(Answered) Grounded DropShips and Nose-Mounted Weapons

[Bandit Queen]

The rules for covering grounded Spheroid DropShip combat (TW, p.249) state, "Nose-mounted weapons can only target airborne aerospace units".  However, various canon DropShips use Artillery Pieces in their Nose Arcs.  An almost seven year old ruling https://bg.battletech.com/forums/index.php?topic=13810.0 says that any Artillery in the Nose Arc is treated as though it was in a turret.  That means that the Artillery Pieces may fire in the Left Side Arc, Right Side Arc, and against Aerospace units.

1)   Are Artillery Pieces an exception to this rule, or may any type of weapon placed in the Nose Arc function as though it was in a turret?

2)   If Nose mounted standard weapons are only able to target airborne Aerospace units, then it could be reasoned that LoS is blocked to both the Right and Left Side Arcs.  Could weapons that require a blocked LoS for indirect fire, such as LRMs and Artillery Cannons, be able to target a ground unit in either Side Arc?

[Xotl]

1: Yes
2: No

To elaborate: indirect fire from LRMs and artillery cannons still require the weapon be in arc as a condition to conduct the attack.