AA-1 Harpy

## AA-1A Harpy

The **AA-1A Harpy** was a dedicated missile launch platform used by the Armies of the Southern Cross.

## Background

The Harpy's entire existence was predicated around a single idea, being to launch the massive CBM-300 'Stinger' cluster missile. It was designed from the outset to be used by the Army of the Southern Cross to attack massed targets and provide a way of dealing with large scale swarms of Zentraedi Battle Pods in space. Planning called for it to be paired with the F/A-212 Chimera to eliminate enemy craft in the fleet defence role.

The Harpy was never intended for use as an aerospace superiority craft, rather simply as a weapon delivery platform. While it carried secondary weapons, they were largely defensive in nature. As an actual aerospace fighter, the Harpy was rather slow and vulnerable, and made for a poor dogfighter. Furthermore, it was entirely space-bound. Due to its design, the craft lacked the ability to take off and land conventionally, and in fact did not have conventional undercarriage at all. In atmospheric conditions, it was difficult to effectively maneuver and had poor handling.

It is difficult to measure the Harpy's overall effectiveness. During wargames, OpFor commanders learned to disperse their forces in order to reduce the effectiveness of the missiles attacks. Furthermore, the enemy the Harpy was designed to face never materialised, which led to production of the craft being curtailed and its being phased out of frontline service. In combat against the Robotech Masters, it was found that the cluster missile was far less effective against Bioroids. Furthermore, due to its lack of agility, the Harpy was easily out-manouvered and destroyed by both Bioroids and their Assault Dropships in space.

Those that survived the war were destroyed along with the rest of the remaining Southern Cross fleet during the Invid Invasion. Ironically, in a conventional engagement, the CBM-300 missile would have likely been quite effective against swarms of Invid Scouts.

## Capabilities

As mentioned, the Harpy was designed entirely as a launch platform for the CBM-300 missile. This weapon contained three hundred cluster submuntions and was intended to blanket a broad cubic area around the weapon in space. Projections showed that against Zentraedi Tactical Battle Pods using typical tactics such as those seen in the First Robotech War, a single CBM-300 could score approximately a hundred mobility kills. However, this claim was never actually tested in combat. Against more heavily armoured opponents, such as the Robotech Masters' Bioroids, the effeciveness of the weapon dropped off considerably.

The Harpy's secondary weapons were largely intended for self-defence and to allow it to play a supporting role to dedicated fighters after launching its weapon. The Harpy was a poor dogfighter with poor acceleration, and could be easily out-manouvered. Due to its design, the Harpy was only ever operated from Southern Cross spacecraft. The craft was powered by a standard Protoculture engine.

The Harpy's pilot sat in a fully enclosed cockpit with full life support systems which was protected against nuclear, biological or chemical hazards. While the cockpit was pressurised, typical operating procedure was to wear a spacesuit no less. Operationally, most Southern Cross pilots wore Gusoku or LPAS as much for their life support capability as for the additional protection. The primary targeting was provided by a multi-mode pulse/doppler radar system, backed by infra-red, optical and laser tracking capabilities. Communications were handled through a mid-range multi-mode video and laser set. Pilots using LPAS could optionally have HUD information projected directly to their visors.

The skin of the Harpy is composed of an advanced titanium-steel alloy. The skin stops all small arms fire, provides fair protection against heavier infantry weapons, such as a 12.7mm machinegun round, and poor resistance to light mecha-mounted weaponry, such as the Zentraedi 22.3mm autocannon round.

## Weapons and Equipment

* **CBM-300 'Stinger' Cluster Bomb Missile:** This large (5 m × 1.3 m) missile has a range of 4km and a payload of 300 self-guiding cluster bombs with a range of 500 meters. The 'footprint' of this ordnance is an area 1km in diameter.

* 2 **MHMR4 Missile Launchers:** Located on either side of the cockpit, hidden under armoured covers. Each launcher contains 4 Hammerhead Short Range Missiles with one reload for a total of 16 missiles.

* 4 **E-19 Light Laser Cannons:** Located around the 'stinger' of the Missile Launcher. The lasers could fire up to 40 times per minute.

## Game Statistics

* **Required Rank:** 1

* **Designation:** AA-1

* **Division:** ASC-TSC

* **Stats**
	+ **Armour – Light:** 6
	+ **Structure – Light:** 12
	+ **Hardware Points**: Basic
	+ **Speed:** 1200 kph / 400 Ground Units / 4 Space Units

### Weapons

* **Cluster Missile:** The Harpy's main weapon is a gigantic cluster missile launcher designed to saturate an area with hundreds of cluster bomblets, wreaking devastation across multiple targets. This weapon can only be used through an equipment suite. [H]

* **Mini-Missiles:** The Harpy is equipped with two banks of Mini-Missile Launchers, mounted on either side of the cockpit. This weapon can only be used through an equipment suite. [H][H]

* **Pulse Lasers:** The Harpy is also equipped with Mecha-Class Lasers, mounted around the 'stinger' for the missile launcher. These Lasers have a limited Range of Medium and inflict Mecha-Scale damage [H]

* **No Melee:** The Harpy cannot engage in melee except to make Ramming attacks.

### Features

* **Space Capable:** The Harpy is fully environmentally sealed and mounts manoeuvring thrusters for use in space.

* **Spacebound:** The Harpy is designed primarily for use in space. It cannot take off or land under gravity conditions and lacks proper landing gear. It can withstand atmospheric entry, but takes a Hindrance on any Action taken in an Atmosphere.

### Equipment Suites

* **Cluster Missile:** The main weapon of the Harpy (and its entire reason for existence) is the massive CBM-300 cluster missile mounted under the body. The missile contains 300 cluster bomblets that can be used to devastate targets across a wide area. The weapon can be used at up to Extreme range. [B50]
	+ **Uses:** 1
	+ **Skill:** 4

* **Mini-Missiles:** The Harpy mounts two banks of mini-missiles, mounted on either side of the cockpit and used to engage other spacecraft. They can be used up to Medium range. These weapons inflict Mecha-class damage. [B3]
	+ **Uses:** 3
	+ **Skill:** 3