Spitting Cobra

Specifications
Use	Fire-support Gear
Production Code	OACS-01H/SU
Manufacturer	Territorial Arms
Height	5.0 meters
Speed	Walker: 35 kph SMS: 62 kph

The Spitting Cobra is the heaviest mass-produced Gear chassis currently in service with the Southern MILICIA and Republican Army.

Designed to fill the operational role of a heavy weapons platform, the Spit (as its crews invariably call it) is designed to wield devastating medium to long-range firepower on the modern battlefield. The Spitting Cobra’s main fire-support weapon is a massive SCRP-98 backmounted rocket pod. Although unguided, the heavy rockets can saturate an area with ease and can take out heavily armored targets. More precise is the secondary fire-support weapon, a shoulder-mounted Vogel-H series guided mortar. Although less powerful than the SCRP-98 rockets, the Vogel-H fires high-technology guided munitions capable of in-flight course corrections, allowing the Spitting Cobra to make full use of laser-designator data provided by forward observers such as infantry or scout Gears.

Both major weapons have an effective range of 1200 meters. Short to medium-range firepower is provided by a second pair of weapons more typical of a general purpose Gear, comprised of a MR60 autocannon and a shoulder-mounted FSRP-36 rocket pod. These weapons provide an excellent defense against assault Gears and other units. Close defense capabilities are provided by a MGU-77 minigun fixed to the Cobra’s upper torso, allowing the Gear to fend off infantry at very close range.

The heavy weapons load of the Spitting Cobra required a high-strength chassis so Territorial Arms used concepts developed by Mandeers Heavy Industries and thoroughly tested in their Desert Viper and Python Gears (and related models). Thick armoplast armor over a hulking frame are the mainstay of the Spitting Cobra. Developed in a time of concerns for pilot safety, the Cobra features a very heavily armored cockpit, allowing the Gear to shrug off the most dangerous attacks.

Unlike the Python, the Cobra uses a standard sensor pod arrangement, with the pilot’s head within the Gear’s. The Cobra required a very powerful engine so the WV-1500TC/A V-engine, with its 940 Hp output, was chosen to fit the bill along with a half-track secondary movement system.

Usage

The Spitting Cobra was developed in the TN 1880s as part Territorial Arms' renaissance, which also included the Sidewinder and Iguana, and was a clear response to the development of the Northco/Shaian Grizzly, the heavy fire-support Gear of the Northern armies. Southern commanders expected the two Gears to come to blows in relatively short order, and they were not dissapointed as the two machines faced each other in many skirmishes in the Badlands. The Cobra has performed very well since it’s introduction. The Mandeers Gears — the Boa, Python and Anaconda — that preceded it were never very popular in the Southern forces and the Spitting Cobra had relatively little trouble displacing it. The Cobra remains an expensive machine, however, so costs did limit its distribution somewhat.

By the time of the War of the Alliance, many of the units facing the initial Colonial Expeditionary Force assaults on the South could field Cobras. As the superiority of the CEF's combination of speed and armor became obvious, many commanders pressed Cobras into assault and antiarmor units, roles in which they performed well, but that resulted in heavy losses in the early days of the war. The Spitting Cobra became a valuable commodity after these initial losses and the crippling of Southern production facilities, but was nevertheless involved in many critical wartime battles. As Territorial Arms’ production lines came back on line toward the end of the war, the Cobra and its war-time variants became more common and were an important part of the drive into the desert.

In the post-war period, the Spit has continued to perform well and has inspired a series of useful variants. The war-time assault and firesupport specialists have been joined by anti-aircraft, anti-infantry and engineering models. The Mandeers fire-support models have been largely pushed to second-line duty or retirement by the Cobra and the heavy machine is a critical part of the Territorial Arms stranglehold on the Southern Gear market. The Gear’s development from Mandeers concepts occasionally comes back to haunt TA, with some analysts accusing the industrial giant of the theft of intellectual property. A successful court case, however, has never been mounted and, at least in public, TA does not seem concerned.

Variants

• Support (Bushmaster) Cobra

Media

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