Designation: Main Battle Robot MBR-07 Spartan.

I. Dimensions:

II. Type:

• Design: Continental-Kraus Maffei Destroids GMBH.
• Builders: Continental-Kraus Maffei Destroids GMBH.
• Type: one man all weather main battle Destroid mecha.

III. Service History:

• MBR-07 Mark I: Served with the RDF Army for January 2008 until replaced by the MBR-07 Mark II.
• MBR-07 Mark II: Served with the RDF Army, Marines, and Spacy from 2009 until 2020.

IV. Propulsion:

Powerplant:

• 1 RRL-1 miniaturized protoculture-cell energizer.
• 8 standard cannisters of protoculture.

Thrusters for Space Maneuvering:

(main)

• 1 x AST-05 quad thruster bank on the back, total thrust 7 kN for a total delta-v of approximately 0.2 kps.

(vernier)

• 5 x Nakajima NBS-1 high-thrust vernier thrusters, located on the upper calves (2), the front waist (2) and the upper back (1).
• 6 x P&W LHP04 low-thrust vernier thrusters, located on the upper forearms (2 per arm) and on the chest (2).

V. Performance:

• Maximum running speed : 61 kph.
• Protoculture endurance: an average of 350 hours operational use.

VI. Electronics:

Radar System:

• Hughes APG-198 short range (45 km) X band pulse Doppler phased array UWB radar.

Optical tracking:

• Thomson DOS-2000 multi-band digital camera system, for medium range spherical UV, infra-red imaging and optical band detection and tracking
• Thomson LT-3 multi-frequency laser ranger and designator.
• Zeiss TS-2 long range telescopic array for visible/IR spectrum.

Tactical Electronic Warfare System (TEWS):

• Elettronica Radar Warning Receiver (RWR)
• OlDelft Infra-red Warning Receiver (IRWR)
• Westinghouse ALQ-198(V) active radar jammer
• Chaff dispenser
• Active missile jammers.

VII. Armament:

Gunpod (OPTIONAL):

• 1 x Rheinmetall GU-12 single smoothbore barrel gun pod. Fires 105mm APFSDS and HEAP (High Explosive Armor Piercing) semi-combustible case munitions at 45 rounds/minute. Ammunition supply is 40 rounds.
• or 1 x Hughes GU-11 55mm three barreled smoothbore rotary gun pod; has a 200 round capacity. Cannon fires APFSDS (Armor Piercing Fin-Stabilized Discarding Sabot) and HESH-I (High Explosive Squash Head-Incendiary) rounds at 1200 rounds/minute.

  Note that some Spartans, used in civil protection role, were equipped with special clubs. This was after the Holocaust, and the batons were meant to be used against unarmed Zentraedi felons.

Internal:

• 1 x Mauser RöV-10 twin laser turret, contains 2 light lasers. 360 degree rotation with 150 degree elevation/depression. Fires 6 MJ laser pulses up to 60 times/minute.
• 1 x Astra TZ-IV gun cluster containing:
  • 1 Oerlikon KPA 32mm autocannon, firing APHE (Armor Piercing High Explosive) and HEI-T (High Explosive Incendiary with Tracer) rounds. The maximum rate of fire is 850 rounds/minute. The ammunition supply is 800 rounds, and the maximum effective range is about 3500 meter.
  • 1 Vickers 180mm direct-fire mortar, which launches shells of 75 kg up to an effective range of 500 meters. The cannons can fire one shell every 12 seconds, and the grenade thrower has a supply of 7 rounds.
  • 1 RRG mk3 laser cannon. The laser can fire a 3 MJ laser burn once per second.
  • 1 x FN DFT flame-thrower. The effective range of this weapon is 100 meters, and the cluster has fuel supplies for this thrower for one minute.
• 2 x Bofors MRL-1a missile launcher. The two launcher can mount a total of 24 short range (8.2km) variable warhead, combined infra-red imager and active radar homing 120mm Rapier III missiles in shoulder mounts.

VIII. Armor:

The armor on the Spartan is composed of a standard Chobham laminar developed in the late 20th century and improved with the materials science advances made during the Robotech era. This armor was mainly designed to defeat projectiles and other kinetic weapons. The armor stops all small arms, heavy infantry weapons fire, and light mecha-mounted weaponry, and provides fair to good resistance to medium mecha-mounted weaponry, such as the Valkyrie's 55mm APFSDS round.

The Spartan provides full protection from nuclear, biological, and chemical hazards, using an overpressure cockpit environment activated by radiation and hazardous chemical sensors, or manually when biological warfare conditions are anticipated. The internal consumables supplies can provide atmosphere for three days maximum.

IX. Development:

The MBR-07 series was originally conceived as a back-up to the MBR-04 project. The MBR-07 was designed by the rival Continental-Kraus Maffei consortium, and initially lost out to the MBR-04 series. However, the need for destroid production was desperate and the Continental-Kraus Maffei group managed to secure minor initial orders on another contract, which later were enlarged after their destroid design had proven itself.

Being designed as a contender to the Tomahawk, the Spartan shared many features which had been part of the original specifications. The fixed armament of the Spartan had nearly identical gun clusters and the same shoulder-launched missile battery. The Spartan lacked the heavy particle cannons in the arms and the anti-aircraft missile box launcher, despite being nearly as heavy as the Tomahawk. However, the Spartan was much faster, and equipped with a gunpod and upper laser turret.

The Spartan was built to a different philosophy than the Tomahawk; at first, this almost was the destroids' undoing, only to turn around and save the design shortly afterwards. The Tomahawk carried slightly heavier armor and more armament, and thus was a better stand-and-deliver defensive destroid, which initially gave it the production contract. The Spartan was designed with speed and flexibility in mind, and much of the mass saved by not including the heavy particle beams had gone into heavier actuators for the legs. In addition, the use of fully functional hands made the use a a gunpod extremely simple, and thus the Spartan could be armed as circumstances dictated and gunpods were available. When shortly after the purchase of the MBR-04 the RDF Army issued a specification for a more mobile and flexible destroid, the builders of the MBR-07 re-submitted their design and won the contract handily. The Spartan was later sold to the other RDF arms as well.

The Spartan gave excellent service throughout the Zentraedi wars. Its one flaw was a lack of sustained long range fire, the three lasers being rather light in yield, and the gunpods dependant on (limited) ammunition. Therefore, the 24 missiles were the main long distance weapons, and the Spartan commonly used its mobility to close with the enemy before engaging him.

See additional design notes.

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