Mass: 20 tons
Frame: Irian Second Generation Class 20
Power Plant: Magna 120
Cruising Speed: 63.6 kph
Maximum Speed: 95.4 kph
Jump Capacity: 180 meters
Jump Jets: Rawlings 52
Armor: Jolassa-328 Ferro-Fibrous with CASE
Armament:
1 Magna Mark II Medium Laser
1 Irian Weapons Works Class 2 Plus
Manufacturer: Irian BattleMechs Unlimited, Majesty Metals and
Manufacturing, Hellespont Mech Works
Primary Factory: Shiro III, Canopus IV, Sian
Communications System: Irian E.A.R.
Targeting and Tracking System: Wasat Aggressor
The Wasp has long been one of the most common mechs on the battlefield. Despite its fragility and correspondingly high attrition rate, the mech's numbers continue to grow, mainly because their small size makes them cheap and fast to build, and because they are in production at no less than eight factories. Though weakling fighters, they make excellent scouts. Though slower than other scout mechs such as the Locust, and lacking advanced sensor gear like that carried by the Raven, their jump capability allows them to maneuver effectively in tight terrain, and their low price tag allows them to be fielded in greater numbers, thus effectively increasing the area they can cover.
The WSP-2C Wasp is a simple evolution of the original WSP-1A. Though an all-around improvement over the 1A, the 2C features no radical departures from the older design. The standard Magna (or Martell, or Diverse Optics, depending on which site the Wasp was built at) laser is retained, and the speed and jump range remain the same. The SRM pack is enhanced with Streak technology, and the missile reloads in the left torso are encased in an ammunition storage system that protects the mech from the effects of an explosion by redirecting the blast out through the back armor. The new Wasp features a lighter Endo Steel frame that frees the necessary mass for the other upgrades, and tougher Ferro-Fibrous armor that improves the Wasp's durability. Notably, testing has proven that a 2C Wasp can take a direct hit to the arm from another Wasp's laser with no penetration, which was not the case with the 1A model.
The new Wasp could prove to cause logistical difficulties, however. It is in production at three factories in the Confederation. The largest of these is the Irian plant on Shiro III in Andurien, followed by the Majesty plant on Canopus and the Hellespont plant on Sian. Prior to confederation, each of those plants was controlled by a different faction, and their Wasp models therefore evolved to be slightly different. Though they were all externally similar and shared the same capabilities, they all had slight differences under the armor, because they were built with different components from different companies in different Houses. Because the Confederation lacks the transport capacity to move parts between its far-flung worlds for the mere purpose of enforcing homogenity in its Wasps, the WSP-2C stands to inherit those differences.
The most common model of WSP-2C, for example, that produced at the Irian factory, carries a Magna Mark II laser and an Irian Weapons Works Class 2 Plus Streak rack, both of which are fabricated on-site. The Majesty version, however, carries a Martell Model 5 laser and a Marklin Mini Streak rack, while the Hellespont model has a Diverse Optics Type 2 laser and a Hovertec Streak. All of these machines have practically identical performance, but they all take slightly different parts, and almost all of the other components of the mech show similar differences. The components are more or less interchangable on a large scale - a Majesty Wasp, for example, can be refitted with a Diverse Optics laser with very little effort - but in cases where the component is being repaired rather than replaced, it means that a unit with more than one type of Wasp will need more than one type of spare part on hand. The situation is likely to get even more complicated when the Wasps actually start coming back with battle damage that requires replacement components, because most probably some of them will be refitted with components from other Wasp variations, leading to Irian-branded Wasps that actually use Canopus weapons and Sian sensor systems, and so on.
Many parts of the WSP-2C Wasp are also easily interchangable with parts from its sister design, the STG-3R and STG-4C Stinger, and their close cousin, the Fox, which only serves to complicate the logistics.
Besides the minor differences between the various factories' Wasp runs, there are no known variants of the WSP-2C Wasp.