Land-Air BattleMech

Originally conceived during the Star League era, the Land-Air 'Mech, or LAM, is a hybrid military unit capable of transforming between BattleMech and Aerospace Fighter forms, an ability that conveys great speed and flexibility at the cost of power and protection. LAMs are a preferred recon and fast raid unit, but their fragility and rarity made them uncommon in the original SLDF and increasingly so in the Succession War era.

Construction

Only three LAM designs were produced, each based on an existing successful BattlMech design:

• The Stinger LAM
• The Wasp LAM
• The Phoenix Hawk LAM

At one point it was attempted to construct a LAM based off the 55 ton Shadow Hawk, but it proved impossible to produce a functional prototype (presumably due to weight limitations). LAMs cannot exceed a total mass of 55 tons and cannot use Omni technology.

It should be noted that LAMs are heavier than the BattleMechs they are based on (by 5 tons in the case of the Phoenix Hawk LAM, and by 10 tons otherwise). Although some components from the 'Mechs may have been used, the LAMs are entirely different machines and look distinctively different from their respective conceptual parent designs; in that respect, their names are somewhat misleading.

LAMs are unduly susceptible to damage. Hits to their delicate structure can easily block the transformation mechanism and lock the LAM in whatever mode it was in when taking the hit. This usually cripples the LAM as it takes away its versatility. Just like regular Aerospace Fighters, they can easily be downed by lucky hits in Aerospace mode leading to a fatal crash.

Available information also suggests that LAMs require an enormous maintenance effort to keep them operable, which offsets their limited tactical advantages.

Combat abilities

Thanks to their transforming ability, LAMs combine some features of Aerospace Fighters and BattleMechs, and a hybrid mode in between called AirMech mode. Despite their vaunted abilities, LAMs are jacks-of-all-trades and masters of none. While able to serve double-duty as both a Aerospace Fighter and BattleMech, due to the required conversion equipment, a LAM in either mode is not ton for ton the equal of a fighter or 'Mech of equivalent weight. Even in the Star League era, the heaviest LAM to see action on the battlefield was 50 tons, limiting their effectiveness against heavy and assault weight aerospace fighters and 'Mechs.

BattleMech mode

LAMs are essentially BattleMechs and act just like other 'Mechs in this mode. Their extra conversion equipment is integrated in the design and does not occupy critical slots. Arm and leg actuators, hip and gyroscope are all treated as part of the LAM transformation mechanism, and hits to these components will impair or prohibit transformation.

Aerospace Fighter mode

In this mode, a LAM operates much like an ordinary Aerospace Fighter. Most importantly, it can operate from Fighter Hangars on DropShips and can make its own way to a target from orbit, where a BattleMech in a drop-pod is a vulnerable and relatively slow moving target.

In this mode they have only modest fuel reserves (30 points under BattleTech Compendium rules), and cannot carry bombs.

AirMech mode

As well as Aerospace fighter and BattleMech modes, LAMs have a hybrid interim mode between the other two most frequently referred to as AirMech mode, which resembles an aerospace fighter with arms and legs. In this mode the LAM can move its triple normal jumping distance without generating heat, and has VTOL capabilities.

Decline

Produced in limited numbers by only a handful of factories, the majority of LAM manufacturers were among those factories lost to the malestrom of the early Succession Wars. Some of the most pyrrhic objective raids in the Succession War era saw whole regiments of conventional Battlemechs and aerospace fighters heavily damaged or lost to capture a few LAMs or LAM spare part stores. By the Third Succession War, the high cost and rarity of LAMs had made military commanders increasingly wary of committing these prized relics to battle, and most had turned to replacing them with more plentiful conventional counterparts in their TOEs.

By 3025, only a single factory remained in the Inner Sphere that could produce LAM parts and possibly assemble whole new LAMs, LexaTech Industries on the planet Irece. It was specialized on Stinger LAMs, however circumstancial evidence suggests many spare parts from that design could be used on the Wasp LAM as well. Irece was captured by Clan Nova Cat in 3050. The strict Clan caste system has no place for LAM pilots, mainly because their unique position blurs the distinction between MechWarrior and aerospace pilot, and evidence supports the common belief that the Nova Cats have dismantled or refitted that facility; other sources even claim it was razed to the ground. As a result of that action, new repair parts are no longer available for LAMs, forcing those using them to rely even more heavily upon the salvage mentality of the Succession Wars to keep them in operation.

Notes

Like many of the early BattleMechs later referred to as the Unseen, the original concept and art of the three common LAMs types was based upon the transformable variable/veritech fighters of Macross/Robotech, which saw LAMs fall out of favor with FASA staff even before the lawsuit with Harmony Gold. The LAMs became optional Level 3 rules with the Battletech Tactical Handbook in 1994, and the designs themselves were among those dropped from Technical Readout: 3025 due to the lawsuit.

While the 'Mech counterparts of the LAM designs, and in fact all other "unseen" designs, were later provided new art in Technical Readout: Project Phoenix, there has been no attempt to provide Reseen art for the LAM versions, and while the stats and associated rules are still valid under Level 3 play, the last official publication to include them is the now long out of print Battletech Tactical Handbook.

References

• Aerotech
• Technical Readout: 3025
• BattleTech Compendium
• Tactical Handbook