Weapons of The Expanse – S1-E4

And I’m back for the next part of my Expanse re-watch, and this is the episode when things really takes off (hence I´m only covering one episode this time, not three.) And this is a significant episode not just because we get a lot more weapons action, but because this is also when we get our first glimpse of what in my mind is one of the really major characters on the show – and it isn’t even human! More on that later!

The episode opens with another gorgeous CGI shot of the docks on Ceres, followed by a small interesting tidbit of information – apparently the AVERAGE life expectancy on Earth is a whopping 123 years, and even better on Mars! While the Belt has a measly 68 years (similar to Russia today, their actual average life expectancy is 71.5 years, a full 11 years lower than its neighbor Norway.)

The next CGI shot is no less gorgeous – this time of the mighty MCRN (Mars Congressional Republic Navy) Donnager, which at the end of last episode rescued/captured the survivors of the Canterbury. This whole ship design just screams functional firepower, with none of the sleek lines seen in other shows like Star Trek or Battlestar Galactica. On the front you can see the torpedo/missile launch tubes, and amidships at the right edge of the photo you can see the ship´s port railgun.

For more on the Donnager I recommend this excellent video by Spacedock, a YouTube channel that has had an official cooperation with the show runners to produce videos about the various ship designs. Gives you a lot more official info on the ship.

Back to the show – after a tense conversation between Holden and the ship´s captain (throughout the series you will see that the the Martians have quite a few women among their senior captains) the crew realizes that the approaching ship they have been tracking is not alone – hiding in its engine plume are five others (concealing real numbers to launch a surprise attack – a clever, yet age-old tactic used by fighter aircraft and others.)

Nevertheless, Captain Yao is confident – “whoever they are, and whatever they’ve come to do, it’s just become a suicide mission.»

And it is easy to see why she is this confident – according to the Spacedock video above, the Donnager carries 51 CIWS-type guns known as PDCs, short for Point Defense Cannons, as part of its integrated defense network. These are described as being able to fire thousands of teflon coated tungsten rounds against incoming threats. Note the flame sticking out the back of the gun, suggesting that they are possibly using some sort of recoilless principle in order to avoid the guns acting like thrusters that could be pushing the ship off course whenever they fire, and to reduce heating.

After the first exchange of missiles, where the Donnager´s crew is surprised to find that the weapons of their attackers are better than expected, the captain decides to activate the ship´s two railguns, which requires them to redirect power from other onboard systems.

But while most ships carry their railguns in externally mounted turrets, the attackers, using much smaller ships, carry them internally along the length of the ship. Unfortunately I have not seen any indication in neither the books nor the series of how such small vessels would be able to handle both the energy requirements and the heat that kind of weapons would generate, beyond them being “advanced.”

And in case we were wondering about the diameter is of the projectiles fired by the railguns on the attacking ships… it seems the answer is “just bigger than a human head.”

And then we get some boarding action! More Martian Marines – and you can kinda see why they redesigned their helmets for later seasons – directors were saying they could not tell the characters apart (and neither could I – first time I watched the episode it took a while before I realized Lopez was still with us!)

Here you also get a clearer picture of the Martian assault rifles. The guns are actually modified airsoft guns, known as APS UAR, and the design has kept many of the functions we know from current day rifles, such as ejection ports. However, you never see the ejection ports cycling, which supports the theory that these are using caseless ammunition, and that the ports are only there to help you clear the chamber. Also note the very high rates of fire and little-to-no apparent recoil. You can read more about the Martian Assault Rifle here.

Another great shot of a Martian Marine providing cover fire for our escaping heroes. Note the muzzle flashes, the apparent lack of a magazine, and again, no cycling of the ejection port.

A brief shot of one of the attackers firing at our escaping heroes. Their weapon is apparently also a highly modified airsoft gun, itself a replica of the Magpul FMG-9. Note the ship on the right, which our first good look at the MCRN Tachi, the future Rocinante – and in my view, one of the most important characters in the series (more on her in the next episode recap!)

Here´s a weapon that only makes a brief appearance (though we are regrettably exposed to it again later in the season) a dedicated grenade launcher used by the attackers against the Marines. The internet tells me its a Brügger & Thomet GL-06, often used by law enforcement, with an additional FN40GL underslung grenade launcher mounted on top, but inverted…! (Likely a classic example of a designer going «that looks cool!»)

Geneva conventions don’t appear to be much of a concern – here a Martian Marine is hit by what clearly is explosive and/or incendiary ammunition.

But once our heroes are safely aboard their new ship, the balance of power shifts again, and we get another look at Martian PDCs. Six barrels, and I suspect the square boxes on either side are supposed to be radiators to help with cooling (because we will later see the ammunition being stored in magazines inside the ship) and the sphere above the barrels I assume is intended to be part of the targeting system.

Below you see the MCRN Tachi/Rocinante with all guns blazing – again, despite the ship being untethered, firing all the guns simultaneously in sweeping firing arcs does not appear to push it around, supporting the impression that these are indeed recoilless designs.

Good thing they didn’t need the Canterbury shuttle anymore – caught in the cross fire by short range PDC shells from the Tachi/Rocinante (note the Pur & Kleen-logo being blasted away.)

So what can we learn about the Weapons of The Expanse from this episode?

• Again, hand guns have not received the same level of research and attention to detail. They have clearly been designed primarily to look cool, and be plot devices. But we again see that they appear to be high rate-of-fire, low recoil, caseless and likely incendiary, and are strictly short range weapons – accuracy is not emphasized at all.
• The ships place a high degree of confidence in their point defense systems, but they also have their limitations. I suspect there are some massive logical flaws in the use of using relatively short-ranged chemically powered guns against missiles approaching with extremely high velocities (will try to do some calculations later on what their reaction times would have to be, given the theoretical speed of a tungsten shell!)
• Missiles are the primary ship-to-ship weapons – for all their power, railguns appear to come into play too late to make any real difference, they place a huge strain on the ship´s systems, and the window between where missiles and PDCs are effective seems relatively small. Still, during that small window, railguns can be devastatingly effective, particularly against smaller vessels.

Beyond the action, this is one of the most significant episodes so far in terms of the story. Our heroes get their own ship, we meet Fred Johnson of Tycho station, and Miller makes progress in his investigation on Ceres. More on that coming up soon…!