor performance by being cheap and easy to produce, giving TCN forces a ready way to multiply their forces quickly at the onset of hostilities. These launcher lived on in the secondary and black markets long after there retirement from both Earth and later Colonial military use, being regular fixtures of freehold settlements and rebel and terrorist forces over for over a hundred years using a variety of modified or home grown improvised missile types. There are even records of the launcher being used as conventional projectile weapon, irregular forces using the ejection charges to accelerate dumb slugs for asteroid bombardment.