LRM Carrier

Description
Ever since the development of the first rocket centuries ago, military units have used mobile missile systems to provide cheap and effective fire support. Along with its SRM counterpart, the LRM Carrier serves in every military action across the Inner Sphere in a variety of shapes and forms.

The chassis for missile carriers vary in basic design, but they are all essentially military transport vehicles, tracked being the most common, adapted to carry the huge missile launchers and loading equipment. Those adaptations generally consist of reinforcing the suspension systems and armoring the crew and critical components areas enough to survive the back blast from so many missiles. With an average top speed of 54 kph and armor unable to survive counter-battery fire, if forced to engage in direct combat a carrier's life expectancy is measured in seconds.

Manufactured by almost every major military supplier, the modern LRM Carrier is derived from those developed in the Age of War by Quik Products Inc, the future Quikscell Company. In many cases derived a little too closely, during the Succession Wars era many manufacturers were producing little more than shoddy direct copies that fell below even Quikscell's low quality standards. After the end of the Fourth Succession War Quikscell lodged lawsuits against those manufacturing clones of Quik based carriers, resulting the closure of many smaller manufacturers and larger manufacturers ending production. While those who produced their own designs were not affected, Quikscell's elimination of much of its competitors and its offer to exchange any missile carrier not produced by them for legit Quikscell versions and parts made it the number one player of the missile carrier market.

Weapons and Equipment
While its chassis is identical to its SRM counterpart, the LRM Carrier mounts three forward-firing LRM-20. Quikscell utilize FarFire brand launchers, but carriers produced by other manufacturers frequently use the launchers common to their House of origin, such as DeltaDart LRMs in the Federated Suns or Shigunga in the Draconis Combine. A barrage fired from a missile carrier is a fearsome sight and four tons of ammunition allow a carrier to keep up that rate of fire up for over a minute, but the carrier must physically move to change firing angles and the high rate of ammunition consumption forces carriers to be tied to a functioning supply system to keep them in action for any extended period.

Variants

 * 3055 Upgrade : Introduced by Quikscell in 3054 for the Federated Commonwealth, the use of Lexington Ltd. High Grade Ferro-Fibrous boosts armor protection of the carrier, while dropping the engine down to InterComBust 120 frees up weight to add an Artemis IV FCS for each launcher and a C3 Slave to greatly improve their accuracy.  BV (1.0) = 666, BV (2.0) = 800


 * WoB : An even more radical upgrade produced by the Word of Blake in 3064, it utilizes a Light Fusion Engine to boost the speed and armor of the carrier, while still retaining enough weight to add a C3i unit and an Artemis IV FCS for each launcher. BV (1.0) = ??, BV (2.0) = 1,050


 * MRM Carrier : Developed by the Draconis Combine during the FedCom Civil War, this vehicle uses the standard LRM Carrier as its base, but carries three MRM-30 launchers in place of the LRM-20s. A C3 Slave allows it to take advantage of shared targeting data. BV (2.0) = 779


 * Primitive : This Age of War design uses three tons of BAR 6 armor to provide protection. First constructed in 2440, it was built with Primitive Technology, which is similar to methods used to make modern Support Vehicles and has equipment rating of D/C-X-X/E. It mounted Advanced Fire Control systems to guide the three LRM-15 launchers mounted on the vehicle's front side. Five tons of ammunition kept the early LRM Carrier in the fight. BV (2.0)=686

Related Designs

 * Heavy LRM Carrier - A Magistracy of Canopus reworking of the standard carrier, the Heavy LRM Carrier is built on a heavier 80-ton chassis.

Design Quirks
The LRM Carrier Primitive variant is subject to the following Design Quirks:
 * Easy to Maintain
 * Fast Reload
 * Low Profile
 * Poor Performance
 * Obsolete/2580