SWARM

**SWARM**, short for **S**hort-range **W**ide-**A**rea **R**eaction **M**issile, is a weapon technology used by Eastasia. SWARMs are small missiles which consist of multiple smaller sub-munitions, breaking up into these *micro-missiles* as they approach their target, spraying the battlefield with numerous such small homing missiles, which randomly lock on to a target on the battlefield and home in. Each submunition has its own steering mechanism, acquiring its own target the moment it spawns. This allows SWARM system to rapidly saturate an area. As their name suggests, SWARM, due to their size and subsequent low fuel capacity, very short-ranged and mostly suited for inter-personal combat ranges, however they can be delivered by larger carrier systems, such as cruise missiles, greatly increasing their range.

SWARMs have been incorporated into virtually all missile-armed Eastasian hardware, from the missile turret and strike drone over the Jump Gear to the hover tank and iconic missile tank.

In combat, SWARM are highly effective against infantry, even in cover, due to the smart missile AI's uncanny pathfinding abilities. They can also be used against light or medium vehicles, tearing through vital engine components with the sheer volume of fire.
As the missiles' small warheads are commonly monoshard or monowire fragmentation warheads, they suffer from their faction's common inability to pierce heavy vehicle armor or demolish structures. While aircraft can outrun and outmaneuver the missiles within their limited range, the sheer volume of SWARM that can be deployed in a given airspace can serve as a deterrent to aerial units.

## Stats

* Damage type: Monoblade (frequently), HEAT (rarely)

## Users

* **Jump GEAR** - Elite upgrade is a SWARM launcher.
* **Hover tank** - Fires salvos of SWARM inbetween bursts of its flechette cannons.
* **Missile tank** - Several racks of carrier missile launchers which alternate to fire continuously. Rather unusual because the range of the weapons exceed that of tank guns (using carrier missiles to deliver the actual SWARMs)
* **Strike Drone** - Deploys four short-ranged SWARMs when attacking non-infantry targets, each breaking up into two micro-missiles.
* **Sentry Turret** - Can be upgraded with a SWARM launcher.

## Notes

* Carrier missiles are often deployed in groups and will home in on their intended target. Once they split up however, micro-missiles are not controllable and will often go for other targets or even strike randomly. They do have a tendency however to aim for their carrier missile's target (which varies from unit to unit).
* The name of the skill/weapon is based on the ***S**hort-range **W**ide **A**rea **R**eaction **M**issile* - shortened *SWARM* - from *Dark Reign 2*.
* Unlike Katy Rockets, which are simply Inaccurate and FlakScattering, SWARMs depend on the firer having DistributedFire (or the weapon itself having DistributedWeaponFire) and FireSegments.
* SWARMs combine three "tropes" about missiles (and other projectiles) which are frequently seen in anime - the *Macross Missile Massacre*, *Roboteching* and *Recursive Ammo*.
* First-stage cluster missiles are called "Small", second-stage "Mini", third-stage "Micro". Presumably the stage below that would be "Nano", however nano-fragments are part of the warhead fragmentation, they do not count as submunitions.

## See also

* *Katy Rockets*
* *Macross Missile Massacre* on *tvtropes.org*
* *Recursive Ammo* on *tvtropes.org*
* Matra Magic on Final Fantasy wikia