The HVs-2 hypervelocity gun, or simply hypervelocity gun, or sometimes referred as an electromagnetic gun, was a fixed planetary defense weapon used against orbiting space-craft such as capital ships by the Galactic Empire during the Galactic Civil War.
Description[]
Hypervelocity gun firing on a Alliance Space Station orbiting Geonosis.
The hypervelocity gun fired bursts of super-accelerated solid slugs at a rate of up to 120 slugs per minute, though would not fire for more than ten seconds at a time. To protect the hypervelocity gun against bombardment, it was protected by both ray and particle shield generators, which were buried underground along with the large power plant used to drive the gun and the generators.
The gun's slugs would penetrate a ship's ray shielding and quickly batter down its particle shields intended to absorb slower and fewer impacts. Once a ship's shields were down, the slugs would batter its armor, eventually rupturing its hull and causing depressurization.
While a formidable foe, the hypervelocity gun had at least one exploitable flaw. To fire out from its protective layers, the gun's particle shields would drop in time for a burst of slugs and then rise again. If accurately timed, a clutch of missiles could hit the remaining ray shield, overwhelm it, and allow subsequent projectiles to impact on the gun itself.
History[]
The weapon used to defend the droid foundries of Eos during the Invasion of Naboo may also have been a hypervelocity gun.[source?]
Chiss Grand Admiral Thrawn installed a hypervelocity gun on the surface of Carida, where it would face off against the Zann Consortium.[2]
Other site locations for the hypervelocity guns included Mustafar, and Taris.[source?]
The New Republic Fifth Fleet used a hypervelocity gun on the Core World Bessimir, as a final training exercise for Operation Hammerblow.[3]
Appearances[]
- Star Wars: Empire at War
- Star Wars: Empire at War: Forces of Corruption
- Before the Storm (First appearance)
Sources[]
- Star Wars: Empire at War: Prima Official Game Guide (First identified as HVs-2 hypervelocity gun)
- Star Wars: Empire at War: Forces of Corruption Expansion: Prima Official Game Guide
- The Complete Star Wars Encyclopedia (as hypervelocity gun)