Swarm Missile
Type	Tracking Missile
Available From	Everyone
Fitted To	Tracking Launchers
Role	Anti-Fighter, Anti-Medium
Required Licence	None

In-game Description

Light Swarm

The Light Swarm missile is the Paranid solution to the need for a missile system with an enhanced defence bypass capability from a single launcher system. A single container missile is launched from a standardised universal launcher tube. The container is really only there to ensure compatibility with standardised tube dimensions, and is discarded immediately after clearing the launch-tube. As the four-part outer shell peels away, the Light Swarm missile reveals its many, viciously fanged heads in the form of several smaller, independently operating missiles that streak towards the target.

An unfortunate compromise born of the smaller form factor of these sub-missiles, is naturally that their warheads and guidance sections are not nearly as capable as those of a full-sized weapon. However, where a full-sized weapon would present a significantly easier interception task for the defensive gun and missile systems on a target vessel, the multiple smaller weapons complicate this, both by increasing the saturation level through sheer numbers but also by being smaller and effectively a harder target to hit. This requires guns to stay longer on target, and defensive missile banks to expend many more shorts to avert an impact.

Heavy Swarm

The bigger sister to the Light Swarm missile, the Heavy Swarm version is also a Paranid weapon system designed to overcome defensive anti-missile measures on a well equipped target. Like its smaller counterpart, the Heavy Swarm missile uses a two-stage solution to achieve this. A larger primary stage consists of an external shell that carries multiple, smaller missiles internally. The outer shell ensures compliance with standardised launchers, and the internally carried sub-missiles are released just a few seconds after launch. At that point, they disperse and follow an infra-red spectrum guidance laser from the launching ship to the intended target. The use of the laser makes the system somewhat cheaper, which helps offset the cost of several guidance sections, but also makes the weapon susceptible to infra-red decoys such as flares.

The sub-missiles are fitted with fairly powerful high-explosive warheads behind a teladianium disc. When triggered, the teladianium forms into a shape somewhat like a dart. This dart penetrates into the target where it fractures into large, devastating shards of almost molten metal, causing tremendous damage.

Tactical Overview

Light Swarm Missile
Initially appearing as the most useful missile against small fighters, the Light Swarm Missile releases a swarm of fast, hard-to-dodge missiles capable of retargeting after being distracted by flares or if the current target is destroyed. However, in practice, the Light Swarm missile performs poorly. All the missiles fly as one unit, rather than acting as individual missiles, leading to only the two or three missiles in the center of the swarm hitting the target. The remaining missiles awkwardly circle around the target, resulting in abyssmal effective damage. With its base damage not being high enough to significantly impact other targets, the Light Swarm Missile is ultimately disappointing and should be avoided.

Heavy Swarm Missile
The Heavy Swarm Missile is a different beast. While it retains the advantages of the retargeting system from the Light variant, it also suffers from the "group behavior. However, its significantly increased damage makes it effective against medium targets and larger. Capable of dealing good damage to most medium targets, plus the larger size of the target makes the flight pattern less of an issue. It proves effective against turrets on L and XL targets as well. Boosting before launch dramatically increases the range while tightening the swarm, leading to a more accurate launch. It even packs enough of a punch to be a cost-effective alternative to Torpedos.

Specifications

Construction Cost

Universal Build Method

Closed Loop Build Method

Terran Build Method