Ultimate Rifle Cannon Expansion

[Dark Jackal]

Below is an expansion set of weapons based around the Rifle Cannons with MGs thrown in as well. These are meant to fill some gaps from Pre-Space Flight Era all the way to the dawn of the Age of War Era. They are formatted to be "rules ready" for use in BattleTech Table Top that were intended to emulate legacy or old designs from techs A through C and should share the same availability rating of their respective weapon base. Each gun will have two expanded versions, Snub-Nose (SN) and Extended (E); These are to emulate the historical technical measures done to either lighten a gun and mainly obtain it's hitting power at shorter ranges OR extending the gun in order to increase its reach on the battlefield. I hope folks have fun with this obsolete expansion of weapons for anyone wanting to have their early colonies take their ancient primitive Earth Tech with them. ;)

Machine Guns Expanded:

Code: [Select]

Machine Gun
{Heat: 0} {Damage: 2} {Slot: 1}
{Ammo:200} {Ammo Cost:1000 C}
___
 Code :  Ton : M-S,M,L;E
 SN-MG: 0.25t;  0- 0, 1, 2; - [  4,750 C]
    MG:  0.5t;  0- 1, 2, 3; 4 [  5,000 C]
  E-MG:  1.0t;  0- 1, 3, 6; - [  5,250 C]
Small Grade Rifle Cannons:

Code: [Select]

Compact Rifle Cannon
{Heat: 0} {Damage: 1} {Slot: 1}
{Ammo: 54} {Ammo Cost: 500 C}
___
 Code :  Ton : M-S,M,L;E
SN-CRC: 0.25t;  0- 2, 3, 5; 6 [  9,500 C]
   CRC:  0.5t;  0- 2, 4, 6; 8 [ 10,000 C]
 E-CRC:  1.0t;  0- 2, 5, 9;10 [ 10,500 C]

Code: [Select]

Small Rifle Cannon
{Heat: 1} {Damage: 2} {Slot: 1}
{Ammo: 36} {Ammo Cost: 600 C}
___
 Code :  Ton : M-S,M,L;E
SN-SRC:  1.0t;  0- 3, 5, 7; 8 [ 18,000 C]
   SRC:  1.5t;  0- 3, 6, 9;12 [ 19,000 C]
 E-SRC:  2.0t;  0- 3, 7,12;14 [ 20,000 C]

Standard Grade Rifle Cannons:

Code: [Select]

Light Rifle Cannon
{Heat: 1} {Damage: 3} {Slot: 1}
{Ammo: 18} {Ammo Cost: 800 C}
___
 Code :  Ton : M-S,M,L;E
SN-LRC:  2.0t;  0- 4, 7, 9;10 [ 35,750 C]
   LRC:  3.0t;  0- 4, 8,12;16 [ 37,750 C]
 E-LRC:  4.0t;  0- 4, 9,15;18 [ 39,750 C]

Code: [Select]

Medium Rifle Cannon
{Heat: 2} {Damage: 6} {Slot: 2}
{Ammo: 9} {Ammo Cost:1000 C}
___
 Code :  Ton : M-S,M,L;E
SN-MRC:  4.0t;  1- 5, 9,11;12 [ 71,500 C]
   MRC:  5.0t;  1- 5,10,15;20 [ 75,500 C]
 E-MRC:  6.0t;  1- 5,11,18;22 [ 79,500 C]
Heavy Grade Rifle Cannons:

Code: [Select]

Heavy Rifle Cannon
{Heat: 3} {Damage: 9} {Slot: 3}
{Ammo: 6} {Ammo Cost:3000 C}
___
 Code :  Ton : M-S,M,L;E
SN-HRC:  6.0t;  2- 6,11,13;14 [ 85,000 C]
   HRC:  8.0t;  2- 6,12,18;24 [ 90,000 C]
 E-HRC: 10.0t;  2- 6,13,21;26 [ 95,000 C]

Code: [Select]

Ultra Heavy Rifle Cannon
{Heat: 6} {Damage: 12} {Slot: 5}
{Ammo: 3} {Ammo Cost:5000 C}
___
 Code :  Ton : M-S,M,L;E
SN-URC: 10.0t;  3- 7,13,15;16 [104,000 C]
   URC: 12.0t;  3- 7,14,21;28 [110,000 C]
 E-URC: 14.0t;  3- 7,15,24;30 [116,000 C]
Assault Grade Rifle Cannons:

Code: [Select]

Assault Rifle Cannon
{Heat: 9} {Damage: 15} {Slot: 7}
{Ammo: 2} {Ammo Cost:6000 C}
___
 Code :  Ton : M-S,M,L;E
SN-ARC: 14.0t;  4- 8,15,17;18 [124,000 C]
   ARC: 16.0t;  4- 8,16,24;32 [130,000 C]
 E-ARC: 18.0t;  4- 8,17,27;34 [136,000 C]

Code: [Select]

Giant Rifle Cannon
{Heat:12} {Damage: 18} {Slot:10}
{Ammo: 1} {Ammo Cost:6000 C}
___
 Code :  Ton : M-S,M,L;E
SN-GRC: 18.0t;  5- 9,17,19;20 [142,000 C]
   GRC: 20.0t;  5- 9,18,27;36 [150,000 C]
 E-GRC: 22.0t;  5- 9,19,30;38 [158,000 C]

[The_Caveman]

Just stumbled across this thread.

What about the idea of barrel-launched missiles for a further upgrade to Rifle Cannons?

Many mid-late 20th century tank guns were designed to launch guided missiles from their bores. There might be technological reasons why Autocannons lost this capability, but I see no reason why it couldn't be resurrected for Rifle Cannons in the 31st century.

Say an alternate ammo type for Rifle Cannons that is equivalent to the Thunderbolt missile system. Light Rifles are equivalent to a Thunderbolt-5, Medium Rifles a Thunderbolt-10, and Heavy Rifles a Thunderbolt-15, with the same range brackets of the missile system.

Because the warheads are modern missile warheads, the missiles don't suffer the damage reduction against modern armor like the standard ammunition does.

Downsides would be half as many shots per ton (9 for Light Rifle, 4 for Medium Rifle, 3 for Heavy Rifle), minimum range inherited from the Thunderbolt missile, and vulnerability to AMS like the Thunderbolt missile.

[RifleMech]

That's how I see Precision Ammo. As canon launched missiles.

[Dark Jackal]

What about the idea of barrel-launched missiles for a further upgrade to Rifle Cannons?

Many mid-late 20th century tank guns were designed to launch guided missiles from their bores. There might be technological reasons why Autocannons lost this capability, but I see no reason why it couldn't be resurrected for Rifle Cannons in the 31st century.

Working on that though I haven't made it into "BT" numbers per se. They're classed as "GMs" or Guided-Missiles in order to be distinctly obsolete from your bread and butter BT standard tech but more advanced than 21st century Earth-Tech so that future colonies could use them as build rules during the pre-Hegemony Terran Alliance. GM-S for Guided Missile - Short, GM-M for Medium, and GM-L for Long. Since I'm having fun with obsolete equipment (as opposed to retro-tech), I have to balance the natural progression in technology where LRMs and SRMs largely take over and some what "make sense" stats-wise for that obsolescence to happen. So, that's the hold up is the actual numbers behind it.

I'm familiar with the concept as mainly Soviet equipment runs with ATGMs tube-launched via cannons with the Kobra (T-64/80), Svir/Reflecks (T-72), and Bastion (T-55). The US did have the Shillelagh fired from the M551 though there were a number of issues with that round and how it was fired that generally points to the unreliability of 50/60s technology than compared to capability of the 70s/80s Soviet versions. The US discontinued the idea though they experimented and spend millions for test versions but none have made it into mass production (that I know of).

"Say an alternate ammo type for Rifle Cannons that is equivalent to the Thunderbolt missile system. Light Rifles are equivalent to a Thunderbolt-5, Medium Rifles a Thunderbolt-10, and Heavy Rifles a Thunderbolt-15, with the same range brackets of the missile system.

Because the warheads are modern missile warheads, the missiles don't suffer the damage reduction against modern armor like the standard ammunition does.

Downsides would be half as many shots per ton (9 for Light Rifle, 4 for Medium Rifle, 3 for Heavy Rifle), minimum range inherited from the Thunderbolt missile, and vulnerability to AMS like the Thunderbolt missile.

That could work for gun-tube launched GMs though the point values for damage and tonnage/ammo cannot exceed standard tech which is the limitation I'm going for. I'm doing this in tandem for normal GMs covering the gamut from ground vehicles to air-launched missiles like the AMRAMM for example. Most of them will be built around "OS-F" or one-shot-fired (at a time) as the reload capability of guided missiles really sticks out as a limiting factor in all of this than compared to LRM and SRM volleys that reload within 10 seconds from integral ammo bins. So, you're AIM-9 "Limas" will come in GM-S, GM-S2, and GM-S4 variants combining those missiles into a single rail launcher where the missiles themselves can only be fired once per turn per rail launcher. This will be true also for the "Hellfire" missiles GM-M4s mounted on Apache clones made on Galatea in 2280 for example or New Avalon's ASF "NA-22" Raptor sporting GM-L4s LRAMM missiles.

Thank you for the interest in this! :D

[DOC_Agren]

I missed this 1st time around

but color me interested in some of those clones