NARC
NARC, or Narc Missile Beacon, is a missile homing beacon that can be planted on enemy targets, causing friendly missiles, that have acquired no lock from the firing unit, to lock on to them. For this to happen, the missiles still have to be fired from an unit with active radar. They are particularly useful when used in tandem with LRMs and Arrow IVs.
Upon striking a hostile vehicle, NARC acts as a missile guidance beacon for 25 seconds. While the NARC missile itself does no damage, when successfully "stuck" to a target, the NARC will begin broadcasting; in-range friendly vehicles will receive a notification that a NARC is active, and any friendly dumbfired missiles will automatically home in on the beacon once they get within 1000 meters of the beacon, provided they were launched with active radar. NARC beacons will also override a TAG laser if both are active at once.
NARC missiles are very bulky, sharply limiting the number of extra NARC missiles a vehicle can carry.
Weapon Stats
| Weapon | Min Range | Max Range | Lock On Range |
Lock On Time |
Beacon Active |
Beacon Range |
Damage |
Shots /min |
Heat /Shot |
Ammo /ton |
Ammo cost /ton |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| NARC | --- | 500m | 500m | 1.4s | 25s | 1000m | --- | 60 | 20 | 6 | 1500 |
| CNARC | 700m | 700m | |||||||||
| iNARC | 900m | 900m | 2000 |
| All stats are current as of release 0.11.1 |
Preventing/Fighting NARCs
The NARC is a very powerful tool, but there are 2 major ways to fight them:
1. NARC beacons can not succesfuly broadcast from units under the protection of an AECM field, and every beacon fired at such a unit will seem not be able to activate. Already active beacons that come under the influence of a hostile AECM will deactivate and stop broadcasting until they leave the field again or their timer runs out.
2. Any EMP effect, like the one applied by PPCs of all sizes will remove NARCs, no matter where the PPC actually hits. With this it is possible to remove a NARC from a friendly unit by firing a PPC at the nearby wall; just hitting their foot however, won't help. The other source of EMP are critical fusion reactor explosions.
Canon
Causing quite a stir when it was introduced in 2587, the Narc system offered a radically different way of improve missile target acquisition. The culmination of project TATTLETALE by the Terran Hegemony, the Narc launcher fires a short-range missile whose explosive warhead was replaced with a special Homing Pod mounted behind a magnetic head. These pods broadcast a wide-range electromagnetic beacon, one which can be tracked by SRMs and LRMs whose guidance systems have been modified to home in on the signal. The end result is vastly improved accuracy against targets marked with a Narc beacon.
Usage
The following assets equip NARCs:
| NARC | CNARC | iNARC |
|---|---|---|
|
Inner Sphere |
Clan |
Inner Sphere |
| Lists are current as of release 0.11.1 |
