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Old 02-17-2016, 09:06 AM
Project_Sardonicus Project_Sardonicus is offline
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The Projects military forces are quite modest. Most of its equipment are only slightly heavier than a well equipped SWAT team would be packing. Even MARS1 and SCIENCE1 vehicles are little more than mobile bases packing some good firepower into mobile packages.

The heaviest piece of artillery the project seems to have is am 81mm mortar with a range of 3 miles.

Meaning that if a local warlord or crazed politician helped themselves to the local National Guard Armoury and they had a few 105mm light guns or invaders from Cuba or Mexico crossed the border the project is finished. Even old versions of these sorts of weapons having treble the range at least and able to pound any Morrow encampment into dust.

The project can't just buy this equipment, where would you even store a dozen heavy guns, the vehicles to move them and tonnes of ammunition?

Not to mention the Project isn't a military endeavour. Investing in the capacity to pound distant targets feels like giving up before you started.

As such the project funded as was their usual want in sophisticated solutions.
If they couldn't get range and weight of power, they would go for speed and accuracy.

They invested heavily in the companies that produced the MERLIN and STRIX guided missile rounds. As well as a few 120mm mortars to fire the strix and trained a small elite core of MARS and RECON artillery operators. Also investing in laser range finders and light weight ballistic computers to make the most of this capacity. These guided rounds were also equipped with rocket based range extenders and given the option of laser designation as opposed to thermal seeker heads.

The idea being a project spots a potential target, say the purported warlord and his artillery park. They park a spotter with a laser designator on a nearby hill. Then drive up a couple of Hummers a few miles away get half a dozen rounds in the air and get away as fast as possible, while the observer guides them in. If possible only using expensive guided rounds for the first couple and following up with dumb shots.

It was an expensive, awkward compromise and only ever accounted for 10% of mortar shells. A similar tactic was tried with loading 120 mm mortars and counter battery radars onto 2.5-tonne trucks.
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