Kainan Wolfe
Shadow of War
- Intent: To develop a field mortar for the Eternal Army
- Image Source: Jason Slavin @Artstation
- Canon Link: N/A
- Restricted Missions: N/A
- Primary Source: N/A
- Manufacturer: Karavin Concern
- Model: KC-MT9 Gauss Field Mortar
- Affiliation: Closed-Market | Confederacy of Independent Systems, Eternal Empire
- Modularity: Yes - Can be mounted onto vehicles in swivel configuration, can use various ammunition types
Production: Mass-Produced
- Material: Durasteel
- Classification: Gauss Mortar
- Size: Large
- Weight: Heavy
- Ammunition Type: 95mm Mortar Shells
- Ammunition Capacity: 1 Mortar Shell (5, if mounted on a vehicle in swivel configuration, with attached external magazine)
Reload Speed: Average
- Effective Range: Long Range
- Rate of Fire: High
- Stopping Power: Very High
- Recoil: Very High
- Gauss Coils: The KC-MT9 uses electromagnetic coils to propel its projectiles, which eliminates the need for storing propellant agents within its shells, leaving more space available for payload
- Digital Rangefinder: The KC-MT9 features a digital targeting system which allows it to be set up and be made ready to fire faster than comparable weapons without such a system
- Stopping Power: Due to using Gauss coils to propel its projectiles, the KC-MT9's shells have more space available for payload, enabling the mortar to fire more powerful shells that are still comparable in size and weight to conventional shells. This gives it a considerably higher stopping power and makes it especially devastating when used against massed enemy formations
- Modular Munitions: The KC-MT9's munitions feature a standardized form factor and can carry several types of payloads such as fragmentation charges, thermal detonators, incendiary, ion and gas, amongst others. As long as the payload can be miniaturized enough to fit into a standard 95mm mortar shell, the KC-MT9 can fire it
- Crew Served: Due to the KC-MT9's size and complexity, it requires a crew of two to deploy and operate, a loader and a weapons operator
- High Recoil: The power of the KC-MT9 comes with a considerable recoil, which reduces overall accuracy and requires constant adjustment after every five shots, otherwise it deviates too far from the target
As the Eternal Army lacks the manpower to field comparable numbers to other planetary militaries, its battlefield doctrine takes a combined arms approach which emphasizes efficiency, discipline and overwhelming firepower. Utilizing an organizational structure designed to maximize flexibility, it utilizes a variety of heavy weapons to support its slow-moving infantry and vehicles.
In the wake of the Battle of Eshan, Strategic Command put forward a requisition order for the development and deployment of a field mortar that is compact enough to be operated by infantry, yet has the range, rate of fire and stopping power to saturate an entire area with a devastating barrage of shells.
Ultimately, the contract was awarded to Karavin Concern, a partially state-owned military-industrial conglomerate based on the Eternal Empire's homeworld of Nelvaan, which already supplied a sizeable portion of the Eternal Army's military equipment. The conglomerate's answer was the KC-MT9 Gauss Field Mortar, an advanced, highly versatile weapon system which utilizes electromagnetic coils rather than chemical propellants to launch its projectiles and long ranges.
Firing 95mm mortar shells across great distances, the KC-MT9 utilizes a standardized munitions form factor which enables it to fire multiple types of ammunition and the weapon system's electromagnetic propulsion technology leaves more space available within each shell for payload, as chemical propellants are eliminated, thus giving it the ability to use much more powerful munitions that are of comparable size and weight with regular, chemically-propelled shells, at the expense of considerably higher recoil which requires periodic adjustment and reduces the weapon's per-shot accuracy.
Capable of an impressive firing rate that is dependent upon how fast the loader can drop shells down the barrel, the KC-MT9 is a crew-served, portable heavy weapon which is operated by teams of two, a weapons operator and a loader. It is deployed by the Eternal Army in sizeable numbers and serves as a powerful addition to its military forces and it is also offered for export to other Confederate worlds and military forces.
