While the spinal mass accelerators found on the massive cruisers and dreadnoughts of the Alliance or its countless swift fighters often steal the show when it comes to observations on the Alliance Navy, its torpedoes often serve an equal or greater role in the battles of the Alliance. These self contained munitions propelled by either chemical or fusion rockets operate across the the range spectrum battle are fought at, with some being used in point blank knight fights while others serve as standoff or harassment weapons at extreme range, and everything in between.
While the majority of human militaries use the term missile to define these munitions, or a mixture of torpedo and missile, the Alliance soly designates these weapons as torpedoes. This is due to a number of reasons, but the main one is the oversized numbers of former United North American States Armed Forces and European Peacekeeping Authority submariners, the creation of the Alliance and its later recruitment of military personnel happening subsequently with the UNAS and EPA both phasing out much of their manned submarine fleets with unmanned or highly automated vessels. This influx of submarine personnel, and the smaller but still notable influx of both military's surface navy personnel due to similar automation, influenced the development of Alliance nomenclature, especially with the dearth of military experience in the original forces of the Alliance. Atmospheric missiles still retain their name.
The M4 CATAPULT is the main torpedo used by Alliance frigates and corvettes. Far smaller than the other capital torpedoes used by the Alliance, the 50 cm Catapult has two main variants in service: one is a relatively normal long range missile, while the other sacrifices almost all of its range in exchange for carrying a payload equal to the Alliance's 100 cm M7 torpedo. The M4 is sold to many other groups by Ceres Heavy Ordnance under the name Thunderbolt, though the Alliance is their main customer for the weapon.
The M6 SNIPER is a super heavy 150 cm torpedo currently only in use on Pluto, more specifically Cerberus Base. When Cerberus Base began construction, the international alliance that worked together for its construction disagreed on the missile to use for the base. This dispute continued until 2152, leaving the base lacking any missile armament for its first 3 years. The arguing states finally settled on the newly released Keelbreaker Missile by RTX. When the base was given over to the Alliance in 2155, its supply and silos of Keelbreakers, designated as M6 Snipers by the Alliance, fell into its hands. The Alliance retained the M6's use solely for use in Cerberus Base for the next few years, not having need for it. By 2157, however, interest in using the torpedo in other positions began to grow. By the start of the First Contact War, new production Flight Ib Archers were being produced with the ability to carry a M6 on an underslung hardpoint, with the prototype Able class having a similar capability. A design for a M6 carrying submarine has been submitted and rejected repeatedly since 2155, with the design being greenlit during the First Contact War.
The M7 TREBUCHET is the main long range torpedo in use by the Alliance. While the Alliance started feilding vessels with long range torpedo launchers since its first warships, a standard Alliance long range torpedo only entered service in 2156. The Alliance instead used a number of different missiles for the role, each being deployed to different formations for testing and limited operation. In 2156, the Alliance finally decided on the new RTX produced Bloodhound 100 cm missile. The main attractor for the Alliance was its lightweight design and its inspired chaff system. Instead of containing canisters of anti-laser/lidar chaff like most missiles do, the Bloodhound is constructed of an ablating hull that disassembles when a strong electric current passes through it. This not only simplified the construction of the Bloodhound slightly, but allowed it to deploy a significantly greater chaff field around itself, making it harder to target with lidar and harm with lasers. Rollout of the Bloodhound, known to the Alliance as the M7 Trebuchet, has not been completed as of the First Contact War's beginning, with the 6th Squadron being among the two thirds of Alliance formations given the M7.
The M50 LANCE is the main anti-ship weapon of the Alliance Fighter Corp. The first disruptor torpedo to enter Alliance service, the M1 is actually older than the Alliance Navy, if only by a month, being purchased in bulk by the Alliance Security Division in June 2150 in order to equip its new Trident fighters. Based on a slightly modified Hailstorm missile produced by Haribon Military Industries, the M1 is extremely simple in its design, being a solid fuel rocket equipped with a warhead and the simplest guidance system possible. This simple design allows it to be built and expanded in vast numbers, with many Alliance ships having the facilities to build M1s using onboard fabricators. Most M1s are equipped with a disruptor warhead, but a few have conventional payloads for use against light ground targets.
The M2 ARROW is the main atmospheric missile in use by the Alliance Marine Corp, being used in its missile artillery systems and onboard its gunboats. The arrow is purchased in mass numbers by the Alliance from Lockheed Galactic, which sells it under the same name to many other customers. The Arrow can take multiple payloads, and can even be reconfigured for differing ranges, some variants carrying less or more fuel. A cut down variant of the M2 called the M55 Arrow F is used by the Alliance Fighter Corp for ground attack missions. A nuclear
The M56 FLU-FLU is the main air-to-air missile in use by the Alliance Fighter Corp. An in house product of the Alliance RnD Division, the M56 has seen relatively little combat, few threats facing the Alliance having aerial forces available. A variant with a disruptor warhead is in development as of the start of the First Contact War, which both the Marine Corp and Alliance Maritime Forces have interest in.
The Alliance also uses mines, with most cruisers carrying at least a small number alongside their normal armaments. The production of a dedicated minlaying variant of the Dragoon has been in Alliance RnD since 2155, with the first prototype expected to start construction in July 2157.
The M1 GLADIUS is the main mine in service with the Alliance, being a nuclear flak mine. A relatively old design, compared to most Alliance munitions, the M1 was first produced in the early 2130s for the Ganymede Space Guard during the Jovian War. After the war the Guard continued production, integrating it into its defense plan. In 2150, the Ganymede Assembly started selling Gladius mines to the Alliance in bulk, an attempt to balance its budget by selling off "surplus" military equipment the government believed was unneeded. Somewhat small for a flak mine, this proved valuable to the Alliance as it allowed for a fighter to easily carry one without harming its acceleration too much, providing a new weapon during the First Contact War and the later M59 Carronade after the war.
The M2 BROADSWORD is a larger anti-ship mine introduced in 2155. Little more than a modified Trebuchet with a more complex onboard computer and VI alongside additional RCS systems, the M2 is usually deployed around Alliance space stations as a conceited defense, remaining undetectable and dormant for weeks or even months on end, only to spring to life and act like a normal M7 when required. In the 2170s, modified surplus M2s were used for the testing of the basic premise of the gravitic drive system, the data gleaned from these tests going into the Normandy's Tantalus Drive Core.
The M3 WARHAMMER is the brainchild of the Alliance RnD Division: a nuclear pulse propelled anti-ship mine. The M3 uses a nuclear shaped charge to propel a projectile, a depleted uranium shell wrapped around a battery and eezo core, to a speed high enough to be effective at mid range with the assistance of the eezo core. The M3 is in the prototype stage as of the start of the First Contact War, with only a few of them being produced for testing.
The M4 CLAYMORE is another product, though incomplete, of the Alliance RnD Division. Designed for use against the ubiquitous "Relay Runners" that plague the Alliance's attempt to control Relay travel, the M4 is a nuclear bomb pump laser meant to fire off dozens of short laser pulses at a ship, the high number guaranteeing that at least some will hit even with the accuracy of bomb pump lasers that limited their use in warfare. While these pulses lack the power to break through the levels of ablative armor found on most warships, it could break through civilian hulls or at least damage external equipment, preventing or at least discouraging Relay Running. No M4s are in service as of the start of the First Contact War, with the limited number so far produced being used for testing, revealing several problems remaining in the design to fix.