Magnetic Accelerator Cannon: Difference between revisions

A standard [[UNSC frigate|frigate]]-mounted MAC averages at {{convert|183|m|ft}}.<ref name="visual">'''[[Halo: The Essential Visual Guide]]''', ''page 114''</ref> It can fire a 600-ton ferric-tungsten projectile with a depleted uranium core at 30,000 meters per second, and takes several minutes to recharge to full capacity between shots.<ref name="for108"/> The large amount of energy needed to fire the weapon is particularly onerous on a warship, and the extended recharge time is a significant factor in combat against [[Covenant]] warships. As a result, MAC rounds are often fired at significantly below their maximum potential velocity by an order of magnitude or more. This results in the impacts being much weaker, but the MACs can be fired far faster and such firepower is still sufficient to destroy the shields of most Covenant warships after a few hits.<ref name="small MAC velocity" group="note">In every single space battle scene in the novels, including [[Halo: The Fall of Reach]] and [[Halo: Ghosts of Onyx]], MAC slugs are described as cleanly penetrating from one end of Covenant ships and out the other, as well as punching holes in whatever they hit. This would be impossible if the slugs were actually going at 30 kilometers per second on every occasion, as past around [http://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S0734743X06001242 1.7 km/s], the tungsten slugs would create [[https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hypervelocity hypervelocity]] [http://www.esa.int/Our_Activities/Operations/What_are_hypervelocity_impacts impacts]. This matches the depiction of MACs in the games, where they have a refire rate of only a few seconds but have muzzle velocities of only a few kilometers per second at most (as in the last cutscene of [[Cairo Station]] in Halo 2: Anniversary). It also fits the velocity of the MAC slugs in [[Halo: The Fall of Reach - The Animated Series]], and the description of a MAC propelling slugs to "[http://www.merriam-webster.com/dictionary/supersonic supersonic]" (between 340 m/s and 1.7 km/s) velocities on pg. 264 of [[Halo: First Strike]].</ref> The standard Magnetic Accelerator Cannon is sufficient to destroy any human vessel or severely damage an unshielded Covenant vessel.<ref name="small MAC yield" group="note">The ''Halo Encyclopedia'' erroneously states that a typical shipboard MAC slug is fired at .4''c'' (40% the speed of light), which would probably cause the projectile to be atomized by its own acceleration. The weapon's explosive yield is listed as equivalent to 1.17 teratons of TNT. This would release an average of 21,667 times more energy than [[Wikipedia:Tsar Bomba|Tsar Bomba]], the largest nuclear device in history, which is generally agreed to have released between 50 and 58<!--The figure used is 54 megatons for simplicity's sake.--> megatons (210 to 240 petajoules) of TNT-equivalent energy.</ref>