The Valkyrie weapons thread

[transfan52]

Hello I have been a long time macross fan and I've been fascinated by its technology but I never quite figured out why the VF-1A gunpod extends while in battloid mode. Is it to prevent overheating or to increase firing range? Those are my guesses but I really don't know honestly.

Please enlighten me on this subject and feel free to talk about the macross technology and weaponry in this thread! thanks!

[Mr March]

I always assumed it was to extend the retractable grip so it could be used in the Battroid's manipulator (hand). Beyond that reason, perhaps the extending portion of the gun pod also acts as a stock for more stable firing.

[anime52k8]

I always assumed it was to extend the retractable grip so it could be used in the Battroid's manipulator (hand). Beyond that reason, perhaps the extending portion of the gun pod also acts as a stock for more stable firing.

I was about to say the same thing, on the VF-1 the gun pod probably extends so the rear can act as a stock

the VF-25 and the VA-3 are the only one who's gun pod opens/extends for the purpose of cooling.

[Funkenstein]

Cooling? Really? At first I thought that Michaels gun opened its vanes for cooling purposes as well, but that ended up being a glorified bipod. I dont think cooling was ever taken into consideration for the gunpods. Considering that space has no gaseous medium, the cooling ability of the vulcan cannons is significantly reduced,and would require radiative cooling vanes to function half way properly in space. Barrel extensions would only be useful for increasing firing range, not for cooling , though (especially if they used rifled barrels). So, I believe its all for aesthetic appeal.

[anime52k8]

Cooling? Really? At first I thought that Michaels gun opened its vanes for cooling purposes as well, but that ended up being a glorified bipod. I dont think cooling was ever taken into consideration for the gunpods. Considering that space has no gaseous medium, the cooling ability of the vulcan cannons is significantly reduced,and would require radiative cooling vanes to function half way properly in space. Barrel extensions would only be useful for increasing firing range, not for cooling , though (especially if they used rifled barrels). So, I believe its all for aesthetic appeal.

the vanes on the Sniper Pod are stabilizers (probably some type of gyroscopic stabilizer). but the Standard gun pod that all the other use open up for cooling.

the housing of the gunpod's barrels splits in half and opens, and in the Macross Chronicles it's explicitly stated that it does this for cooling purposes. true it wouldn't help much for cooling in space, but in an atmosphere it would be useful (then again you wouldn't be using bullets or missiles in space anyways, with no gravity or air resistance the valk would be propelled back as fast as the projectile it fired)

as you can see the VA-3's gunpod opens in the same fashion as the VF-25's. considering the similar design and the fact that the VA-3 is primarily an atmospheric Valk, it's fairly safe to assume that the VA-3's gunpod opens for the purpose of cooling.

and of course everything in macross is done for aesthetic appeal, but in universe they do have practical reasoning behind them.

on the sniper gunpod it's for stabilization, for the VA-3 and VF-25 it's for cooling. on valks like the VF-17/171, it folds in half to make it more compact for storage purposes, and on the VF-1 and VF-11 the rear section extends out to provide a full butt stock in batriod mode while still being compact while stored in fighter mode.

Edited November 9, 2008 by anime52k8

[hobbes221]

For the gun pods of the VF-1 and VF-25 given that they both seem to open at the chamber area of the cannons it might also help to reduce the chances of jamming due to the ejection port being shorter and maybe wider. As the pods would only be opened in ether gerwalk or battroid modes and as such be hand held and there for less stable than on a hardpoint I think that having the ejection port as short as you could would help out in the long run by not given the shells any more time to get kinked up than you have to.