Halo Series Of Magnetic

Even then, Infinitys shot caused relatively minor damage that was quickly sealed by the powerful Forerunner ship.

Essentially large coilguns, MACs serve as the primary armament of UNSC Navy warships and weapon platforms.

Halo Series Of Magnetic

The system is a linear motor consisting of a series of magnetic coils which accelerate a metal projectile through a barrel up to high velocity.

This technology is not to be confused with that of a railgun, in which a projectile is electromagnetically accelerated between two conducting rails.

An extremely large amount of current is put through the first solenoid, (coil of conducting wire), which creates a strong magnetic field that attracts the slug.

As the slug passes into the solenoid, the solenoid is quickly turned off and the second solenoid, which is closer to the muzzle, turns on, which attracts the now higher-velocity metal slug just like the first solenoid, and the process is carried on.

The time it takes to bring the MACs systems to full charge on a UNSC vessel is the deciding factor during in-combat use.

Thus, while a vessel may not run out of ammunition for a long time, (depending on the sizeweight of the slugs and the capacity of the ship), a commanding officer has to carefully analyze the situation of a battle and use his shots strategically.

The weapon could be fired even when not at full charge, but the velocity of the projectile will be greatly diminished.

When firing unguided rounds, due to the huge distances involved in inter-ship combat, significant targeting calculations are required to generate a firing solution.

MAC systems are also sometimes roughly divided between heavy coil and light coil guns.

All known frigate classes carry one light MAC system, whereas the standard destroyer 13 carry two light MACs and the Marathon -class heavy cruiser carry two heavy MACs.

The Navys post-war flagship, UNSC Infinity, is armed with four Super MAC Magnetic Accelerator Cannons, though different from those on Orbital Defense Platforms and of unknown power.

One frigate -based MAC was observed firing a ferric tungsten slug of unspecified mass at around 30 kilometers per second.

Another was seen firing a 600-ton depleted uranium slug at supersonic speeds (between 340 ms and 1.715 kms).

The high muzzle velocity provides the slug the kinetic energy and momentum necessary to damage a target and partially mitigates its unguided nature and its lack of maneuverability.

A Halberd -class destroyers main gun can launch 1170mm slugs at high-velocity speeds.

A destroyer circa 2552 operating at half its usual power output required 50 minutes to charge up its two MACs to 100, indicating it would normally take 25 minutes to charge both, or 12.5 minutes to charge one.

Captain Wallace and Catherine Halsey were able to hold a short conversation complete with emphasizing pauses in the time it took for the UNSC Commonwealth s MAC to charge up an additional 20 (from 30 to 50).

However, the UNSC Majestic was able to fire four MAC rounds after its initial two, at what was implied to be full charge against a few Covenant cruisers, in around ten seconds.

Charon -class light frigates were able to fire with only a few seconds of delay between shots during the Battle of Voi, though these shots were fired at an unconfirmed charge level.

At the Battle of Sigma Octanus IV, frigates and destroyers were ordered to remain static, which allowed them to funnel all available energy into charging their capacitors.

Despite this, it still takes at least thirty seconds for them to charge their MACs to 100.

As a result, MAC rounds are often fired at significantly below their maximum potential velocity by an order of magnitude or more.

This results in the impacts being much weaker, but the MACs can be fired far faster and such firepower is still sufficient to destroy the shields of most Covenant warships after a few hits.

This improved technology was only known to be implemented with the UNSC Pillar of Autumn prior to the Fall of Reach.

The modified weapon, known as the Mark II, Light Coil - 56A2D4MAC, 44 charged faster than the standard version, though this is likely due to the Pillar of Autumn s advanced reactors.

While much faster than usual, the Pillar of Autumn still suffered from long charge times for its MAC; this could be partially mitigated by putting the totality of the ships output into charging the weapon, though this was considered a risky tactic, as the engines would have to be powered down and the ship rendered static and vulnerable.

Also exclusive to the Pillar of Autumn along with the modified MAC were newer and lighter MAC rounds that had less dense ferrous core, but a harder outer layer of tungsten carbide.

The orbital defense platforms present in orbit of Reach were among the most powerful ever built, 8 approximately 802.2 metres (2,632 ft) long 2 and capable of accelerating 3,000-ton projectiles to point four-tenths the speed of light, placing it with pinpoint accuracy and impacting with a massive amount of kinetic energy.

Most UNSC and Covenant vessels are destroyed by this weapon, with shielded Covenant destroyers being shattered into a million fragments upon impact.

The Moncton -class orbital weapons platforms of the Earth s orbital defense grid, on the other hand, were capable of accelerating multi-ton projectiles to muzzle velocities of several kilometers per second via hundreds of asynchronous linear induction motors lining the barrel.

However, these guns, even with assistance from the UNSC Home Fleet, were not powerful enough to pierce the shields of the Ur-Didact s flagship, Mantles Approach.

Only the UNSC Infinity s MAC guns managed to pierce Mantles Approachs hull at a closer range causing considerable damage and even then only after John-117 managed to disable the ships point-defense guns and shield emitters using an F-41 Broadsword.

However, the Infinity had to get within relatively close range and needed John-117 to disable some of the Mantles Approachs point-defense guns to take the shot.

Halo For Mac