BattleMech Weapons

Limited Ranges and the
Collapse of Civilization

by Precentor Janos Abu Hassan

The range figures listed for the 'Mech-mounted weapons in various publications, manuals, and journals have been frequently criticized by weapons experts on the one hand-and widely publicized on the other by anti-war activists, political groups, and scientific lobbies on the other. Weapons experts insist the range figures, usually a half kilometer or less, are far too short to accurately reflect 'Mech weapon capabilities. Various political and activist groups insist that they reflectthe complete collapse of modern technology in the on-going Successor State wars, a clearwarning that Man must cease his favorite pastime--war on a planetary scale--or watch his civilization collapse into a new and final Dark Age of barbarism and ignorance.

In fact, the ranges published in journals and manuals which have drawn such fire merely reflect the practical considerations of modern combat. These considerations can be summed up as follows:

  • The modern battlefield is ECM intensive. Long-ranged guided or "smart" munitions are at a distinct handicap from various electronic jammers and ECM deviceswhich are relatively commonplace.
  • High-tech, long-ranged munitions are expensive, the technological know-how and industrial base required for their manufacture scarce. Cheap, easily-acquired and -stored, short-ranged munitions are more cost effective, as well as easier to come by.
  • Modern BattleMech armor is extremely effective at dissipating the heat from lasers and particle weapons, as well as in distributing and absorbing the shock from explosive projectiles. A'Mech's armor combined with its movement means that even the intense burst of energy from a pulse laser tends to be distributed over a large portion of the target 'Mech at greater than effective ranges, and damage at those ranges is, consequentially, reduced.
  • A singular advantage possessed by BattleMechs over the conventional heavy armor of centuries ago is their mobility. The use of external sensors with scanner feeds directly to the pilot via the neurohelmet linkage, with the pilot able to respond quickly to any sensed threat, results in a machine which is capable of astonishingly quick movements, given its bulk. At longer ranges, it becomes increasingly difficult for a firer to hit a target which is able to sense an incoming missile in time to avoid it. In the case of beam weapons, the target 'Mech is not able to sense their approach, of course, but it is still much harder for the firing 'Mech to target and hit a rapidly moving 'Mech at extreme ranges.

Thus, achieving atarget lockon a moving BattleMech at ranges of one or two or more kilometers, while possible, is difficult, especially in a battlefield environment clouded by smoke, by rapidly moving BattleMechs, by incoming fire, and by electronic jamming. For this reason alone, modern 'Mech-to-'Mech combat rarely takes place at ranges of more than half a kilometer.

Still, the question raised by the anti-war lobbies demands a response. If they are correct--and they insist they are with a vehemence surprising in what is, after all, a pacifist movement--the coming collapse of technology could well doom man to endless barbarism at best, to utter extinction at worst.

Endless barbarism? Extinction? Their argument suggests that on every world inhabited by Man, most of the easily accessible ores and raw materials vital to modern technology--copper, iron, tungsten, nickle, cobalt, uranium, and petroleum are only a few--have already been tapped to the point that high technology is necessary to recover them. Already, the inhabitants of countless worlds live by scavenging the technological detritus of past battles rather than mining and processing new ore. If this goes on, the vast majority of such raw materials will become unrecoverable, spread thinly across the surface of each planet in countless tools, in the wiring of countless houses, in the engines of countless vehicles, instead of located in large and compact, recoverable bodies such as surface veins of ore.

If interstellar trade ceases on a wide scale, the argument runs, planet after planet will collapse into savagery as whole populations starve, as power plants break down, as transport becomes difficult or impossible. A primitive civilization reduced to such a state would have no easily-recoverable raw materials on which to rebuild or grow. The surviving inhabitants of a thousand worlds might find themselves forever trapped because the resources on which technology depends are no longer available.

Well, perhaps the alarmists are correct. Such speculation, however, goes beyond the scope of this article.

But the 'Mech weapons range figures published by various sources cannot be used to support this contention. True, it is generally agreed that the overall level of technology among the Successor States hasfallen sincethe days of the Star League. However, it is also generally accepted that weapons technology during the 31s' Century is still at or above the levels common in the late-20th /early-21st Centuries on Earth. Indeed, many of the weapons still in use during the 31 st Century are relics of the Star League of three centuries and more ago, and represent the very peak of human weapons technology.

If there is a fault with modern technology, it seems to be not the level of technology itself, but rather the shortage of trained Technicians capable of understanding and repairing old equipment, and of introducing innovations for new. People is certainly one resource which is in no danger of being depleted, for all the savage bloodletting of modern war. Numerous groups are striving to overcome the handicaps imposed on technological development by the lack of skilled Techs.

In particular, ComStar, the technological disciples of the Blessed Blake, shows extraordinary promise in its program of preserving and advancing technological understanding. Indeed, it is quite possible that the ComStar adepts--whatever popular opinion may hold of their rituals and incantations--hold the golden key which will usher in a whole new age for Mankind. Peace and prosperity.

Precentor Abu Hassan is Weapons Technology Consultant for the ComStar Order'sAcolyte trainingprogram locatedon Gladius, in the Lyran Commonwealth. He is widely and highly regarded both as an expert on modem weapons and technical systems, and also as a public relations spokesman for the ComStar Order.

Editor's Note: Those of BattleTechnology's readers who are interested in BattleTech simulations may wish to check this issue's Simulator Section (page 44) where Rules Variant 0103-A describes how to extend the ranges for various weapons in BattleTech combat simulations.

BattleMech Weapons Crisis of Range and Accuracy

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