Mandeers Heavy Industries
Mandeers Heavy Industries began operations in TN 1577, producing heavy equipment and vehicles for the construction and mining industries. In TN 1645, the company started manufacturing power generators, beginning with solar- and wind-powered ones, then hydrocarbon and finally fusion generators for civilian powerplants; Mandeers currently operates many such plants throughout the AST. The company began developing its own Gear designs in TN 1753, but was never very successful in selling its designs to the Southern militaries.
Mandeers managed to sell its Python fire-support design to the Southern Republican Army, but sales to the Southern MILICIA were never as plentiful. It was eventually replaced in SRA service by the Territorial Arms Spitting Cobra. The Python fared better than the Boa and Anaconda designs, however, which failed to ever reachactive service and proved a great drain on Mandeers resources. Mandeers’ one real success in the military market was its Viper series which is still in service with the SRA and the Southern MILICIA. Even this line is beginning to show its age, however, and is being phased out in favor of newer or more versatile Territorial Arms models.
Because of these problems, Mandeers was forced to sell many of its Gear designs outright to the Republican government about fifty cycles ago in order to get itself out of financial difficulties. The Republican government in turn licensed the designs to Territorial Arms, a kick in the teeth for Mandeers, confirming suspicions about Territorial Arms’ building a state-backed monopoly. Since then, Mandeers has concentrated its Gear manufacturing in the private market, where it has met with significantly greater success. Due to the popularity of its civilian models, Mandeers is as well known as Territorial Arms, a situation that annoys TA to no end. Still, Mandeers is beginning to lose its market share and if this is not remedied soon, it may be forced to withdraw from the Gear market completely.
Recently, there have been rumors that Mandeers has joined forces with Dynamic Systems to produce a new generation of military Gears, designed to end Territorial Arms domination of the market. Mandeers is keen to reestablish itself in military Gears and Dynamic Systems is making a name for itself in Gear design, but manyindustry observers say that they will have a hard time upstaging the current market leader.
The rumors of a new project are given credence by recent moves to restructure military Gear development. The Water Viper, although initially successful, remains a niche product that sells in small numbers. Mandeers has signed agreements with New Baja to increase sales on the model, but even these are not on the scale the management of the company would like to see. Some analysts theorize that Mandeers intends to eventually swallow up Dynamic Systems and use its excellent reputation in both military and civilian circles to finally break the TA monopoly,