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Magnetic Accelerator Cannon: Difference between revisions
→Frigates and destroyers
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While powerful, these guns require long charge times, impacting their sustained firepower. A destroyer circa 2552 operating at half its usual power output required 50 minutes to charge up its two MACs to 100%, indicating it would normally take 25 minutes to charge both, or 12.5 minutes to charge one.<ref>''Halo: The Fall of Reach'', chapter 21, concerning the [[UNSC Iroquois]]: ''“MAC guns charging,” Lieutenant Hikowa reported. “Sixty-five percent and climbing at two percent per minute.”'' Later in the same chapter: ''"He was not about to charge into battle, however, with the ''Iroquois'' at half power, her structural integrity already compromised, and with no AI to mount a point defense against Covenant single ships."''</ref>Captain [[Wallace]] and [[Catherine Halsey]] were able to hold a short conversation complete with emphasizing pauses in the time it took for the {{UNSCShip|Commonwealth}}'s MAC to charge up an additional 20% (from 30% to 50%).<ref>''Halo: The Fall of Reach'', chapter 12.</ref> However, the {{UNSCShip|Majestic}} was able to fire four MAC rounds after its initial two, at what was implied to be full charge against a few Covenant cruisers, in around ten seconds. {{Class|Charon|light frigate}}s were able to fire with only a few seconds of delay between shots during the [[Battle of Voi]], though these shots were fired at an unconfirmed charge level. At the [[Battle of Sigma Octanus IV]], frigates and destroyers were ordered to remain static, which allowed them to funnel all available energy into charging their capacitors. Despite this, it still takes at least thirty seconds for them to charge their MACs to 100%.<ref>''Halo: The Fall of Reach'', chapter 21; the retaliatory plasma torpedo salvo occurs an undisclosed time after the first MAC salvo, and it is said it will take 22 seconds to reach the UNSC's line. After it does (destroying the ''Cradle''), another undisclosed amount of time passes as Keyes gives orders and surveys the damage done. Soon after that, Hikowa informs Keyes that the fleet's MACs will be ready to fire in another 3 seconds. Three seconds later, Keyes (and presumably the other captains) give the firing order, and all ships fire together for 63 collective slugs.</ref> | While powerful, these guns require long charge times, impacting their sustained firepower. A destroyer circa 2552 operating at half its usual power output required 50 minutes to charge up its two MACs to 100%, indicating it would normally take 25 minutes to charge both, or 12.5 minutes to charge one.<ref>''Halo: The Fall of Reach'', chapter 21, concerning the [[UNSC Iroquois]]: ''“MAC guns charging,” Lieutenant Hikowa reported. “Sixty-five percent and climbing at two percent per minute.”'' Later in the same chapter: ''"He was not about to charge into battle, however, with the ''Iroquois'' at half power, her structural integrity already compromised, and with no AI to mount a point defense against Covenant single ships."''</ref>Captain [[Wallace]] and [[Catherine Halsey]] were able to hold a short conversation complete with emphasizing pauses in the time it took for the {{UNSCShip|Commonwealth}}'s MAC to charge up an additional 20% (from 30% to 50%).<ref>''Halo: The Fall of Reach'', chapter 12.</ref> However, the {{UNSCShip|Majestic}} was able to fire four MAC rounds after its initial two, at what was implied to be full charge against a few Covenant cruisers, in around ten seconds. {{Class|Charon|light frigate}}s were able to fire with only a few seconds of delay between shots during the [[Battle of Voi]], though these shots were fired at an unconfirmed charge level. At the [[Battle of Sigma Octanus IV]], frigates and destroyers were ordered to remain static, which allowed them to funnel all available energy into charging their capacitors. Despite this, it still takes at least thirty seconds for them to charge their MACs to 100%.<ref>''Halo: The Fall of Reach'', chapter 21; the retaliatory plasma torpedo salvo occurs an undisclosed time after the first MAC salvo, and it is said it will take 22 seconds to reach the UNSC's line. After it does (destroying the ''Cradle''), another undisclosed amount of time passes as Keyes gives orders and surveys the damage done. Soon after that, Hikowa informs Keyes that the fleet's MACs will be ready to fire in another 3 seconds. Three seconds later, Keyes (and presumably the other captains) give the firing order, and all ships fire together for 63 collective slugs.</ref> | ||
It typically only takes one or two fully charged frigate/destroyer MAC rounds to knock out a Covenant vessel's shielding, even those on large ships like [[Covenant cruiser|cruisers]] and [[Covenant destroyer|destroyers]].<ref>''The Fall of Reach'', Chapter 21: ''One undamaged Covenant destroyer turned, however, and left the battlefield. It came about and headed straight for the Iroquois... On the aft screen, the remaining eight UNSC ships broke their attacks and turned toward the incoming destroyer. Three MAC guns fired and impacted on the Covenant vessel. Its shields only lapsed for a split second; it took a round through her nose . . . but it continued toward the Iroquois at flank speed.''</ref><ref>''Halo: The Fall of Reach'', Chapter 21. Keyes states that the fleet of 45 destroyers/cruisers and 3 other ships will fire their shots in a staggered pattern in order to get three salvos out of one charge for each ship. He also says that the first salvo will deplete the enemy's shields (''The fleet’s firing countdowns were roughly timed so that the shots would be staggered into two, maybe three, massive salvos. The first salvo would—hopefully—knock out the Covenant ships’ shields. The final salvo was to be the knockout punch.''). The same scene specifies that all the UNSC ships together fire 63 MAC rounds (''The Iroquois shuddered as the MAC gun fired. On the status display, Keyes watched as the rest of the UNSC fleet fired simultaneously. A twenty-one-gun salute three times over for those on board the station who had given their lives.''). Sixty-three divided by two or three salvos equates to 21 to 31 shots per salvo, against a force of 20 Covenant ships, and thus one or two shots per ship. Keyes is proven correct in his assumptions, as the first salvo is said to have knocked out the shielding of "most" of the ships by the time the second salvo connects (''A handful of the shots were clean misses. Keyes winced; each one of the off-trajectory MAC rounds meant one more enemy ship would survive to return fire. The vast majority, however, slammed into the unshielded alien vessels.'').</ref><Ref>''Halo: Ghosts of Onyx'', concerning the [[Onyx Conflict]]: ''Seven MAC rounds struck the two lead destroyers in the Covenant line, shattered their shields, dented the armor, and pounded through hulls, crippling the vessels so they aborted their attack run as they were caught in the planet's gravity pull. One ship's engines flared, overloading as its captain attempted a survivable landing.'' Seven rounds divided by two destroyers indicates that one destroyer took a maximum of three or fewer rounds, meaning a maximum of two to destroy its shielding alone.</ref><ref>'''Halo: Reach''', ''[[Halo: Reach radio conversations#Reflection|Reflection radio conversation]]'': UNSC ''Majestic'' destroys three cruisers with six shots.</ref> Against a smaller, "frigate-size"<ref>''[[Halo: Silent Storm]]''</ref> ship like the ''[[Unrelenting]]'', a single MAC round not only destroys shields, but retains enough energy to devastate the affected area of the hull, crumpling the whole nose.<ref>''Halo: The Fall of Reach'', Chapter 12 - "The lights on the bridge dimmed and the Commonwealth shuddered. The MAC bolt launched through space— a red-hot metal slug moving at thirty thousand meters per second. The Covenant ship’s engines flared to life and the ship veered away— —Too late. The heavy round closed and slammed into the target’s prow. The Covenant ship reeled backward through space. Its energy shields shimmered and glowed lightning bright . . . then flickered, dimmed, and went out. The bridge crew let out a victory cheer. Except Dr. Halsey. John watched the view screen as she adjusted the camera controls and zoomed in on the Covenant ship. The vessel’s erratic spinning slowed and it came to a stop. The ship’s nose was crumpled and atmosphere vented into vacuum. Tiny fires flickered inside. The ship slowly came about and started back toward them—gaining speed.''</ref> Nearly every Covenant ship can be destroyed with one to three blasts from the standard frigate MAC, allowing UNSC warships to punch well above their weight against the larger and more advanced Covenant vessels.<ref>[[Halo Encyclopedia]], p. 330: "Able to pulverize most Covenant ships in one to three blasts, these weapons are mounted on all UNSC spaceships large enough to hold them. Unfortunately, MACs are slow to fire and, due to their size, require the entire ship on which they are built to maneuver in order to align fire."</ref> The MAC's power, however, comes at a cost: the large amount of energy needed to fire the weapon is particularly onerous on a warship, and the extended recharge time is a significant factor in combat against [[Covenant]] warships. As a result, MAC rounds are often fired at significantly below their maximum potential velocity by an order of magnitude or more. This results in the impacts being much weaker, but the MACs can be fired far faster and such firepower is still sufficient to destroy the shields of most Covenant warships after a few hits.<ref name="small MAC velocity" group="note">In every single space battle scene in the novels, including ''[[Halo: The Fall of Reach]]'' and ''[[Halo: Ghosts of Onyx]]'', MAC slugs are described as cleanly penetrating from one end of Covenant ships and out the other, as well as punching holes in whatever they hit. This would be impossible if the slugs were actually going at 30 kilometers per second on every occasion, as past around [http://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S0734743X06001242 1.7 km/s], the tungsten slugs would create [https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hypervelocity hypervelocity][http://www.esa.int/Our_Activities/Operations/What_are_hypervelocity_impacts impacts]. Therefore, the coilguns must be "dialed down", trading pure power and velocity for refire rate (as a point of comparison, a 600 ton object traveling at 1 km/s would impact with the force of 65 tons of TNT). This matches the depiction of MACs in the games, where they have a refire rate of only a few seconds and muzzle velocities of only a few kilometers per second at most (as in the last cutscene of [[Cairo Station]] in ''Halo 2: Anniversary''). It also fits the velocity of the MAC slugs in [[Halo: The Fall of Reach - The Animated Series]], and the description of a MAC propelling slugs to [http://www.merriam-webster.com/dictionary/supersonic supersonic] ( | It typically only takes one or two fully charged frigate/destroyer MAC rounds to knock out a Covenant vessel's shielding, even those on large ships like [[Covenant cruiser|cruisers]] and [[Covenant destroyer|destroyers]].<ref>''The Fall of Reach'', Chapter 21: ''One undamaged Covenant destroyer turned, however, and left the battlefield. It came about and headed straight for the Iroquois... On the aft screen, the remaining eight UNSC ships broke their attacks and turned toward the incoming destroyer. Three MAC guns fired and impacted on the Covenant vessel. Its shields only lapsed for a split second; it took a round through her nose . . . but it continued toward the Iroquois at flank speed.''</ref><ref>''Halo: The Fall of Reach'', Chapter 21. Keyes states that the fleet of 45 destroyers/cruisers and 3 other ships will fire their shots in a staggered pattern in order to get three salvos out of one charge for each ship. He also says that the first salvo will deplete the enemy's shields (''The fleet’s firing countdowns were roughly timed so that the shots would be staggered into two, maybe three, massive salvos. The first salvo would—hopefully—knock out the Covenant ships’ shields. The final salvo was to be the knockout punch.''). The same scene specifies that all the UNSC ships together fire 63 MAC rounds (''The Iroquois shuddered as the MAC gun fired. On the status display, Keyes watched as the rest of the UNSC fleet fired simultaneously. A twenty-one-gun salute three times over for those on board the station who had given their lives.''). Sixty-three divided by two or three salvos equates to 21 to 31 shots per salvo, against a force of 20 Covenant ships, and thus one or two shots per ship. Keyes is proven correct in his assumptions, as the first salvo is said to have knocked out the shielding of "most" of the ships by the time the second salvo connects (''A handful of the shots were clean misses. Keyes winced; each one of the off-trajectory MAC rounds meant one more enemy ship would survive to return fire. The vast majority, however, slammed into the unshielded alien vessels.'').</ref><Ref>''Halo: Ghosts of Onyx'', concerning the [[Onyx Conflict]]: ''Seven MAC rounds struck the two lead destroyers in the Covenant line, shattered their shields, dented the armor, and pounded through hulls, crippling the vessels so they aborted their attack run as they were caught in the planet's gravity pull. One ship's engines flared, overloading as its captain attempted a survivable landing.'' Seven rounds divided by two destroyers indicates that one destroyer took a maximum of three or fewer rounds, meaning a maximum of two to destroy its shielding alone.</ref><ref>'''Halo: Reach''', ''[[Halo: Reach radio conversations#Reflection|Reflection radio conversation]]'': UNSC ''Majestic'' destroys three cruisers with six shots.</ref> Against a smaller, "frigate-size"<ref>''[[Halo: Silent Storm]]''</ref> ship like the ''[[Unrelenting]]'', a single MAC round not only destroys shields, but retains enough energy to devastate the affected area of the hull, crumpling the whole nose.<ref>''Halo: The Fall of Reach'', Chapter 12 - "The lights on the bridge dimmed and the Commonwealth shuddered. The MAC bolt launched through space— a red-hot metal slug moving at thirty thousand meters per second. The Covenant ship’s engines flared to life and the ship veered away— —Too late. The heavy round closed and slammed into the target’s prow. The Covenant ship reeled backward through space. Its energy shields shimmered and glowed lightning bright . . . then flickered, dimmed, and went out. The bridge crew let out a victory cheer. Except Dr. Halsey. John watched the view screen as she adjusted the camera controls and zoomed in on the Covenant ship. The vessel’s erratic spinning slowed and it came to a stop. The ship’s nose was crumpled and atmosphere vented into vacuum. Tiny fires flickered inside. The ship slowly came about and started back toward them—gaining speed.''</ref> Nearly every Covenant ship can be destroyed with one to three blasts from the standard frigate MAC, allowing UNSC warships to punch well above their weight against the larger and more advanced Covenant vessels.<ref>[[Halo Encyclopedia]], p. 330: "Able to pulverize most Covenant ships in one to three blasts, these weapons are mounted on all UNSC spaceships large enough to hold them. Unfortunately, MACs are slow to fire and, due to their size, require the entire ship on which they are built to maneuver in order to align fire."</ref> The MAC's power, however, comes at a cost: the large amount of energy needed to fire the weapon is particularly onerous on a warship, and the extended recharge time is a significant factor in combat against [[Covenant]] warships. As a result, MAC rounds are often fired at significantly below their maximum potential velocity by an order of magnitude or more. This results in the impacts being much weaker, but the MACs can be fired far faster and such firepower is still sufficient to destroy the shields of most Covenant warships after a few hits.<ref name="small MAC velocity" group="note">In every single space battle scene in the novels, including ''[[Halo: The Fall of Reach]]'' and ''[[Halo: Ghosts of Onyx]]'', MAC slugs are described as cleanly penetrating from one end of Covenant ships and out the other, as well as punching holes in whatever they hit. This would be impossible if the slugs were actually going at 30 kilometers per second on every occasion, as past around [http://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S0734743X06001242 1.7 km/s], the tungsten slugs would create [https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hypervelocity hypervelocity][http://www.esa.int/Our_Activities/Operations/What_are_hypervelocity_impacts impacts]. Therefore, the coilguns must be "dialed down", trading pure power and velocity for refire rate (as a point of comparison, a 600 ton object traveling at 1 km/s would impact with the force of 65 tons of TNT). This matches the depiction of MACs in the games, where they have a refire rate of only a few seconds and muzzle velocities of only a few kilometers per second at most (as in the last cutscene of [[Cairo Station]] in ''Halo 2: Anniversary''). It also fits the velocity of the MAC slugs in [[Halo: The Fall of Reach - The Animated Series]], and the description of a MAC propelling slugs to [http://www.merriam-webster.com/dictionary/supersonic supersonic] (over 340 m/s) velocities on pg. 264 of [[Halo: First Strike]].</ref> The standard Magnetic Accelerator Cannon is sufficient to destroy any human vessel or severely damage an unshielded Covenant vessel.<ref name="small MAC yield" group="note">The ''Halo Encyclopedia'' states that a typical shipboard MAC slug is fired at .4''c'' (40% the speed of light), which would probably cause the projectile to be atomized by its own acceleration. The weapon's explosive yield is listed as equivalent to 1.17 teratons of TNT. This would release an average of 21,667 times more energy than [[Wikipedia:Tsar Bomba|Tsar Bomba]], the largest nuclear device in history, which is generally agreed to have released between 50 and 58<!--The figure used is 54 megatons for simplicity's sake.--> megatons (210 to 240 petajoules) of TNT-equivalent energy.</ref> | ||
===Specialized and modified versions=== | ===Specialized and modified versions=== | ||