Super Wasp

Description
The WSP-2A-X Super Wasp is an evolution of the classic Wasp, a re-design that essentially produced a new BattleMech with even a different tonnage. Weighing as much as a Commando, the Super Wasp maintained the basic ground speed and jump capability of its inspiration, but also added an engine Supercharger which allowed it to sprint at speeds of up to 120km/h.

Weapons and Equipment
The Super Wasp remains faithful to the weapon configuration of the regular WSP-1A Wasp, namely a Medium Laser in the right arm and an SRM-2 launcher in the left leg. However, documents from the NAIS indicate that it actually carried an additional Medium Laser in the right arm, giving it twice the firepower of its progenitor.

History
The Super Wasp was designed in Introduction Year::3020 together with the Super Griffin at the Friden Aerospace Park research facility on Hoff by House Davion scientists including Dr. Jorge Belasco. After eighteen months of work, two operational Super Wasp prototypes had been completed but they were still untested when the Black Widow Company attacked the facility on 13 May 3022. The prototypes were deployed as a last line of defense. The two Super Wasp units worked well, disabling a Stinger used by the Black Widows, but an overloaded supercharger led to one of the Super Wasps constantly overheating which made it an easy target for the Widows. The other Super Wasp was doing well until a shot from a large laser penetrated the left torso and touched off an ammunition explosion, destroying the unit.

The Super Wasp and Super Griffin were described as the first fully-redesigned units in four decades, but the Hatchetman was hailed as the Inner Sphere's first new 'Mech design in over a century when it entered full production a few years after the attack on Hoff (and in the Periphery the Merlin had been designed in 3010 already). This suggests the Super Wasp and Super Griffin never came beyond the prototype stage.

Design
(This information pertains to the design introduced in Tales of the Black Widow Company not Experimental Technical Readout: Succession Wars, Volume 1 which is a legal design.)

The weight of the Super Wasp was increased to 25 tons, allowing for the addition of another ton of armor and the installation of a substantially larger fusion engine that significantly improves the design's ground speed to match famously fast 'Mechs such as the Locust, Spider or Cicada. The jump capacity was not improved, however.

It should be noted that the Super Wasp as described in Tales of the Black Widow Company is an illegal design, as it would be one ton overweight if built under standard rules.

To remedy this it has been suggested to assume that the custom 25 ton chassis be treated as an early equivalent to Endo Steel (which would be exactly one ton lighter than a standard 25 ton chassis). This is, however, just a speculation.

It is noteworthy that the the Wasp and Stinger 'Mechs as published in the original Battledroids'' game were one ton overweight (carrying an additional ton of armor). Tales of the Black Widow Company, which is the source for the Super Griffin and Super Wasp, was the very first sourcebook published for the franchise and was presumably written using the original Battledroids rulebook as a source; since the Wasp was one ton overweight, the Super Wasp ended up one ton overweight as well. When Tales of the Black Widow Company was published, the game had already been renamed to BattleTech and the Wasp and Stinger had their armor reduced by a ton each.''

Related designs

 * WSP-1A Wasp - The predecessor of the Super Wasp and the frame on which it was based.

Design Quirks
The Super Wasp variant is subject to the following Design Quirk:
 * Prototype

Variants
None known. Although functional prototypes were built, the Super Wasp, itself meant to be the successor of the Wasp, apparently never advanced beyond the prototype stage.