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Light Hammer Rapier Carrier as used by pre heresy Emperor's Children

The Rapier Armoured Carrier or Rapier Laser Destroyer is a tracked weapons carrier used by the Imperium of Man, including the Imperial Guard, Adeptus Mechanicus and Space Marines. A potent anti-tank weapon, it mounts a powerful multi-barreled laser cannon with which it shares its name.

History

In the early years of the Imperium's history the Rapier was a common weapons platform used by the Imperial Army at both the company and regimental level. Under ideal conditions each company would have a support squad with five Rapier carriers plus other weapons, while regiments had support companies of ten machines each, such as five Rapiers and five Mole Mortars, though attrition often accounted for fewer numbers of these weapons. Rapier crewmen wore the blue uniform of artillerymen, with yellow shoulder pads displaying their company insignia or red ones displaying their regimental insignia depending on their assignment.¹

Over the millennia however the number and use of Rapiers declined due to difficulties in manufacturing these complex devices, and have been largely supplanted by designs simpler to construct and easier to maintain. There still remain tens of thousands deployed throughout the Imperium, mostly in the hands of the Adeptus Mechanicus or those Planetary Defense Forces on worlds which still retain the capability to produce and maintain them. They are in more limited use by the Space Marines and Imperial Guard regiments.³ Those Chapters which descend from the Imperial Fists and Iron Hands Legions are especially known users of Rapiers, and have even employed them for boarding assaults.⁴

Technical Information

The armoured carrier is built around the weapon with which it shares its name, the Rapier Laser Destroyer. This multi-barreled weapon achieves greater firepower than even a normal lascannon by focusing its four separate laser systems with precision accuracy on a single point.⁴

As it was initially designed for defending cities and fortresses the Rapier has limited mobility, enough to move into ambush positions and across rough terrain, and is often fielded in special batteries of one to three Rapiers used to break up enemy armour attacks. The system can move and fire at the same time thanks to an auto-drive and benefits from targeter equipment. Actual aiming and firing of the laser destroyer however is handled by a weak machine spirit making the Rapier a semi-independent system; its crew is necessary only for moving the weapon and operational mode selection.^1,3

Besides the complexity of building and maintaining a Rapier, it also suffers from a higher heat build-up than other las weapons due to the proximity of multiple laser chambers, and has a requisite power requirement.³

Technical Specifications

Vehicle Name:	Rapier Laser Destroyer3	Main Armament:	1 x Rapier Laser Destroyer
Forge World of Origin:	Lucius	Secondary Armament:	N/A
Known Patterns:	N/A	Traverse:	N/A
Crew:	1-3 Gunners	Elevation:	N/A
Powerplant:	N/A	Main Ammunition:	12 rounds from powerpack
Weight:	3.5 Tonnes	Secondary Ammunition:	N/A
Length:	2.6 M	Armour
Width:	1.8 M
Height:	1.5 M	Superstructure:	N/A
Ground Clearance:	0.3 m	Hull:	20 MM
Max Speed - on road	12 KPH	Gun Mantlet	N/A
Max Speed - off road:	8 KPH	Vehicle Designation:	N/A
Tranport Capacity:	N/A	Firing Ports:	Open Topped
Access Points:	Open Topped	Turret:	N/A

Technical Specifications

Vehicle Name:	Rapier Laser Destroyer3	Main Armament:	1 x Rapier Laser Destroyer
Forge World of Origin:	Graia	Secondary Armament:	N/A
Known Patterns:	N/A	Traverse:	N/A
Crew:	1-3 Gunners	Elevation:	N/A
Powerplant:	N/A	Main Ammunition:	12 rounds from powerpack
Weight:	3.3 Tonnes	Secondary Ammunition:	N/A
Length:	2.6 M	Armour
Width:	1.8 M
Height:	1.5 M	Superstructure:	N/A
Ground Clearance:	0.3 m	Hull:	18 MM
Max Speed - on road	14 KPH	Gun Mantlet	N/A
Max Speed - off road:	9 KPH	Vehicle Designation:	N/A
Tranport Capacity:	N/A	Firing Ports:	Open Topped
Access Points:	Open Topped	Turret:	N/A

Technical Specifications

Vehicle Name:	Rapier Laser Destroyer3	Main Armament:	1 x Rapier Laser Destroyer
Forge World of Origin:	Voss	Secondary Armament:	N/A
Known Patterns:	N/A	Traverse:	N/A
Crew:	1-3 Gunners	Elevation:	N/A
Powerplant:	N/A	Main Ammunition:	14 rounds from powerpack
Weight:	3 Tonnes	Secondary Ammunition:	N/A
Length:	2.6 M	Armour
Width:	1.8 M
Height:	1.5 M	Superstructure:	N/A
Ground Clearance:	0.3 m	Hull:	15 MM
Max Speed - on road	14 KPH	Gun Mantlet	N/A
Max Speed - off road:	10 KPH	Vehicle Designation:	N/A
Tranport Capacity:	N/A	Firing Ports:	Open Topped
Access Points:	Open Topped	Turret:	N/A

Images

Rapier Laser Destroyer²

Sources

• ¹:Warhammer 40,000 Compendium, p. 91
• ²:Forgeworld (accessed 2012.5.12)
• ³:Citadel Journal Issue 43, p. 28-29
• ⁴:Warhammer 40,000: Wargear (2nd Edition), p. 51