When the Confederation brought recovered technology to the Magistracy, the Dunianshire plant was the first to be reworked. The improved model of the Shadow Hawk was the first priority. Several designs were proposed, including a model using an Ultra autocannon developed by Armstrong. That design was rejected in favor of a more advanced model carrying a Zeus Slingshot Gauss Rifle that became the final SHD-3C Shadow Hawk. The on-site Zeus fab, then dedicated to building light ZeusBolt autocannons, was converted to produce the Zeus Slingshots.
This left Dunianshire's Pike production in a bind. The line was capable of assembling an entire tank, but, after the small stockpile of ZeusBolts ran out, they had no main guns to install in them. The line turned out several weaponless Pike chassis before shutting down as a waste of time and resources. It seemed that the Pike design was to be consigned to the dustbins of history, and, really, no one would have missed it.
However, someone noticed that the new Armstrong U5 Ultra autocannons, in full production in the fab that originally built the Armstrong J11s for the SHD-2H Shadow Hawks, were also going unused, except for some vague mumbling about refitting Vedettes. Further, it was noted that the Armstrong was almost exactly half again the size of the ZeusBolt, or, more directly, that two U5s would fit nicely into the space the Pike used for its three ZeusBolts. The Pike team jumped on this fact, and, in a week of long shifts, they carved open the turret on one of the incomplete Pikes, installed a pair of Armstrong U5s, rebuilt the ammunition feeds and targeting system, then replaced the turret armor.
The resulting vehicle they took out to the test range for live fire practice. It was able to burn through nearly a quarter of the rounds in its impressively large ammo bay before both autocannons jammed. Accuracy also left something to be desired, but those were minor problems. Military command gave approval for the vehicle to be put into production, and, figuring that the radical change in weaponry made it a new design, gave it a new name - Ranseur.
The Ranseur design underwent some minor tinkering before going into full production. The targeting and ammunition feed systems were refined to eliminate the problems experienced by the prototype, and, though the team was unable to completely solve the jamming problem, it was at least greatly reduced. With the jamming frequency down to less than 1 in every 70 shots, the Ranseur is usually able to keep at least one gun operating long enough to empty the ammo bay.
The Marklin Mini Missile Packs used by the Pike were out of production as well, the fab switched over to building Marklin Mini Streaks to feed the burgeoning demand for Streak racks. Though there was a large stockpile of the older standard racks built up, they were obviously not an option for long-term production. Substituting Streaks for the standard missile racks on the Ranseur was much simpler than reconstructing the turret had been. It necessitated converting the tank from standard StarSlab/9 armor to the new, lighter, ferro-fibrous StarWeave/8, however. This was done without much fuss, and with only a trivial loss of protection, mainly on the heavily modified turret.
The final production Ranseur is cosmetically very similar to its parent, the Pike, except for the obvious lack of the third gun. Its combat role is much different, however, as the Ranseur packs vastly more firepower, albeit at a shorter range, than its ancestor. Though the range on the U5s is somewhat less than the ZeusBolts', it is still sufficient to allow the tank to operate in a long range support role. It now has enough firepower to make a difference in that role, however, and to put up a respectable fight if it is unable to control the range of engagement - which is fortunate, given its low speed. The Ranseur has proven to be not quite a match for the original Manticore as a main battle tank, but, at half the price, certainly has a niche to fill.
The first six Ranseurs produced were made from Pikes that had been completed save for installation of the guns. The turrets of these tanks were modified and the Armstrong autocannons installed in place of the unavailable ZeusBolts, but they were never refitted with the armor and missile pack upgrades that were incorporated into the final Ranseur design. These tanks carry nine tons of standard StarSlab armor and two Marklin Mini Missile Packs instead of the eight tons of ferro-fibrous armor and dual Streak racks of the later, purpose-built Ranseurs.
These six tanks were hand-customized, so there are slight differences between each of them and the production Ranseurs, especially in the turret interiors, as slight variations were introduced to refine the design modifications.
It is planned that these first six tanks will be shipped out to Regular units alongside their more advanced siblings, in hopes that some picture of the relative costs of upkeep of the two variants will emerge. It is likely, however, that any minor differences in the difficulty of maintainence of the armor and missile packs will be overshadowed by the varagies of the finicky Ultra autocannons.