Mass: 70 tons
Frame: Earthwerk Archer
Power Plant: Edasich 280 XL
Cruising Speed: 42.4 kph
Maximum Speed: 63.6 kph
Armor: Maximillian 100
Manufacturer: Earthwerks Incorporated, modified by CAF
Primary Factory: Calloway VI
Communications System: Neil 9000
Targeting and Tracking System: RCA Instatrac Mark XII
The ARC-4A Archer is designed to provide a launching platform for the powerful Arrow IV artillery missiles that is mobile and durable enough to operate as part of a mech lance. It is based on the ubiquitous ARC-2R Archer, and greatly extends the original Archer's range and damage potential.
The ARC-4A Archer is built on the frame of the standard, popular ARC-2R Archer. It expands on the Archer's traditional role as long-range fire support by removing the torso-mounted Doombud LRM launchers and the rear-firing Diverse Optics lasers to make room for a pair of the massive Luxor Mobile Battery 1 Arrow IV launchers. The weight loading necessary to carry the huge weapons is reclaimed by replacing the standard VOX power plant with a lighter Edasich XL, with double-strength heat sinks to handle the prodigious amounts of heat produced by firing both Arrow IV launchers simultaneously. The arm-mounted lasers are retained, as is the rest of the familiar Archer design. The frame, armor, and other components are identical to the standard Archer.
The Archer 4A operates in the same role as the original Archer, that of long range fire support, but now from farther back. The twin Luxors give it a combination of firepower and range that cannot be matched by any other single mech. It far surpasses the CPLT-C3 Catapult at the job, with the ability to deliver twice as much firepower on target as the Catapult. The Archer's ammunition bay is spacious enough that, even feeding two launchers, it is capable of long outlasting the Catapult, with its meager five-missile supply. It also allows the Archer to mix ammunition types for greater versatility, using high-explosive or cluster munitions for widespread destruction, flare or smoke rounds for enhancing or reducing visibility, or homing missiles for pinpoint strikes.
This last option requires the cooperation of a lancemate equipped with a TAG system. The obvious choice is the Raven 3L, which has recently gone into full production under Confederate auspices at the Hellespont factory on occupied Sian. The TAG-equipped OTT-7K Ostscout is not in favor with the CAF, but they have begun fielding their own heavily modified version, the OTT-7C, that also packs TAG, along with an assortment of other electronic warfare equipment.
Because the ARC-4A is so closely based on the original 2R Archer, it is almost possible to do the upgrade as a field modification. The engine swap is the only part of the procedure that requires heavier facilities than are commonly available in the field. Most garrison units and many dropships have facilities sufficient for the job, however. The controlling factor on the number of 4A conversions is the still limited availability of the Luxor launchers and their ammunition.
Because of these two facts, CAF Research and Design has also come up with an intermediate model, designated the ARC-3Z. Like the 4A, the 3Z uses the Edasich engine and double-strength heat sinks and drops the rear-mounted lasers. It retains the original Doombud 20-racks, however, and backs them up with an additional four 5-racks, two on each side. The idea is that Archer 2Rs can be converted into 3Zs whenever the facilities are available, and serve in their traditional role as upgunned versions of the regular Archer until the Luxors become more widely available, then the LRMs can be stripped off and the Arrow IV launchers installed in the field, finishing the conversion to the 4A. It seems likely that at least a few of the 3Z machines will not receive the final upgrade, for tactical, strategic, or financial reasons, and continue to operate as the familiar Archer walking LRM platform.
CAF R&D has also tested a variant of the ARC-4A that replaces the left-arm laser with a C3 slave computer. If this variant sees light of day, it would presumably be teamed in headquarters or support lances with the electronics-packed Cyclops C, that being the only Confederate design in full production that is known to carry the master computer necessary to head a C3 network. The still-experimental Ostscout 8C is another likely lancemate for the C3-capable Archer.
Another variant replaces both lasers with TAG systems, allowing the Archer to designate targets for its own homing missiles. While this significantly improves the Archer's close range direct fire capabilities and ability to operate solo, it also leaves it defenseless when the Arrow ammunition runs out. General consensus is that the ARC-4A was not designed either to operate solo or to provide close-range direct fire. Lances that require an Archer to operate in such a role would probably be better off using the 3Z model, or one of the multitude of other Archer variants that populate the Inner Sphere.