Super Wasp

Super Wasp
Production information
Manufacturer	none (prototype)
Model	WSP-2A
Class	Light
Cost	2,059,167 C-bills
Technical specifications
Mass	25 tons
Chassis	custom (prototype)
Armor	unknown
Engine	Nissan 200
Speed	129.6 km/h
Jump Jets	unknown
Armament	1xMedium Laser 1xSRM-2
BV (1.0)	?
BV (2.0)	?

The WSP-2A Super Wasp is an evolution of the classic Wasp, a re-design that essentially produced a new BattleMech with even a different tonnage.

Armament

The Super Wasp remains faithful to the weapon configuration of the regular WSP-1A Wasp, namely a Medium Laser in the right arm and an SRM-2 launcher in the left leg.

History

The Super Wasp was designed in "Project Phoenix" together with the Super Griffin at the Friden Aerospace Park research facility on Hoff by House Davion scientists including Dr. Jorge Belasco. After eighteen months of work, two operational Super Wasp prototypes had been completed but they were still untested when the Black Widow Company attacked the facility on 13 May 3022. The prototypes were deployed as a last line of defense, and were presumably destroyed. There have been no recorded encounters with either design afterwards.

The Super Wasp and Super Griffin were described as the first fully-redesigned units in four decades, but the Hatchetman was hailed as the Inner Sphere's first new 'Mech design in over a century when it entered full production a few years after the attack on Hoff (and in the Periphery the Merlin had been designed in 3010 already). This suggests the Super Wasp and Super Griffin never came beyond the prototype stage.

Since both designs stretch the construction rules it can be assumed that the research results and blueprints were irrevocably lost over the course of the battles for Hoff; alternatively it can be speculated that their new technology turned out to be unreliable, or otherwise unsuitable for mass production for technical or economical reasons.

Design

The weight of the Super Wasp was increased to 25 tons, allowing for the addition of another ton of armor and the installation of a substantially larger fusion engine that significantly improves the design's ground speed to match famously fast 'Mechs such as the Locust, Spider or Cicada. The jump capacity was not improved, however.

It should be noted that the Super Wasp as described in the sourcebook is an illegal design, as it would be one ton overweight if built under standard rules.

To remedy this it has been suggested to assume that the custom 25 ton chassis be treated as an early equivalent to Endo Steel (which would be exactly one ton lighter than a standard 25 ton chassis). This is, however, just a speculation.

It is noteworthy that the the Wasp and Stinger 'Mechs as published in the original BattleDroids game were one ton overweight (carrying an additional ton of armor). Tales of the Black Widow Company, which is the source for the Super Griffin and Super Wasp, was the very first sourcebook published for the franchise and was presumably written using the original BattleDroids book as a source; since the Wasp was one ton overweight, the Super Wasp ended up one ton overweight as well. When Tales of the Black Widow Company was published, the game had already been renamed to BattleTech and the Wasp and Stinger had their armor reduced by a ton each.

Variants

None known. Although functional prototypes were built, the Super Wasp, itself a variant of the Wasp, apparently never advanced beyond the prototype stage.

References

• Tales of the Black Widow Company (p. 47)