Weapon Type: Laser Rifle Manufacturer: Intek Industries Operation: Beam laser Weight (w/o magazine): 5 kg Length: 98 cm Power: Intek Standard Powerpack Mk III Power Pack Weight: 8.4 kg Power Output: 4 megajoule Power Pack Life: 1 minute at continuous beam Alternate Power Source: Sunbeam Oneshot Powpac Output: .3 mw (single shot) Weight: .2 kg Reload Time: 10 seconds Alternate Power Source: Intek Lasercharge magazine Output: .2 mw (20 shots) Weight: .5 kg Reload Time: 10 seconds Effective Ranges: Short: 60 meters Medium: 150 meters Long: 255 meters Recharge Rate: About 40 hours, depending on power source Weapon Reliability: 96% (80%/30 seconds on continuous beam) Base Cost: Cb 1,250 Power Backpack Base Cost: Cb 1,700 Powpac Reloads: Cb 5 for pack of 10 Magazine Power Pack Reloads: Cb 10 Notes The Intek Laser Rifle is one of the more common examples of beam laser rifles still in encountered on modern battlefields. It is a good, rugged, reliable weapon, identical in design and operation to the original model first marketed in 2448. As originally conceived, a power cable from the base of the Mark III powerpack is plugged into the weapon's receiver core in front of the trigger. The weapon is capable of putting out a continuous beam for about one minute, useful for drilling through heavy armor, but at the risk of a core burnout ruining the weapon. Standard tactical doctrine calls for single, light taps on the trigger, squeezing off single "bursts" of a halfsecond or less. The backpack holds power enough for up to 100 such shots before needing a recharge. Standard power pack magazines hold enough power for 20 shots and are reloaded like standard magazines for assault rifles or SMGs. Many units use these instead of the rare and expensive backpacks. With backpacks and power magazines becoming increasingly hard to find, many planetary and company armories have come up with a substitute, a magazine "powpac" storing power enough for a single .3-megawatt shot. After each shot, the burned-out magazine is discarded and must be replaced. The advantage is that these magazines are relatively cheap and can be produced in large numbers. The disadvantages are obvious. The weapon has excellent range for a laser rifle but does not cause as much damage, even within effective ranges, as other laser weaponry of the same class. More Laser Rifles Introduction Optronics M2444A2 Starlight Martell Hi-Star Laser Rifle Intek M2448 Laser Rifle Kogyo-Khorsakov Model 2821 Laser Rifle Thorvald & Koch TK 94 Laser Rifle Magna Mark XX Heavy Laser Rifle Back to BattleTechnology 4 Table of Contents Back to BattleTechnology List of Issues Back to MagWeb Magazine List © Copyright 1988 by Pacific Rim Publishing. This article appears in MagWeb (Magazine Web) on the Internet World Wide Web. Other military history articles and gaming articles are available at http://www.magweb.com