Why haven't Clan LRM systems dominated?

[Colt Ward]

Fluff Answer: The Timberwolf was so popular that they made the Mad Cat Mk. 2 & 3, that looks kinda like domination doesn't it?

'Mad Cat' was SharkFox marketing since neither are really Timber Wolf clones . . . the IV was the real descendant.  But yeah, interesting point about the SharkFoxes selling LRM equipped equipment to the IS- I mean the Ha Otoko makes a interesting point for this discussion.  For the MUL divers, does the Clan LRM equipped Ha Otoko stay in circulation and spread wider than the original?

[MoneyLovinOgre4Hire]

I don't know if it spreads wider than the original but it hits Inner Sphere General by the Early Republic Era.

[Apocal]

I shudder to imagine the logistics of retooling every LRM factory in the Inner Sphere to that level of sophistication, not to mention having to retrain every mech tech alive.

Going with a Watsonian explanation?

The Clans rolled in at the end of a year long tether and setup factories (presumably to produce cLRMs as well) inside of a decade. Post-3060, at least two of those Clans are camped out within Successor States at any given time and their frontline units are exclusively (or near-exclusively) armed with cLRMs. Ergo, retooling factories in BT isn't that difficult as long as you know what you're doing and the people who (empirically) know what they are doing live right there.

The Doylist explanation is better: TPTB didn't want cLRMs supplanting IS LRMs on frontline mechs for reasons of faction flavor. So the cLRMs... just didn't.

I just look at it as, after 50 years, the Clans still have a massive advantage in tonnage compared to IS models.  Why haven't they decided to sacrifice durability etc.in favor of the lighter unit?

Fluff only goes so far, in the face of that kind of advantage.

Fluff is going to be the only explanation. Like you said, a piece of equipment with superiority to the degree that Clan LRMs possess in comparison to IS LRMs should mean obsolescence for the original.

[Colt Ward]

Clans had a 6 month trip . . . it was year long for a round trip.

MLO4H, I was talking about the IS LRM equipped vs the Clan LRM equipped.

[MoneyLovinOgre4Hire]

The purely IS tech one was used by the Lyran Alliance and Combine initially, but after the Jihad only the Combine still uses it.