Designed to supliment hollis' aging Catapult C1 design, the
slingshot was based on the same chassis. While the C3
variant is was well recieved, new tactics in counter battery
fire have limited the C3s usefullness. Thus a new design
was required.
Capabilities:
The slingshot's designers origionaly attempted to replace
the LRM 15's with AC 5s but the firepower reduction was
unwarented. The designers tried a gauss rifle design, but
the weapon was too bulky to use dual gauss rifles and a
single gauss caused problems with balance. Running
out of time before the deadline, the designers, in a last
desperate effort the designers contracted the use of the
more uncommon light gauss rifle design. This gamble
payed of, as the day before the deadline they managed to
finish the design. Replacing the catapults internal
structure with endo-steel and the armor with ferro-fibers,
the designers managed to fit two light gauss rifles onto the
chassis, each in its own special arm pod while keeping the
4 medium lasers for short range defence. While the armor
is one ton lighter than the already lightly armored catapult
C series designs, its ferro-fiberous design makes it slightly
more effective. The design was almost ready for
production when one last problem assaulted the
designers. After all the modifications, only one ton was
available for ammo. While this gave the light gauss the
same number of shots as the LRM 15s the special arm
pod's ammo feeds wouldnt allow two way feeding. thus
the ammo needed to be placed in another location
entirely. Due to the non-volatile nature of gauss
ammunition, the designers were able to place it in a
special compartment directly behind the cockpit.
Deployment:
While the SLNG-S1 Slingshot has seen most of its use in
the Capellan Confederation, It has also been used by the
SLDF and mercenary units allong clan borders. While the
design holds great potential, it has recieved mixed
reviews from its users.
Variants:
There are rumors of a design that strips the mechs sytems
off jump jets and all, replacing them with two regular gauss
rifles, this has yet to be confirmed.