The Battlemech

THE BATTLEMECH

The modern BattleMech is the end result of more than three thousand years of battlefield technology development. Combining awesome destructive power and
unparalleled maneuverability, the BattleMech is perhaps the most complex machine ever
produced. The undisputed master of thirty-first century warfare, the BattleMech seems destined to reign supreme centuries into the future. The machines described in this
section represent a mere fraction of the BattleMech designs in use today.

Every ’Mech contains thousands of different components, grouped into four primary systems: chassis, locomotion/movement, armor and weapons and power systems.

CHASSIS

Every BattleMech contains a chassis that consists of several dozen “bones.” Each “bone” is a honeycombed, foamed-aluminum core wrapped with stressed silicon-carbide monofilament and protected by a rigid, titanium-steel shell. Each of these artificial “bones” has attachment points for their myomer “muscles” and servos that drive the
BattleMech. This skeletal construction helps make BattleMechs less vulnerable
and easier to repair than vehicles supported by stressed-skin shells.

LOCOMOTION/MOVEMENT SYSTEMS

Two different systems are used to drive BattleMechs and control their movements. Small, electrically driven actuators move a ’Mech’s light weapons and sensor arrays. Bundles of polyacetylene fibers called myomers control a ’Mech’s limbs and main weapons. Myomers contract when exposed to electrical current, much like human muscles. If a BattleMech’s myomers are damaged in battle, technicians can replace the fiber bundles with new ones or “transplant” myomers from other parts of the ’Mech’s skeleton.
Transplanted myomer bundles cannot restore full function to a damaged limb, but they do provide limited mobility and strength.

ARMOR AND WEAPONS

Two separate layers of armor provide modern BattleMechs with protection against energy and projectile weapons. Alignedcrystal steel is usually used for the outer layer of ’Mech armor. The aligned-crystal steel has excellent heat-conducting properties,
and so it provides excellent protection against lasers and particle-beam weapons. An inner layer of boron nitride impregnated with diamond monofilament stops high-explosive armor piercing (HEAP) rounds and fast neutrons. This second layer of
armor also prevents any armor fragments from damaging a BattleMech’s internal systems.

Because energy weapons can be powered indefinitely by a ’Mech’s onboard fusion reactor and do not require ammunition reloads, BattleMechs usually carry charged-particle-beam weapons or lasers as their primary armaments. Additionally, many BattleMechs carry launching racks for short- or longrange, non-nuclear missiles. Still other ’Mechs mount rapid-fire autocannons or machine guns for use against infantry, aircraft and other BattleMechs.

POWER SYSTEMS

BattleMechs require a large, constant power supply for movement and combat. The fusion reactor, which produces enormous amounts of electricity from ordinary water, is the most efficient system for providing this power. Because the fusion reaction created by a BattleMech’s power plant does not release neutrons, the power plant can operate indefinitely without becoming radioactive.

The fusion plant produces electricity by a process known as magnetohydrodynamics. In this process, magnetic fields are used to channel plasma from the fusion reaction into a loop. This plasma is electrically conductive, and so the loop functions as a powerful generating coil, producing both electricity and waste heat. Every BattleMech carries radiators called heat sinks to help dissipate this waste heat. Heat sinks are especially
important because excessively high internal temperatures can disrupt the magnetic containment fields around a BattleMech’s reactor. If a power plant’s magnetic “jar” is disrupted, an uncontrolled fusion reaction may occur, releasing neutrons and
exposing the BattleMech’s internal systems and its MechWarrior to lethal radiation.

DEFINING CHARACTERISTICS

The hundreds of BattleMech models in existence display a myriad of design features, but all ’Mechs share two defining characteristics. First all BattleMechs possess movement capabilities unmatched by any other type of modern war machine. Second, all BattleMechs possess heat-dissipation systems to reduce the internal heat levels generated by their power and weapons systems.

MOVEMENT CAPABILITIES

BattleMechs can attain walking or running speeds ranging from forty to one hundred kilometers per hour in open terrain. Dense forests, swamps and steep slopes will slow a
’Mech, but very few terrain features can stop one. In addition, many ’Mechs can jump over obstacles by superheating air with their fusion reactors and releasing it through so-called jump jets. (Jump-capable BattleMechs operating on worlds without
atmospheres often carry their own reaction mass for their jets.) All BattleMechs can also move under-water when crossing rivers or small lakes.

Spaceborne BattleMechs can make assault landings from low orbit. Special reaction jets housed in their feet allow them to soft-land from altitudes of up to 320 kilometers. During reentry, breakaway ablative shields protect a BattleMech’s vulnerable sensors and weapons.

HEAT-DISSIPATION SYSTEMS AND STRATEGIES

Because a BattleMech’s systems are pushed to their limits during combat, ’Mechs engaged in combat rapidly generate large amounts of waste heat—heat that can disrupt a fusion reactor’s magnetic containment shields and impair or permanently damage a ’Mech’s electronics and computer systems, thereby slowing the BattleMech’s movement and reducing the accuracy of its weapons. Heat sinks are one way of controlling
the heat build-up in a ’Mech. The heat pouring out of these radiators can produce strong infrared (IR) signatures, however, which can make a ’Mech easy to target.

To sidestep this problem, MechWarriors have found other ways to control heat build-up. MechWarriors often place their machines in shallow lakes or rivers. (Through the processes of conduction and convection, moving water helps dissipate a ’Mech’s internal heat.) On temperate or cold worlds, the atmosphere itself can help dissipate waste heat. On the other hand, the high outside temperatures of a desert or jungle environment
can exacerbate a BattleMech’s heating problems.

The most common methods by which MechWarriors control heat build-up are manually regulating the movement and firing rates of their ’Mechs or reprogramming the machine’s movement-control computer and its secondary systems. These
computers can be used to limit the ’Mech’s rate of activity and the resulting heat build-up. For example, when a ’Mech is sent to a high-temperature world, its activity-rate setting may be lowered. The ’Mech will move more slowly and fire less often
than it would on a temperate planet. When a ’Mech is sent to fight in an arctic climate, the setting is raised, allowing faster movement and a higher rate of fire. Reprogramming is usually carried out while a BattleMech force is enroute to its assignment
aboard DropShips. The process takes approximately two weeks.

Because BattleMechs are always adjusted for the expected external temperature of their combat environments, sudden increases in outside temperature can have a devastating
impact on a ’Mech’s ability to dissipate waste heat. Tacticians have developed a whole series of battle tactics to take advantage of this ’Mech characteristic. For example, commanders regularly set forests on fire while enemy BattleMechs are advancing through them. The superheated air roaring around the ’Mech can overload the machines’ cooling systems or drastically reduce their efficiency, thus hampering the BattleMechs’
combat capabilities.