Imperial News Service In Depth Essay 0131
INSIDE the IIAF - The Armory - Part One
PGMP-12 - Plasma Gun, Man Portable TL12
The grand-daddy of personal high energy weapons this design has been around since the Rim Wars but is still highly valued for it's low tech construction and wide support availability. The low cost is also a plus when fielding an army.
Some mercenary outfits are lucky to pick up surplus half-cycled units but it is not available for civilian purchase. What is a half-cycled unit? Well the weapon, mainly the powerpack, is rated for 1000 cycles. That's recharge cycles. The IIAF usually surpluses units at 500 cycles to insure reliability and safety without excessive maintenance. These units can be had with the proper accreditation for about half the cost of new units.
The weapon system is built around two major components, the gun and the pack. The delivery shells are a third, small but hardly unimportant, component.
The pack is a 6.0kg EHPG (explosive homopolar power generator) and cooler worn as a backpack. It connects to the gun on either side of the action with a heavy armored cable and tube. The pack costs KCr10.0 new and contains enough refrigerant and explosive rounds for 40 shots. The use of a EHPG means no telltale EM signature which one would have from a backpack fusion power supply, except when it is fired. The weapon system is very low signature when not sending high signatures at an enemy.
Recharging the pack consists of a charge of refrigerants and a new magazine of explosive rounds at a total cost of Cr400. A field recharge cartridge is 4.0kg and takes a few seconds to swap out, but the pack is usually recharged in the armory in bulk at a significant savings in cost and volume.
One bulk recharge station is good for 100 charges and takes 1/2ton of volume, weighs 350kg, costs KCr30.0 and can process 1 EHPG per minute. The whole EHPG is placed in the unit and the lid is closed. When the recharge is complete and tested the unit opens and the EHPG may be removed. The extracted explosive rounds, spent or not, are collected in a cannister for later recovery. These are usually not reused but some of the unspent rounds have been known to show up on the surpluss market. Of course most mercenary outfits routinely collect and reuse the unspent rounds. The chances of an unfired round not firing are low but not unheard of.
The gun is 3.0kg and costs KCr2.5 without accessories. The feed from the pack may be connected to either side of the action. This feed dumps the plasma ball into the magnetic chamber and then the shell is locked around it prior to being rail launched down the barrel.
The last part of the system is the delivery shell. Shells are 0.1kg each and feed from a top or bottom mounted magazine holding 10 shells weighing a total of 1.0kg. Each loaded magazine costs Cr80. The action can accept shells from either or both the top and bottom magazine allowing up to 20 shells to be fired before reloading. An adaptor also allows the use of a larger hopper feed on the top.
There is no ejection requirement beyond the coolant purge cycle, even the spent explosive round casings are retained in the drum magazine. The ROF (rate of fire) is limited by the slow cool and purge cycle of the EHPG at this tech level.
In the standard configuration the shells are dumb. They are fired and pop when they hit to release the plasma burst. With the addition of advanced sights and a tactical computer the shells can be programmed to pop at any desired range to allow firing over cover and having the plasma burst explode just behind it, or the round can be configured to pop after a timed duration, up to the limit of the magnetic containment field life of 6 seconds.
The crew served version is the same weapon system but by utilizing both power feeds the ROF is doubled. The crew consists of the gunner and the loader, each of which wear a standard EHPG pack. The gunner carries and fires the gun, usually equipped with advanced sights and a tactical computer as well as a tripod. The loader carries extra magazines and is charged with swapping empties. An additional crew member may be added to carry two field recharge cartridges.
The weapon may also be vehicle mounted and the EHPGs secured and connected. In such installations the magazine is often replaced with a hopper feed and the crew consists of the gunner and a charger who swaps in fresh field recharge cartridges as needed.
Plasma Grenade-12
Directly related to the technology behind the PGMP-12 is the first high energy explosive hand grenade. In this device is the standard shell surrounded by a one use mini EHPG. The grenade is armed after setting the timer or selecting contact detonation and is then hurled like a normal hand grenade. Unlike a normal hand grenade the magnetic field will also cause the grenade to stick fast to ferrous material. Effects are identical to the gun. Each grenade weighs 1.0kg and costs Cr250.
An alternate use of the Plasma Grenade is in the role of anti-light vehicle mine. In this use the arming is set for contact detonation and a vehicle driving over it will detonate it. The grenade may also be set for a time delay to contact detonation allowing mines to be dropped as long as the fall time is less than the 6 second timer. A height of about 100m leaves 1.5 seconds for the dropped mine to stop bouncing. Higher than this and you are dropping bomblets.
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Alternate MTU T20 Stats:
Note - The most important differences in my version and the book version are:
No hot casing ejection, just some coolant venting. So no need for armor, but generally you're using this weapon because you're facing stiff opposition, so you better be wearing some armor anyway.
No damage drop off over range. It is not a plasma stream but a small plasma explosion at the point of impact.
The above also means it has an AOE (area of effect) for the damage, just like a grenade.
PGMP-12 Weapon
3.0kg (unloaded)
KCr2.5 (new)
ROF 1/2
RNG 24m
DMG 6d12(18)
AOE 6m
PGMP-12 Magazine
1.0kg (10 shells)
Cr80
PGMP-12 Backpack EHPG
6.0kg (loaded)
KCr10.0 (new)
RND 40