REM-226 Gungnir

The REM-226 Gungnir is a long-range fire control missile developed by the UNSC Navy. It consists of a standard three- or four-stage Multi-Stage Missile fitted with an FTL telemetry link instead of a warhead. Designed to be pod-fired, this missile acts as a control node for the other twenty-five missiles in the pod and allows a PALANTIR-4-equipped ship to provide effectively real-time control to the missiles across their range envelope. Because of this, it can theoretically allow for dramatic extensions in range going into the tens of millions of kilomtres.

History
Development of ship-launched missiles stalled after the age of space colonisation - the creation of a comparable navy required resources and infrastructure that simply wasn't available to mere pirates, privateers and insurrectionists, allowing the Navy almost two hundred years of naval dominance. When the Covenant attacked, the UNSC found itself in the unenviable position of having to field a fleet intended to support ground campaigns unhindered against a technologically superior fleet of warships. Progress was made even in the early years of the war, but in the end it all came down to a matter of technology - the Covenant had the advantage, and the UNSC wouldn't even come close to catching up for decades.

As part of Project EXCALIBUR, the Office of Naval Intelligence investigated a range of raplacements and supplements to the standard Archer Missile, eventually adopting a number of different types to fill extremely specialised roles in ship-to-ship warfare. These missiles were designed almost exclusively to deliver significant damage to unprotected ship hulls, relying on more "powerful" nuclear or EMP warheads, or MAC fire, to lower these shields first, leaving the ship vulnerable. Once past this defensive layer, these missiles proved devastating, and would see wide adoption throughout the Navy after the end of the First Great War. By the time of the War of Vengeance they had become standard ship armaments, though ONI had restarted Project EXCALIBUR to devise improvements to the weapon system. The result was the Multi-Stage Missile, which now allowed ships to strike from distances at double or triple the range of a standard single-stage missile. This extreme extension of range meant that UNSC ships could strike at Covenant vessels from far outside plasma torpedo range. Along with the arsenal ships they proved to be "war-winners" for the UNSC during the War of Vengeance, and also saw service against the Governors of Contrition during the Second Great War.

However, by this time, the UNSC had lost its range advantage; the Governors-controlled New Covenant had watched the events of the War of Vengeance with concern and so had designed new classes of ships with a greater emphasis on Energy Projectors. When GW2 broke out, while it was not the one-sided massacre that had characterised the First Great War, the both sides were barely able to keep replacing their ships at the same rate as they were destroyed. Knowing that the Governors would never be convinced to negotiate, the UNSC reasoned that to win it would have to regain the technological and range advantage.

The theory of long-range missile fire control had been bandied around for sometime, but had always been regarded as militarily impractical due to the speed of light delay. However, after the invention of Faster-than-light communication in the middle of GW1, the possibility of real-time missile control was now a reality. The Gungnir missile required several months to develop in order to find methods of miniturising components appropriately, and even then, designers were forced to cut down the number of missiles in a pod down from thirty to twenty-six to make room.

Gungnir was first deployed at Dignified Prayer during Operation: ODIN in August 2568. The allied Task Force Striker was able to completely destroy the New Covenant fleet with no losses, despite being outnumbered two-to-one. This prompted the New Covenant to launch a massive strike on Earth in October in an attempt to destroy the equipment necessary for building Gungnir before it could reach general deployment. The result was the largest space battle since the Forerunner-Flood War and Gungnir was demonstrated to allow missiles to reach ranges exceeding 16 million kilometres, an unheard-of figure for Human or Covenant space weapons. This prompted the New Covenant commander to surrender after a third of his surviving fleet was destroyed in an instant. Gungnir continued to give the UNSC a massive advantage during the Labyrinth Campaign and Operation: WHOM GODS DESTROY.

Design
The Gungnir missile itself consists of a standard three- or four-stage Multi-Stage Missile fitted with a hafnium-based fusion reactor and an FTL telemetry link instead of a warhead. Designed to be pod-fired, this missile acts as a control node for the other twenty-five missiles in the pod and allows a PALANTIR-4-equipped ship such as an arsenal ship to provide effectively real-time control to the missiles across their range envelope. The missiles are, in effect, wire-guided. Initial designs sacrificed a drive stage to equip each missile with an FTL link, but it was decided to only modify one missile to maintain the increased range, as well as cut down on the number of control links. As such, PALANTIR-4 platforms only need to maintain contact with each Gungnir missile, not the twenty-five other missiles in the clutch. As a result, the ships do not have to micromanage hundreds of thousands of missiles, instead relying on a network of dispersed control nodes.

The Gungnir control missile could also analyze the readings from the sensors on its clutch of missiles, and report back via FTL to the PALANTIR-4 platforms, essentially allowing it to act as a high-speed recon platform as well. For example, if a target launches decoys or activates jamming in an attempt to throw the missiles off course, the Gungnir can send this information back to the firing ships, where its supercomputers and A.Is can analyse the data, and command the missiles to ignore the decoys, or order REM-225 Eris EW drones to activate BLINDER to burn through the jamming. Even if the Gungnir missile is destroyed, the rest of the cluster of missiles can continue on with whatever the last telemetry the Gungnir missile has given them. A tactic developed by Task Force Striker was to fire three salvos; one small single-pod salvo ahead of the main salvo, and another behind the main salvo. The initial clutch would act as the recon platform, allowing them to both confirm their targets, and refine targeting data (since most ship-based sensors would be far out of range for precise targeting), while the follow-up clutch would be in position to observe the actions of the main salvo, allowing a ship commander real-time analysis of the enemy's battle-damage and showing him where to direct his follow-up attacks.

Gungnir can also allow for tremendous extensions in range. Once one drive stage of the MSMs is jettisoned, a commander can order the missiles to continue on a ballistic course. A target may evade and launch decoys to avoid being hit, but with Gungnir, a commander can order his missiles to ignore the decoys and alter course with side-mounted reaction thrusters before he even orders them to activate their second stages. When done with three- or four-stage MSMs, this allows for truly enormous ranges in excess of sixteen million kilometres, as demonstrated at the Battle of Earth, a figure unheard-of for any Human or Covenant weapon.

Quotes
"I wondered why they called it Gungnir. I mean, it sounds like something you get in your ears! Turns out, Gungnir was Odin's spear that could never miss its target. Looks like even weapons development has some mentality about it."

- Anonymous Navy missile technician.