PC-5200 laser cannon

## PC-5200 cannon

### Capacity

* 1,595,000 TJ (381 megatons) — *Iapetus*-class Star Battleships & Alliance Star Dreadnoughts
* 750,000 TJ (179 megatons) — ;*Neptune* & *Titan*-class Star Battleships
* 730,000 TJ (174 megatons) — *Luna*-class Star Battlecruisers

### Range

* Infinite (theoretical)
* 1 light-minute (maximum)
* 10 light-seconds (optimal)

## Usage & History

### Affiliation

Terran Alliance

The **PC-5200 laser cannon**, officially the **Large-calibre Directed Energy Weapon, PC-5200**, was the standard super-heavy anti-ship weapon in use by the Terran Alliance. It replaced the preceding PC-4600 laser cannon as the Alliance's standard large-calibre anti-ship weapon.

## Description

The PC-5200 cannon was an extremely powerful weapon: it had a maximum range exceeding most other battleship guns in the Milky Way, beaten only by neutron beam cannons. Their superb performance grew better the closer to the weapon: inside the optimal firing range of 10 light-seconds, the laser had enough intensity to reliably punch through a one-metre-thick armour plate, and was highly accurate. The precision targeting system had a variance of one picometer at 5 light-seconds, giving the cannon the ability to deliver predictable, and devastating, results.

These guns were typically mounted in large, heavy triple turrets: they could also be mounted in single, fixed-firing emplacements, or in ground-based batteries for surface-to-space targeting against capital ships in orbit. In whatever mounting, the principles were the same: the gun was mounted in a reinforced titanium-alloy cradle which recoiled with it when it fired, until it was checked by pneumatic pressure. The firing cycle was in bursts: it was capable of a sustained 4,000 shots in a single burst—fast enough that it looked like a continuous beam to the naked eye—before needing to disconnect from the main power conduits and discharge heat buildup. Each shot in the burst unleashed the equivalent of between 174 and 179 megatons of TNT on a target: only heavy-duty military starships could withstand these cannons.

The gun drill was the same as in other Alliance large-calibre artillery platforms:

1. The gun trainer positioned the turret as indicated by the turret captain; the gun layer positioned the gun at a re-connection angle of +8 degrees.
2. No.1 gunner opened the breech connection port and flushed it with a nullifier to prevent static discharges, to lessen the risk of backfire.
3. No.3 gunner pushed the power conduit connection port to where it was correctly lined up with the breech connection.
4. No.2 gunner locked the conduit and the breech together by engaging the interrupted-screw threads and then sealed it by magnetizing the ports together.
5. The gunlayer re-laid the gun to the appropriate angle. The gun was now ready for firing.

Each gun required six personnel: a gun captain, a layer, a trainer, and three gunners. Fixed-firing mounts only required four personnel: the gun captain and three gunners. The average cycle between bursts was about 30 seconds: 20 seconds to allow the gun to dissipate the heat buildup, and 10 seconds to properly perform disconnection and re-connection each time.

## Used On

* *Atlas*-class Star Dreadnought
* *Terra*-class Star Dreadnought
* *Iapetus*-class Star Battleship
* *Neptune*-class Star Battleship
* *Titan*-class Star Battleship
* *Luna*-class battlecruiser
	+ *Styx*-class battlecruiser
	+ *Prometheus*-class battlecruiser

## See Also

* List of Alliance naval artillery — Disambiguation page.
* PC-9000 laser cannon — The heaviest weapons the Alliance can field, burnthrough lasers.
* PC-5500 laser cannon — The 410-megaton laser cannons developed specially for the flagships *Minerva* and *Euryale*.
* PC-4600 laser cannon — The other standardized large-calibre directed energy weapon in service with the Terran Alliance.
* PC-4200 laser cannon — The standard medium anti-ship gun of the Terran Alliance.