There are two sides to missile launchers.
On one hand they're devastating man-portable anti-vehicle weapons at a reasonable price and availability, and on the other hand they're heavy and awkward to lug around, in addition to the questions they raise.

As a direct result of this they're often left at home when no vehicles are expected, or when subtlety is called for. This is completely fine... until your mark rolls up in a light tank and you begin cursing and diving for cover.

To solve this problem I present to you the Ares Strategic Anti-Vehicle Missile, on-call artillery support for those on a budget.

As you can see, this rigger-capable drone missile has been outfitted with a secondary fuel tank that expands the weapon's normal ten-second operational time to a staggering six hours, giving it a theoretical maximum range of 21,609 kilometers, more than halfway to the moon! You don't even need to aim, as after you designate your target the weapon's on-board pilot program will take care of the rest. And, at a wallet-friendly 3,500 per device breaking the enemy no longer needs to break your budget.

Leaving your weapons at home no longer means keeping them out of the fight.

Ares does not condone shadowrunning, shadowrunners, or other criminal activity. Ares is not responsible for damages caused by Ares Strategic Anti-Vehicle Missile impact. Attempts to shoot down low orbital habitats and weapon systems with this missile may cause unit malfunction and are not covered by warranty

Now, for your viewing pleasure, we are proud to present the "Voidray" surface to orbit missile.



A variant long range missile capable of engaging targets in space, the Voidray can launch from a standard shoulder-mounted missile launcher, then hit a predesignated target in high orbit or even on the surface of the moon. Hyper-efficient pre-oxygenated fuels allow the voidray to operate for a full twelve hours, even in a vacuum, giving it all but unlimited operational range.

In space, no-one can hear you explode!

~22,000 kilometers isn't even that close to the moon. The average distance to the moon is 384,400 km. But the 12 hour version will be able to hit most satellites (Geostationary orbit is at 35,786 km above the equator). You'll come up a bit shy to hit those satellites if they're on the other side of the earth, but perhaps if you found a way to include suncells in addition to the fuel tank and improved economy.

Missed a zero. my bad.
still, the voidray's maximum range (double that of the Strategic AV Missile) is a bit over 43,000 km... probably enough to hit that Ares rod-dropper that's been trying to take you out with Thor shots.

Not so untouchable now, are you!?! How you liking it now that we're shooting back?!?

still, ~22,000 Km is still pretty decent range on a metahuman-portable weapon.

Edit: maybe add that suncell after all. ups it to 86,000 Km... and then it just hangs out in space as it recharges. Then it hits the moon

Oh, definitely. If it's shooting at/near you, it has to be in the same hemisphere. That's within range of your Voidray.

Also, some perspective: the earth has a circumference of just slightly over 40,000 km. That means that the 6-hour operation missile can hit anything planetside (though you probably won't be able to hit a moving target considering the speeds and distances involved)

See, you are making an assumption here that I think does not work. The Fuel supply of a Heimdall only last for 18 Seconds (6 Turns). That is its capacity (it is miniscule after all). Adding an additional Fule tank normally doubles operational time (From 6 Hours to 12 Hours). Unfortunately, for the Heimdall, operational Time is ONLY 18 Seconds. so, the additional Fuel Capacity should only add Double that (so 36 Seconds, or 12 Turns), not increase it to add an additional 6 Hours. For your assumption to make sense, well, the fuel tank would SO outweigh the actual missile body as to be ludicrous... To be capable of the flight you assume, you have somehow increased the fuel capacity of the Heimdall by a factor of 7200 times its normal capacity, by adding a mod slot that should only multiply capacity by a factor of 2. Sorry, but no.

6 rounds base? i thought it was only three. huh.

I checked the description very thoroughly on Extra fuel tank, as Initially thought it would double operation time as well. the plan was to create something that could hit anything in Seattle by combining extra fuel tank, suncell and improved economy, giving me an "oh shit a tank just rocked up" emergency option in my home city.
however, the wording on extra fuel tank SPECIFIES six hours.


When I realized the sheer ridiculous abuse I could do by effectively making a compact smart-ICBM for under 4 grand I just had to put it here.

Edit: and I totally agree, it does make no real-world sense. Maybe the initial rocket fuel gets it up to velocity and then the secondary tank and engine kick in using a high-powered propeller to maintain the velocity. No it's not realistic, but it makes more sense than strapping an extra 6 hours of high-powered rocket fuel to the missile!

TJ has the right of it. Those rules you mention then point specifically at p103... which details the 'normal' operational time is 6 hours for most things. But the GM should change this up as he sees fit! Page 103 is your problem. (If someone stuffs an extra fuel tank on a ship with a base run time of a week... I'm not going to add 6 hours to it... I'm going to double it to 2weeks). If you stuff it on a missile with 6 combat turn... great you get 12 combat turns...

The problem with this is this is a missile. It's not an aerial drone. It's a missile which just happens to have extra drone functionality. You could get your 6 hour runtime by putting a drone rack onto a large drone with a missile launcher on a reinforced weapon mount. Then simply launch the heimdall as a standoff weapon from that.


Heimdall has special rules specific to it on operational time speed and maneuverability. 6 combat turns. It also says fired from a normal rocket launcher. Yet most have have zero problems I've noticed if you just mount it on a mini-drone rack.


So you get 12, 36km. If you give it improved economy also, you can double that again. 24... 72km. Also given the turn rate limitations... (it takes 12 combat turns to do a 360! you're generally only going to get one chance to ram the target). Some things like suncell don't make sense... (it's not an electric, it's chemical rocket fuel).


I'm not sure if that's just the program listing basics, but the heimdall is a drone so already has rigger adaptation and doesn't need it installed.


Here's some other problems which can come up with this one. If a mini-drone rack carries one. My favorite concept is the multi-launch drone rack as a vertical launch system (see the GTS tower in Arsenal)... however the turn rate limitations of the missile kick in. It launches vertically. Okay it can only turn 30deg/combat turn... that's 3 combat turns and it's gone 6-9km before you've even got it turned to the horizon. Great long range bombardment tool... lousy close in point the missile at the target and shoot solution!

Maybe the disagreement can be resolved by noting that a missile is not a vehicle. No vehicle (well, none available to characters) in the books travels at the speeds at which missiles travel.

Someone being reasonable? on DUMPSHOCK?!?

Isn't that the second sign of the Apocalypse or something (CanRay actually getting to play was the first sign)?

Edit: Of course, the most insane upgrade combo would be Additional Fuel Tank, Suncell, Improved Economy, and... you guys will love this one... Lighter than air. Because nothing says 'Abusing drone rules' better than strapping a missile to a balloon and having it fly around the world a few times at mach 1.5 or so. I would also like to add that there's an 'enhanced payload' version available by adding the 'Termination System: Self Destruct" option... which means that RAW you can have a drone that launches from a missile tube, has enough fuel to maintain a speed just under Mach 3 for six hours (12 with improved economy... and I'm not even sure how you'd price that as the drone/missile/whatever has non-standard acceleration) and still have enough room in its body to add a second warhead...
It must be made by Ares Japan. They're the masters of miniaturized technology after all!

Well, we need to add satellite Communication or you'll not have the comm range to control the missile unless you upgrade it's signal range to 6. Even then you'll only control it up to 10 Kilometers.

So with additional fuel tank and improved economy you could get a rang of 72km. (BTW well within range of most of your Seattle stuff.) But you would need both your commlink and the missile to have a signal rating of 8.

(I go with the additional fuel tank doubles range for the missile.)

Of course, if you are rigging it, you could always attempt a stunt to improve its turn radius. Within the rules, if a little questionable.

You're assuming that you want more control than simply telling it to 'hit this target' and letting it get on with it. maybe for the final run it'd be worth it, but since the entire point is to call in support to your position you really only need to be in control for the last few seconds.

I would like to add that initially I wanted to strap Satellite Comms to it as well, but I'm pretty sure that upgrade isn't allowed on microdrones

But they should. At least, they should travel at the speeds of SR4 missiles, if not real missiles. There's a real lack of supersonic aircraft and there ought to be mach4 missiles with 75+km ranges, like the soon to be obsolete AIM120-B.

And just for conversation, a tomahawk cruise missile has a 1,700km range with speeds of up to 550mph while carrying a 1,000lb warhead big enough to take out a warship and has "tacnet" features. It also costs almost $1.5M and weighs 1.5 tons.

All that is well and good, but what does the little red button on the bottom do?

It's called the 'Darwin' button.

Press it and find out why...

May i suggest the combination of LTA+Fuelcell+Suncell in that case for the sheer silliness of it.

The missile will now be the fat lightning blimp of doom.

We should have a operation time of [18X(6+6)] X 10 = 2160 = 36M

36 minutes operation time and a speed of 100-150 KM/H

your math is out. it's .75km/second or 2700 km/h.
of course, that just makes it even more awesome.

Betcha he was looking at the flavor text. Either the specs were changed after the text was written and the editors didn't catch it or the flavor text was wrong and the author can't do math and the editors didn't catch that.

Why doesn't this thing have a Suncell on it?

Cost cutting.

Re: the whole 'a missile can't carry a 6-hour secondary fuel tank' thing:
"It's not a question of where it grips it, it's a simple question of weight ratios! a five ounce bird CANNOT carry a one pound coconut."
"Supposing two swallows carried it together?"
"Nah, they'd have to have it on a line."
"Simple, they just use a strand of tree bark."
"What, tucked under the dorsal guiding feathers?"
"Well why not?"

Suncell powering an air-breathing VASIMR or other ion thruster?

I'm trying to imagine how in the world you get a missile to fly for six hours.


Since no modifications actually have any rules for impeding the performance for the vehicle (except as specified,) I'm going to have to assume that the "extra fuel tank" actually builds an enormous tank containing liquid rocket fuel at ridiculous, physically-impossible pressures, and several additional thrust nozzles, with the regular missile strapped on and launched at the last moment.


That, or it actually just adds a very, very small amount of antimatter that's released slowly...

Basically a similar arrangement to the space shuttle's initial boosters? i can see that.
Now i'm trying to imagine how you'd put one of those in a standard missile launcher. It must just be a little bit of it actually in the launcher with the rest hanging out the front
I don't even want to imagine trying to aim that thing. It'd probably hurt the shoulder of anyone who isn't a troll, too.

Edit: If you replaced the rocket fuel with an electrical jet engine of some description (maybe a pressure chamber and jet exhaust) then I can see a missile being able to sustain extended flight until the battery runs out. It isn't technically a rocket anymore, but given the state of battery/compact generator technology in the sixth world i can see it being possible without increasing the missile's bulk excessively. In such a case I'd either rule that the initial rocket engine is either only used to get the missile up to speed when launched, or else scrapped entirely.

Well, ultralight materials, memory plastics and dual engine assembly.

A booster rocket for launch with strapped fuel tank
Memory plastics that changes the "missile" into a more aerodynamic shape for long range flight
Secondary Suncell driven engine for long range flight

At the apex of its booster trajectory it drops the extra fuel tank to loose weight and activates its main engine. Suncell technology coped with memory plastics gives it the surface area to attain enough energy to minimize fuel drain on internal systems.

Could be it's just nuclear powered (has SR tech made nuclear fusion available enough? If not, go with fission). You don't need a lot of extra mass for that.

Which should increase the cost by a factor of about 1000 or so.

I have discovered a truly marvelous method of solving this, which this post is too small to contain.