Post by Insano-Man on Sept 24, 2018 9:37:30 GMT -5
Fly Meets Mallet
The FGLS-M170 series are some of the few superheavy artillery cannons in the Federal Guard's arsenal and some of the strangest ever designed for their military. At least twenty-three entirely unique design revisions litter the initial M170's prototype phase with no single concept ever resembling its predecessor.
M170
Initially, the M170 series of guns was intended to be a towed or crew-served field gun meant to give conscript guardsmen or militia forces the firepower necessary to engage enemy armor or static positions. Its initial draft was simple, robust, and mounted a 90mm cannon capable of tackling most defensive infantry objectives.
When the M170 was finalized, however, it was nothing like its design intentions. Instead of a 90mm gun on a towed carriage, it now mounted a tremendous 230mm cannon on a static, electrically powered turret mount. Instead of a limited traverse upwards, it now featured a limited traverse downwards, where its purpose was that of a conventional artillery piece; the long-distance bombardment of distant objectives.
M171
The mobile militaries of the modern age, the more cumbersome Federal Guard notwithstanding, would have little use for a static artillery cannon in all but the most limited of circumstances and the M170 was produced only in prototype numbers. Its construction for the 230mm shell - ordnance produced only in Celdskon territory - had left it considered as a needless excess amidst the lighter, more maneuverable self-propelled guns commonplace in the Federal Guard's fire support elements.
The M170 series would see new life in the M171 as the unwieldy cannon was once again revised fundamentally. Staying rooted in its massive chambering and static placement, the weapon would instead be converted to an anti-aircraft weapon. Utilizing custom-manufactured 265mm smart-flak shells capable of crippling even the heaviest of strategic bombers, it would raise more eyebrows than its predecessor in its project's unveiling to High Command overseers in 2146 A.F.
M172
The M171, however, had still failed to fill out its role well enough to be given a green light and was ordered scrapped. Strategic bombers were a rarity in the skies of the foreseen battlefield and expenses necessary to produce 265mm ammunition in significant bulk - particularly alternative shells if the weapon were to be used outside of its designated role as most guns would - had damned the project before it could get off the ground. For its forecasted deployment, the M171 would have been an overexpensive target for fighter-bombers and ground attack aircraft.
The M172 would attempt to correct the series' course with an overhaul of its weapons system. Instead of a conventional artillery cannon, it would now mount a 97mm railgun using an existing naval slug's dimensions to ease its logistics burden. Its final course would now be certain; an anti-dropship emplacement intended to be used in the defense of colonies against any manner of large craft. It would synchronize its own targeting systems and gunnery crew supervision with satellite reconnaissance to accurately predict, intercept, and engage craft of strategic bomber to naval troop transports in size.
It would be on October of 2146 A.F. that it would finally be accepted into service and production as its role became definite and filled a niche not yet fully occupied in the Federal military. Only a single update to its design would pass in the M172A1, where an overhaul of its fire control network and tracking motors would better its ease of use for the men behind it.
M173
Attempts at producing a practical superheavy artillery gun would not come to a halt, however. The M173 would be the third attempt following the M170 and M171 and find difficulties leaping off the drawing board once more. Rather than mounting a colossal cannon, three 120mm artillery guns would instead be linked together and mounted to the frame of an FAWM-M308 medium walker.
The intent of the M308's artillery mounting would be that of a fully multirole gun platform. With rapid fire 120mm artillery capable of directly engaging enemy armor, defending walker formations from enemy aircraft, and providing torrential fire support from all the terrain accessible to a combat walker, it would seem odd that the M173 was not accepted.
Feeding the triple mounting, however, proved stressful on even well-established supply lines. In difficult terrain where resupply may prove problematic or situations where orbital supply lines could be disrupted, the M308 artillery platform would soon find itself as little more than an unusually heavy, yet lightly armored general combat walker as constraints on its weapon usage would become necessary.
M174
The M174 would be a more successful walker mounting than the M173. While produced only in vastly limited numbers, it would leave the prototype phase and complete simulated combat trials soon after with relatively high marks for its expected complete failure.
The M174 would stand out as one of the few truly Celdskon-like weapons of war in Federal service. Mounting an enormous 130mm railgun and utilizing the long-neglected FAWH-M328 walker chassis, its role would be as that of the first true planetary defense walker in Federal military service. With support from satellite or orbiting naval reconnaissance and analysis by trained gunnery crews, the M174 mounting would prove itself capable of striking targets in low and middle orbit with sufficient accuracy for general combat.
Its expense would be considerable, even despite its acceptance into service. M328 walkers were few and problematic to maintain, while naval 130mm slugs required substantial power to fire with enough force to exit the atmosphere. The overall combination would prove incredibly slow in the field, but it would still remain far more maneuverable and far more concealable than static installations.
M175
A bizarre turn of events would lead the M175 gun system back to its early roots of infantry field guns. This particular weapon would not quite fit the bill of a conventional field gun, however, and would show true its designer's focus on creating superheavy weapons systems - even if only in miniature.
The M175 would bear passing resemblance to the M173, constructed as a single barrelled 90mm gun intended to be fired rapidly with one of the quickest cannon actions ever developed for Guard service. It would, like its walker cousin, prove capable of engaging roughly anything it could be pointed at; its self-propelled chassis would allow it to maneuver to engage aircraft, armor, or fixed positions without leaving its ammunition behind or complicating towed transport with a heavy ammunition carriage.
While not fully accepted, the M175 would still see limited service and production. Shocktroopers assigned monumental tasks were rumored to utilize the weapon, while Federal Marine units fighting in drop troop combined arms offensives carried the bulk. The M175 would earn an odd reputation as a "self-aware" weapon; its ease of use mixed with its robotic carriage, yet manual fire control systems left many marines believing the weapon to quite literally understand its gunners and help guide them to their targets.
M176
Looking back to the M172 and previous M170 series iterations, the M176 gun system once again attempted to create a static artillery mount with practicality in the Federal war machine. Its design process would complete quickly with successes and failings by its predecessors speeding it along.
Four rapid fire 30mm guns fixed to an array of orbiting, turreted mounts would recall the M173 once again, but once more only in passing. These automated turrets would instead perform the exact opposite of the M170's initial design; an absurdly powerful artillery interception platform capable of interdicting the heaviest of shells and most torrential of barrages. Multirole capabilities would not be left behind, as, under gunnery crew supervision, the platform could be used to solve nearly any siege's problem, be it aircraft, infantry, or light armor. While 30mm shells often yielded little explosive power compared with their far heavier artillery brethren, the hail of small rounds in indirect fire could prove as effective as a team of mortar crews in defense of a position.
The M176 would see greater acceptance than most of its predecessors. It filled a truly unique role only overlapped by a scant few other weapons systems before it and offered a platform that could be towed, permanently emplaced, or even dropped from orbit to waiting or simultaneously deployed troops. The M176 stands as the most successful of the series, serving in many Federal Guard and Marine units on active deployment.
M177
The M177 would be the final entry into the series just following the Timosi War and the disastrous Siege of Glevonni. Searching for methods to circumvent the Conditional Strategic Collateral Act of 2197 A.F., the M170 series would see another revival in its big guns doctrine.
Neither planetary defense cannon, nor general fire support implement, the M177 is a rare beast that has confounded the few officers left to supervise these titanic weapons. Sporting a domestically supplied 390mm rifled bore, its purpose would be to fire on urban areas with civilian populations with as much accuracy as possible. Naval smart-flak shells would be repurposed into ground attack airburst munitions and be fired almost straight up over the target, where they would then alter course to achieve optimal detonation over enemy forces.
Gunnery crews left to train on these weapons - which happens only in combat owing to the rarity and expense of its use - fear the weapon as much as their targets do, as even the most finely-tuned artillery shells cannot much fight the forces of gravity and wind that might doom the weapon that fired them. Its acceptance in its limited scope role, however miniscule, was considered a smashing success by its design team, yet only six weapons have ever been deployed. One resides on Argannei, two more in Port Victoria, another gun on Anchorage, and the final two watch over the central spaceport of Port Drucker.
The M170 series has had many failures, but it represents the continued development of artillery, big and small, in the Federal Guard. Its strange and disjointed lineage are iconic of Federal weapons research programs, most of which rarely show more results than a confirmation of impracticality.
The FGLS-M170 series are some of the few superheavy artillery cannons in the Federal Guard's arsenal and some of the strangest ever designed for their military. At least twenty-three entirely unique design revisions litter the initial M170's prototype phase with no single concept ever resembling its predecessor.
M170
Initially, the M170 series of guns was intended to be a towed or crew-served field gun meant to give conscript guardsmen or militia forces the firepower necessary to engage enemy armor or static positions. Its initial draft was simple, robust, and mounted a 90mm cannon capable of tackling most defensive infantry objectives.
When the M170 was finalized, however, it was nothing like its design intentions. Instead of a 90mm gun on a towed carriage, it now mounted a tremendous 230mm cannon on a static, electrically powered turret mount. Instead of a limited traverse upwards, it now featured a limited traverse downwards, where its purpose was that of a conventional artillery piece; the long-distance bombardment of distant objectives.
M171
The mobile militaries of the modern age, the more cumbersome Federal Guard notwithstanding, would have little use for a static artillery cannon in all but the most limited of circumstances and the M170 was produced only in prototype numbers. Its construction for the 230mm shell - ordnance produced only in Celdskon territory - had left it considered as a needless excess amidst the lighter, more maneuverable self-propelled guns commonplace in the Federal Guard's fire support elements.
The M170 series would see new life in the M171 as the unwieldy cannon was once again revised fundamentally. Staying rooted in its massive chambering and static placement, the weapon would instead be converted to an anti-aircraft weapon. Utilizing custom-manufactured 265mm smart-flak shells capable of crippling even the heaviest of strategic bombers, it would raise more eyebrows than its predecessor in its project's unveiling to High Command overseers in 2146 A.F.
M172
The M171, however, had still failed to fill out its role well enough to be given a green light and was ordered scrapped. Strategic bombers were a rarity in the skies of the foreseen battlefield and expenses necessary to produce 265mm ammunition in significant bulk - particularly alternative shells if the weapon were to be used outside of its designated role as most guns would - had damned the project before it could get off the ground. For its forecasted deployment, the M171 would have been an overexpensive target for fighter-bombers and ground attack aircraft.
The M172 would attempt to correct the series' course with an overhaul of its weapons system. Instead of a conventional artillery cannon, it would now mount a 97mm railgun using an existing naval slug's dimensions to ease its logistics burden. Its final course would now be certain; an anti-dropship emplacement intended to be used in the defense of colonies against any manner of large craft. It would synchronize its own targeting systems and gunnery crew supervision with satellite reconnaissance to accurately predict, intercept, and engage craft of strategic bomber to naval troop transports in size.
It would be on October of 2146 A.F. that it would finally be accepted into service and production as its role became definite and filled a niche not yet fully occupied in the Federal military. Only a single update to its design would pass in the M172A1, where an overhaul of its fire control network and tracking motors would better its ease of use for the men behind it.
M173
Attempts at producing a practical superheavy artillery gun would not come to a halt, however. The M173 would be the third attempt following the M170 and M171 and find difficulties leaping off the drawing board once more. Rather than mounting a colossal cannon, three 120mm artillery guns would instead be linked together and mounted to the frame of an FAWM-M308 medium walker.
The intent of the M308's artillery mounting would be that of a fully multirole gun platform. With rapid fire 120mm artillery capable of directly engaging enemy armor, defending walker formations from enemy aircraft, and providing torrential fire support from all the terrain accessible to a combat walker, it would seem odd that the M173 was not accepted.
Feeding the triple mounting, however, proved stressful on even well-established supply lines. In difficult terrain where resupply may prove problematic or situations where orbital supply lines could be disrupted, the M308 artillery platform would soon find itself as little more than an unusually heavy, yet lightly armored general combat walker as constraints on its weapon usage would become necessary.
M174
The M174 would be a more successful walker mounting than the M173. While produced only in vastly limited numbers, it would leave the prototype phase and complete simulated combat trials soon after with relatively high marks for its expected complete failure.
The M174 would stand out as one of the few truly Celdskon-like weapons of war in Federal service. Mounting an enormous 130mm railgun and utilizing the long-neglected FAWH-M328 walker chassis, its role would be as that of the first true planetary defense walker in Federal military service. With support from satellite or orbiting naval reconnaissance and analysis by trained gunnery crews, the M174 mounting would prove itself capable of striking targets in low and middle orbit with sufficient accuracy for general combat.
Its expense would be considerable, even despite its acceptance into service. M328 walkers were few and problematic to maintain, while naval 130mm slugs required substantial power to fire with enough force to exit the atmosphere. The overall combination would prove incredibly slow in the field, but it would still remain far more maneuverable and far more concealable than static installations.
M175
A bizarre turn of events would lead the M175 gun system back to its early roots of infantry field guns. This particular weapon would not quite fit the bill of a conventional field gun, however, and would show true its designer's focus on creating superheavy weapons systems - even if only in miniature.
The M175 would bear passing resemblance to the M173, constructed as a single barrelled 90mm gun intended to be fired rapidly with one of the quickest cannon actions ever developed for Guard service. It would, like its walker cousin, prove capable of engaging roughly anything it could be pointed at; its self-propelled chassis would allow it to maneuver to engage aircraft, armor, or fixed positions without leaving its ammunition behind or complicating towed transport with a heavy ammunition carriage.
While not fully accepted, the M175 would still see limited service and production. Shocktroopers assigned monumental tasks were rumored to utilize the weapon, while Federal Marine units fighting in drop troop combined arms offensives carried the bulk. The M175 would earn an odd reputation as a "self-aware" weapon; its ease of use mixed with its robotic carriage, yet manual fire control systems left many marines believing the weapon to quite literally understand its gunners and help guide them to their targets.
M176
Looking back to the M172 and previous M170 series iterations, the M176 gun system once again attempted to create a static artillery mount with practicality in the Federal war machine. Its design process would complete quickly with successes and failings by its predecessors speeding it along.
Four rapid fire 30mm guns fixed to an array of orbiting, turreted mounts would recall the M173 once again, but once more only in passing. These automated turrets would instead perform the exact opposite of the M170's initial design; an absurdly powerful artillery interception platform capable of interdicting the heaviest of shells and most torrential of barrages. Multirole capabilities would not be left behind, as, under gunnery crew supervision, the platform could be used to solve nearly any siege's problem, be it aircraft, infantry, or light armor. While 30mm shells often yielded little explosive power compared with their far heavier artillery brethren, the hail of small rounds in indirect fire could prove as effective as a team of mortar crews in defense of a position.
The M176 would see greater acceptance than most of its predecessors. It filled a truly unique role only overlapped by a scant few other weapons systems before it and offered a platform that could be towed, permanently emplaced, or even dropped from orbit to waiting or simultaneously deployed troops. The M176 stands as the most successful of the series, serving in many Federal Guard and Marine units on active deployment.
M177
The M177 would be the final entry into the series just following the Timosi War and the disastrous Siege of Glevonni. Searching for methods to circumvent the Conditional Strategic Collateral Act of 2197 A.F., the M170 series would see another revival in its big guns doctrine.
Neither planetary defense cannon, nor general fire support implement, the M177 is a rare beast that has confounded the few officers left to supervise these titanic weapons. Sporting a domestically supplied 390mm rifled bore, its purpose would be to fire on urban areas with civilian populations with as much accuracy as possible. Naval smart-flak shells would be repurposed into ground attack airburst munitions and be fired almost straight up over the target, where they would then alter course to achieve optimal detonation over enemy forces.
Gunnery crews left to train on these weapons - which happens only in combat owing to the rarity and expense of its use - fear the weapon as much as their targets do, as even the most finely-tuned artillery shells cannot much fight the forces of gravity and wind that might doom the weapon that fired them. Its acceptance in its limited scope role, however miniscule, was considered a smashing success by its design team, yet only six weapons have ever been deployed. One resides on Argannei, two more in Port Victoria, another gun on Anchorage, and the final two watch over the central spaceport of Port Drucker.
The M170 series has had many failures, but it represents the continued development of artillery, big and small, in the Federal Guard. Its strange and disjointed lineage are iconic of Federal weapons research programs, most of which rarely show more results than a confirmation of impracticality.
