United Nations Space Command Vehicle and Starship Weaponry

RSM-131C Archer Missile
The RSM-131C Archer missile, thoroughly modernized, is now a much more capable weapon, using a boosting warhead of nine explosively pumped flux compression generators, who unleash a burst of EMP upon impact, with the EMP yield increased greatly by the transformer like aluminium coils around them, with the rest of the warhead coated in a TRIDENT composite metal with a primary warhead of a forged fragment ring for penetrating the hull. After that the third warhead, containing a number of penetrating rods. These punch through several decks of the ship, causing serious damage. While the head is solid EXCALIBUR, the sides consist of forged fragmentation EXCALIBUR, designed to fragment and cause much more perforation of the ships internal systems when the RDX filler goes off. At the tail of the penetrating rod is a large metal augmented charge, designed to explode inside the ship and create intense over pressure waves and heat, causing immense damage, snuffing out the oxygen inside and setting fire to the super structure. The Archer is now upgraded with a number of systems to help it bypass ship defence system, such as jet coolant systems, drastically reducing its heat signature, advanced armour, mostly focusing on heat resistance, using heat resistant polymers and a titanium-aluminide heat matrix and a set of second stage boosters for a sudden burst of speed upon terminal approach. For those systems that jam Archer missiles, cutting them off from the ships that launched them, they now have infra-red sensors and millimetre wave RADAR, allowing it to home in without the launcher's assistance or use superhetreodyne receiver aerials let it lock onto EM emissions of the target. The Missile has several sub motors for manoeuvring on launch, and for additional terminal guidance. The missile is hot launched from the armoured and cooled tubes, reducing the infra-red glare of their launch. Archer pods are carried in revolver loads of six, allowing a single pod to carry 30 missiles. The doors are motorized and armoured in themselves to protect the missiles from strikes.

RSM-67 Emperor Short Range Attack Missile
The RSM-67 Emperor Short Range Attack Missile (SHRAM) is a short range attack missile used to augment starships for 'knife fight' engagements. Not standard armament on warships, it is instead installed on a as-need basis using self-sufficient pods attached by electrostatic couplers. The RSM-67 Emperor is ruthlessly simple, and is designed for short ranged, near bore-sight targets. Used principally for targeting way above their weight, it allows smaller vessels to pack a surprising punch. Usually arranged into cells of 4, or 8, they link to the ship's own sensors to pick out a target. Each missile is stored in a sealed tube, filled with an inert gas mixture, held at a high pressure. When the missiles fire, its cold launched by suddenly depressurising the launch tube, firing the missile clear of the ship before it's main motor starts. Rather than the multi-stage rocket motors and advanced stealth features of others, it uses a high-impulse motor. It's main sensor is clustered visual sensor dependent on tracking a target through ultra-violet and infra-red radiation, and using corrections through short-range communication systems from the ship. To protect itself against sensor jamming, it has a trio of antennae to help it resist jamming and triangulate the source. The warhead uses a heavy tungsten carbide warhead and an void sensing fuse, allowing it to puncture the armour of an enemy starship before detonating, using an augmented shrapnel charge to cause intense damage to the inside of the ship, piercing multiple decks and sending an overpressure wave through it's interior. The missile is simple and robust, designed for short range, high speed, high damage attacks. Only cruisers and Destroyers have these missiles in built-in cells.

RSM-48 Fury
The RSM-48 Fury is a close-quarters rapid fire missile, intended not to overwhelm the enemy through sheer force, but through coordinated swarming. Given their small size, and excellent agility, they can be packed on quite small vessels. What makes them really deadly is their sensory network, that links all missiles in the barrage, to coordinate their attack for maximum damage against the enemy ship, overcoming point-defences. Each missile has a jam-resistant AESA RADAR and a sensor node using a collection of rounded sensors, forming a compound eye with excellent visual acuity. Each missile has a high power antennae that links to ever other missile in the barrage, sharing sensory data, attack patterns, and target analysis. This makes each missile more accurate, ans they create patterns designed to swarm enemy defences and overwhelm point defence weapons. The missiles feature a high power motor, designed to burn fast and burn hot, numerous control surfaces, and micro motors. It's warhead consists of a tandem HEAT warhead, using a metallic alloy designed to maximise the effectiveness of the anti-armour punch. The tandem warhead allows it to penetrate the upper armour layer and punch into the more delicate layers beneath, punching a hole deep enough to cause significant damage. By using multiple missiles, they massively increase their effectiveness, hitting in waves to weaken armour for follow up waves. Fury missiles are used on smaller vessels, such as corvette-class ships. Heavier classifications also use bolt on Fury missile pods to defend against agile capital ships in close quarters combat.

RSM-294 Widow Stand-Off Cruise Missile
The RSM-294 Widow Stand-Off Cruise Missile (SOCM) is one of the most long ranged missile weapons in the UNSC's possession, short of it's nuclear arsenal. A massive brute of a missile, its sophisticated, stealth, and possesses a long range, designed to attack enemy starships and installations from far beyond visual range. The Widow, closer in size to a ICBM, features a long range, three-stage motor designed for range rather than speed. The first is a high-impulse motor to wind it up to speed, and the second is a low-exhaust manoeuvring thruster, and the final is the sprint thruster, for the final strike. It's main sensor is a telescopic thermal sensor, its ultra-high resolution allowing it to detect distant targets. It uses its own on-board data link to receive telemetery updates through other ships, drones, and spotting craft. For the final approach, it switches to a cluster of optical sensors, and a targeting RADAR. The main warhead is a rare sight in the UNSC arsenal. It uses a compacted plasma charge, using highly compacted ionised gas as the main charge. Upon impact with the target, the main charge initiates a magnetic containment lock, that causes that chilled ionised gas to deflagrate on a massive scale, creating a sun-hot orb of fire that melts through armour. Fearsome beyond belief, these warheads cut through armour and shielding with impunity, and are designed to detonate after the warhead has penetrated. The magnetic confinement of the warhead massively compresses and superheats it, then directs it forward, like a HEAT warhead. The missile has a number of stealth features, such as a sleek design, sensor resistant materials, and exhaust coolants, meaning its difficult to detect until it's too late. Even on final approach, it can deploy decoys to confuse point defence systems, and has enough bulk to hit the target without interception. The missile is so large it cannot be feasibly hot launched from a silo, so it uses a ring of thrusters around it's neck to launch itself up, and manoeuvre itself, before the main motor kicks in. These large missiles only find themselves on fleet warships, such as carriers, battlecruisers, battleships, so on.

Main Gun
Most UNSC warships are built around a 'main gun', a powerful weapon intended to cause damage at range. Usually a Magnetic Accelerator Cannon, examples also include Laser and Ion weaponry.

Magnetic Accelerator Cannon
"This is a 600 ton slug, accelerated to a fraction of the speed of light, giving it more power than a nuclear bomb. What does that mean swabbies? It means Sir Isaac Newton is the most bad ass mother fucker in space. When you fire off that slug, it keeps going until it hits a ship, hits a planet, or travels in deep space for 10,000 years and hits somebody. When you fire it, its guaranteed to ruin somebody's day."

- Senior Chief Petty Officer Jonathan Peel



The Magnetic Accelerator Cannons are the main armament of most UNSC warships warships. A typical ship-based MAC fires slugs of either ferric Tungsten or depleted uranium at a fraction of the speed of light. The high muzzle speed gives the slug the kinetic energy and momentum necessary to damage a target and partially mitigates the unguided nature of the slug and its lack of manoeuvrability. Like all newer generation magnetic accelerator technology, it utilises a larger number of capacitors and power recycling, to conserve power and decrease charge times for follow up shots. This combined with newer reactors give much higher speeds with lower recharge times.

The size of a Magnetic Accelerator Cannon is such that it is normally an integral component of a warship's structure. The integration of the MAC to its hull means the entire warship or station must manoeuvre to aim the weapon. With the latest generation of 'Smart AI's', and advances in sensors, MAC weapons are becoming much more accurate.

Several kinds of ammunition exist, including Kinetic Core Penetrator Rounds (Tungsten Carbide), which are heavy duty, jack-of-all-trades rounds, KCP (Depleted Uranium) slugs, Kinetic Warhead Penetrator, designed to breach armour on warships, Kinetic Splinter Munition, which produces a wide, shotgun-blast style effect, damaging multiple ships or crippling a single one, Kinetic Penetrator Incendiary slugs, which penetrate armour then turn into a conflaguration of plasma, setting the ship alight from the inside, or High Explosive Penetrator (HEP) which explode, producing deadly explosions within ships, or producing a wide blast against multiple warships.



There are many variants of the MAC cannon, usually unique to the ship it is mounted on.

Mark 8FA, Fast Coil, Heavy, Heavy Load: The heavy load variant of the fast firing Heavy Mac, it can rapidly discharge, allowing it to deploy drones and fighters at high speed. It is used by some models of carrier.
 * Mark 14, Light Coil, Ultra Light: utilised by the Reckoning-class Attack Prowler, it is intended to damage enemy stealth vessels.
 * Mark 19, Light Coil, Light: Found on the Romulus-class Heavy Corvette and the Nemesis-class Sloop, it is inteded to be able to fire off snap shots at short-medium range.
 * Mark 7, Light Coil, Light: A standard in MAC weaponry, this simple cannon is capable of lobbing 600-ton slugs to remarkable speeds. It is universally referred to as the Light Mac.
 * Mark 7B, Light Coil, Light, Special Load: All purpose MAC found on the Heimdall-class Frigate. Meant to perform both combat and support roles, it can fire probes and sensors as well.
 * Mark 7C, Heavy Coil, Light: A heavier MAC variant, intended to make use of overflowing power to allow it to fire above it's weight. It is mainly used by the Helios-class heavy frigate.
 * Mark 7D, Heavy Coil, Light, Special Load: A heavy variant of the Light Mac, it can fire high-power rounds, and deliver special probes and drones, so it is usually found on support destroyers.
 * Mark 8, Heavy Coil, Heavy: Commonly referred to as the 'Heavy MAC', the Mark 8 fires a heavy power shell, intended to cripple or destroy enemy warships. It is most commonly seen on the Thermopylae-class Cruiser.
 * Mark 8B, Heavy Coil, Heavy, Special Load: A sepcial variant of the Heavy MAC, it can fire probes and sensors as well as the normal supply of slugs. It is favoured by cruisers like the Andraste-class.
 * Mark 8D, Heavy Coil, Heavy, Heavy Load: The specialised heavy load variant, it can not only fire slugs, but also drones, probes, and some kinds of space craft, allowing the ship to rapidly deploy fighters and dropships, conserving their fuel.
 * Mark 8F, Fast Coil, Heavy: A specialised variant of the Heavy MAC, it is capable of rapid fire, off-setting concerns of power management. These kind of guns are seen on the Victoria-class Heavy Cruiser.
 * Mark 9, Heavy Coil, Super Heavy: While the basic model of the Super MAC, the Mark 9 is not considered standard, and is instead used only strictly-combat vessels, such as battleships.
 * Mark 9B, Light Coil, Super Heavy: The Super Heavy MAC, commonly contracted to Super MAC, is amongst the most powerful cannons in the UNSC arsenal. A single one of these can snap a Covenant Battlecruiser in half from several light-seconds away, firing a 3000-ton slug at near-relativistic speed. This is most commonly seen on the Talion-class Battlecruiser.
 * Mark 9B, Heavy Coil, Super Heavy, Heavy Load: Amongst the largest MACs, but not necessarily the most powerful. The massive size of these guns allow it to also fire special packages of unusual size, like cargo, and the largest craft possible. It is used on Super Carriers, and Command Carriers.
 * Mark 9C, Heavy Coil, Super Heavy, Special Load: Considered standard amongst the Super MAC category, this gun can fire slugs to high velocities, but can also deploy special packages. While utilised by orbital defence platforms, the gun is also used by the Bishamonten-class.
 * Mark 10, Heavy Coil, Ultra Heavy: The largest, and deadliest MAC cannon yet devised, the Ultra Heavy MAC, most commonly referred to as the Ultra MAC, is a cannon that is capable of causing horrendous damage to any prey caught in it's sights. Even Assault Carriers, and CSO-class Super Carriers are not safe. So impractical they cannot be used by defence stations, the Ultra MAC is only seen on Dreadnoughts.

Laser and Ion weapons
The UNSC has begun to deploy energy weapons in place of MACs in increasing amounts, allowing ships to deploy new and deadly weapons.

Ion Cannon
A massive energy weapon, the Ion Canon uses a stream of ionised hydrogen, accelerated to near light speed, giving a highly accurate beam weapon. The Ion cannon causes significant damage on impact, the beam carrying significant kinetic energy, but also causes an electromagnetic fallout. While their ship to ship lethality is lesser than a similarly sized MAC, it'S electromagnetic effects are highly prized against starship shielding. Most of them are comparable to the MAC classifications in size.


 * Light - Weapon/Anti-Ship Model 21 Directed Ion Cannon 'Carnwennan’
 * Medium - Weapon/Anti-Ship Model 21B Directed Ion Cannon 'Gae Bolg’
 * Heavy - Weapon/Anti-Ship Model 21C Directed Ion Cannon 'Claíomh Solais’
 * Ultra Heavy - Weapon/Anti-Ship Model 21D Directed Ion Cannon 'Rhongomyniad’

Laser
The UNSC's largest, most powerful weapon. Such a weapon can accurately bisect even Assault Carriers from beyond their effective range. Carried only by some Orbital Defence Platforms and a number of high tonnage ships. This LASER uses a particle accelerator to adjust the beam wavelength, allowing for optimum attack against both shielding and armour regardless of conditions. The deadly beam produces hypervelocity vaporisation in all known forms of armour, generating a HEAT warhead style explosion from the ship's own armour, creating dangerous explosions within the ship than cause severe damage and blow out numerous compartments. This means a single Laser is capable of knocking out a Covenant Assault Carrier. Such weapons are usually rightfully feared by the Covenant, who have few warships capable of standing against it.


 * Weapon/Anti-Ship Model 13 Grindell/Galileian Nonlinear Cannon 'Caladbolg': Carried by battlecruisers and super carriers, the Caladbolg is considered a land mark advancement in energy weapons.
 * Weapon/Anti-Ship Model 14 Grindell/Galileian Nonlinear Cannon 'Excalibur': Only a few examples of this weapon exist, such as on some experimental Dreadnought platforms. Each is a massive undertaking for the UNSC, and is protected zealously.

XEV11-Firebreak Nonlinear Pulse Cannons
A rare weapon normally only used on Prowler-class vessels, the Pulse Cannon is used to support Prowler operations. The Firebreak Pulse Cannon is precise and deadly, being capable of rapidly adjusting it's power output, allowing it to disable a station with a electromagnetic pulse, or punch holes through a frigate. The beams burn hot, allowing them to rapidly fire in a hail of white-hot energy, but as they fire, the magnetic sheaths begin to deform and accuracy drops. This means they can fire faster, with more powerful beams, at the cost of the weapon becoming non-usable after a few salvoes. Likewise, it can operate for a long period of time by choosing low-power blasts.

XEV18-Minotaur Nonlinear Pulse Cannon
A heavy duty variant of the Firebreak, this scaled up Pulse Cannon was developed for use by destroyers and cruisers for short ranged fire fights. The cannon possesses lethal precision, and is utterly lethal against enemy systems, allowing it to knock out weapons, sensors, and shielding. The power output of the cannon can be modified, allowing it to create a more powerful beam that can cause heavy damage, it can keep on a lower beam, but functions better for a longer period. Such cannons are used to give an extra edge during short term fire fights, ideal for hunter-killer formations.

M54 Lancer Naval Support Energy Weapon
The M54 Lancer NSEW is centred around a HYPERION 12,000 megawatt Free Electron Laser (FEL), which causes severe thermal and kinetic damage on impact. They are highly accurate and especially destructive in fire against enemy outboard systems (weapons, engines, hangar bays, bridges, sensors) and effective and cripple the enemy's ability to fight, at range. The laser produces impact shock on contact with armour, vaporising armour at speeds in excess of the speed of sound, blowing up armour sections and producing lethal shrapnel from the armour. The laser is highly powerful in support of regular batteries, allowing it to increase the damage caused in a broadside significantly.

Mark 58 Archon Heavy Naval Directed Energy Cannon
A large energy weapon, the Archon uses a single high power FEL to produce devastating beams capable of incredible power, with accuracy over long range. Usually used by high-tonnage vessels, this beam weapon is often used to terrible effect during the early stages of a military operation, where it can be fired several times before it overheats. Once the battle enters the 'knife fight' stages in closer quarters, the weapons lengthy charge time, and tendency to suffer beam degradation after repeated shots, results in it being less effective up close.

Mark 31 Duchess Heavy Naval Directed Energy Cannon
The UNSC suffered many hard earned lessons during the Great War, but weapons like this show they grew stronger for it. A high power plasma weapon, the Duchess can fire a incredibly powerful plasma munition. Using technologies seized from the Covenant, the UNSC developed the Duchess, among other weapons. While externally similar to a gauss cannon, the magnetic motors on the Duchess are built to much high heat tolerances. It is loaded with a inert plasma core, which when fed into the firing system is superheated, almost instantly turning it to white-hot plasma, and is then fired. It can rapidly fire unguided shots, creating a lethal salvo up close, or can fire a more lethal guided shot at range, which can be directed by magnetic forces, to home in, and hit its target.

Mark 81 Castle Heavy Directed Energy Cannon
Seen only on the heaviest warships, the Castle is a variant of the Carnwennan ion cannon, designed to be used as a turret, instead of as the main cannon. It's power is such that it can easily cripple smaller warships in a single hit, and in concentrated fire it can render larger ships defenceless, leaving them vulnerable to a follow up attack.

Mark 84 Drake Heavy Directed Energy Cannon
A deadly weapon, intended for protecting warships, is a far heavier variant of the Castle, based on the Gae Bolg pattern ion cannon. Usually teamed with a powerful Mac cannon, or escorts, the Drake can draw out vulnerabilities in heavier capital ships, allowing smaller vessels to exploit this and deal heavy damage.

Mark 71 Rampage Light Naval Coilgun Battery
The smallest ship-to-ship Cannon in the UNSC arsenal, the Rampage LNG is a cannon mounting dual 90mm guns. Carried by light ships, such as Corvettes, Frigates, and Destroyers, the Rampage provides a high rate of fire, though lacks the punch of larger calibre weapons. Capable of rapidly laying down salvoes of fire, its often use to quickly pulverise the shield of an enemy in knife fight ranges.

Mark 61 Pollux Naval Coilgun Battery
The Pollux is a small dual purpose cannon, carrying a single 120mm gauss cannon, and two smaller 40mm gauss cannons. This gives it substantial punch against warships, and allows it to engage in a point defence role without sacrificing it's main ammunition. While the single cannon drops the overall rate of fire, the increase in calibre makes up for it.

Mark 18 Judge Naval Coilgun Battery
A mid-scale weapon, the Mk 18 Judge uses two 120mm coil guns, intended to pulverise small ships to capital ships in a hail of gauss fire. Heavy duty cannons, they can form the secondary armament of smaller guns, or

Mark 2555 Naval Coilgun
- 150mm 1 barrel - medium

Mark 41 Monarch Naval Coilgun Battery
M41 Monarch NSGs are large, twin barrelled 150mm MACs that supplement Archer pods for close range fights. Where the main gun of the ship is unable to fire, such as close range broadside engagements, the M41 can be deployed from their recess positions to deliver heavy fire to the enemy warship. Though relatively small, especially compared to the mighty main gun of UNSC warships, the M41 can deliver high amounts of fire in a short period of time, causing severe surface damage to enemy ships or shields which can open the way for Archer missiles or can be used to 'snipe' enemy systems, such as weapons, unlaunched ordnance, hanger bays or act as 'counter fire', being able to react and make use of the enemy dropping their shields to fire and disable the weapon or hanger being used. The weapon can also be used in close support of ground operations, being as devastating as a 2000 pound bunker buster bomb Concentrated fire from a collection of turrets can tear apart, with successive slugs being capable of wounding enemy ships. The M41 accelerates it's slugs at hypervelocity. The twin coilguns are developed from the Onager MAC system. The unit uses high charge capacitors to attain multiple shots from a single charge.

Mark 2559 Renegade Heavy Naval Coilgun
- 250mm 1 barrel - large

Mark 57 Zeus Heavy Naval Coilgun Battery
- 250mm - 2 barrel - xlarge

Mark 19 Tidal Super Heavy Naval Coilgun Battery
A turreted MAC weapon carried only heavy warships. The weapon is a triple barrelled gun with a 350mm calibre cannon, capable of accelerating a destructive metal slug to hypervelocity. The cannon is primarily used in support of broadside batteries or the main armament, causing significant damage to unprotected targets, and causing significant damage to shielded targets. The gun is also found is massed numbers of the heaviest warships, giving a barrage that can disable lighter warships in a single volley. These replace older Breakwater cannons.

Mark 12 Victor Super Heavy Naval Coilgun Battery
- 350mm - 1 barrel - xlarge

Mark 67 Archangel Heavy Naval Coilgun
A turret version of the Mk. VII Light Coil MAC, it is used on the heaviest warships as a close-ranged defence, or as a support gun, designed to help slower ships defend themselves from faster warships.

Mark 77 Retribution Heavy Naval Coilgun
The heaviest turret in the UNSC, this massive cannon mounts and massive Heavy MAC cannon, usually seen as the main gun on cruisers. Only seen on the largest of starships, the Retribution is used to fend off escorts and cruisers attempting to expose the flanks on larger ships.

Mark 44 Menace Close-in Weapon System
4 quad 40mm

Mark 49 Firestorm Close-in Weapon System
The UNSC's primary point defence system, the Firestorm provides all round defence protection for UNSC ships. it uses two 50mm rapid charge coilguns on a single turret, with the addition of a point defence LASER. These guns can produce a tremendous hail of fire that can annihilate fighters at closer ranges. The guns are arranged into batteries to maximise their firing arcs. These guns carry both kinetic penetrator rounds, and air bursting rounds.

Mark 56 Palisade Close-in Weapon System
twin 70mm

Mark 51 Exile Close In Weapon System
A heavier variant of the Firestorm, the Exile is a CIWS meant foe heavy suppressing fire against fighter and bomber constellations. Using four 70mm coilguns, it can very rapidly lay down fire capable of shredding enemy fighters to pieces. Like it’s smaller cousin, it also has a secondary laser weapon for interception. These weapons are used on dedicated escorts and larger warships.

Goalkeeper
ball mount, 1 70mm