Used by all branches of the United Government Armed Forces including the United Earth Robotechnology Defense Force (RDF), The Armies of the Southern Cross (ASC), as well as the United Earth Robotechnology Expeditionary Force (REF); the Hammerhead has been the primer dog fighting missile since post 2015. With one of the most impressive kill counts of any missile in history, it is carried on almost all destroids, aircraft and and other vehicles currently in service including (but not limited to) the VF-6 Alpha (which it was originally developed for), VF-12 Beta, VF-4 Lightning III, MBR-10 Mk II Excalibur, and the F-206 Falcon II.
The Hammerhead is effectively a Terran upgraded copy of the feared Zentraedi Glatrlan Diwhaug, better known under its Terran codename MPA-6A Maggot Universal Dogfight Missile, and has a similar cylindrical main body with raised seeker section. Where it differs is its wider but squatter body to allow to a larger and more powerful warhead to be carried. Despite this, the Hammerhead is still small enough to be carried in large numbers like it's zentraedi fore bearer and even boasts almost twice the range.
Its primary role was also originally the same as the Maggots, to allow the carry of enough missile to let the firing platform to fire off a salvo of three to five rounds in the hope of over whelming the enemies point defense so a few missile get through. However the envisioned threat of troilian advanced forces never fully manifesting and the REF instead found its self at war with the mad tyrant Regent invid forces where the Hammerhead found its self as an even more well suited for this new target environment. Almost all invid mecha lacked any real form of point defense and could in most cases be one shotted by the missile. In fact the only real down side was that even though most platforms could carry upwards of 30 or more of this missile, the shear numbers the invid could throw into even a low level battle meant that even this number of missile was barely ever enough.
Two types of warheads were available, a armor-piercing, hardcore explosive (see APHEX, Ultra-Tech pg. 152) warhead that is the most common used for air-to-air engagements while a high-energy plasma warhead (see Plasma, Ultra-Tech pg. 158) is against bunkers and other ground targets. Both versions warheads were 13lbs.
The original Hammerhead models where introduced in late 2015 and used Combined IIR and active radar/home-on-jam seekers (treat as TL9 multi-Spectral Homing, Ultra-Tech pg. 146) with the Hammerhead A carrying the APHEX warhead and the Hammerhead B carrying the plasma warhead. Both the A and the B where largely phased out by the REF in 2026 but stayed in service by the ASC until its collapse at the hands of the invid. However a large stockpile remained even after the fall of the United Earth Government which added both local anti-invid resistance fighters as well as reclamation forces sent by the REF.
Starting in the 2025 the REF, with help the now liberated robotech master homeworld of Troil, developed a version of the Hammerhead with a slightly more advanced radar and hyperspectral seeker that was better suited to tracking invid mecha (treat as TL10 multi-Spectral Homing). The warhead options however remained the same as they both served in the anti-invid roles exceptionally well with the APHEX warhead now being called Hammerhead C and the plasma armed one being called Hammerhead D.
All versions were capable of off angle lock-ons.
Backblast: 6d+2 burn.
ARTILLERY (GUIDED MISSILE) (IQ-5)
TL Weapon Damage Acc Range Weight RoF Shots ST Cost LC Notes
10 Hughes MIB-3 Hammerhead A, 190mm 7d×13(2) pi++ 4 1,125/9,000 64 1 1(20) 17M $130,000 1 [1]
follow-up 5d×5 cr ex [9d+2]
[1]The Hammerhead B model replaces the APHEX warhead with a plasma one that does 6d×26 burn ex sur. The B model is otherwise identical to the A model.
While I figure a good chunk of you already know what this lil' missile I just stated up is all aboot, just in case you're scratching you head; I am yet again diving into the world of The New Generation saga from Robotech. Given that my last two posts covering the topic are among my most visited along with getting requests to cover more tech from the setting I decided now was a good time to get back at it (of course rediscovering an old file tucked away on my computer holding nothing but Robotech stuff might of had a thing or two with this as well heh).
Of course this is just a quick tease while I got limited net. In the mean time I'm gonna be tackling a few more robo-toys for you guys to play with (along with a couple of non-Robotech goodies that are pretty close to being done as well) so hang tight for now, there's more to come!
