OBT Forum

Chassis:                       Earthwerk GRF
Mass:                          55 tons
Power Plant:                   MIG-Power 280 Light (Alpha series)
Cruising Speed:                54.0 k.p.h.
Maximum Speed:                 86.4 k.p.h.
Jump Jets:                     Rawlings 55
   Jump Capacity:              150 metres
Armor:                         Harris Heavy Industries Series.17 Ferro-Lamellor
Armament:
   1 Plevetskaya Ordnance Model.9k Extended Range Large Laser
   1 Consolidated Armaments LR/2 Missile Rack
   2 Plevetskaya Ordnance Model.6c Medium Lasers
   1 Black Forest Munitions Vehicular Grenade Launcher
Manufacturer:                  Defiance Industries (refit: Harris Heavy Industries)
   Primary Factory:            Hesperus II (refit: Svoboda)
Communications System:         Neil 6000
Targeting and Tracking System: Octagon Tartrac, System C

[Editor's note: Specifications on the GRF-1S/u are included only for purposes of historical completeness, as all of the Legion’s Griffins had been refurbished to the /u2 or /u3 standard by the time the Salernans invaded Soren in 2810.]

Overview:

  The GRF-1N Griffin was first put into production in 2492.  One of the first designs to fill the void between the massive Mackie and the smaller recon ’Mechs, the Griffin was considered an advanced design for the time. With the mobility of a recon unit and the firepower and armor of a heavy ’Mech, Earthwerks’ creation reigned supreme on the battlefield for a brief period. Then everything else caught up, leaving the Griffin filling the role of a mobile fire-support unit.


Capabilities:

  The exact circumstances and legalities surrounding the formation of Christian’s Renegade Legion are too complicated to be repeated here; briefly, the Soren Baronial Militias needed a mobile reserve force (best equipped with BattleMechs) unfettered by formal fealty to any particular Baron, but lacked the native ability to support such a force and could not accept a formal garrison of ‘outsiders’.  This prompted the Star League Defence Force to recruit two battalions’ worth of German-conversant (and unattached) MechWarriors and support personnel from across the Terran Hegemony and the Lyran Commonwealth, equip them with Lyran-built GRF-1S Griffins and ARC-2S Archers refurbished by Union technicians and technically ‘surplus/on loan’ from the SLDF, and deploy them to Soren as the mercenary formation Christian’s Renegade Legion in the pay of the Baron von Schwarzwald.  Over the years, additional ‘surplus’, local recruitment, and battlefield salvage brought the Legion to reinforced regimental strength.

  SLDF and Union support kept the Legion’s ’Mechs near the technological cutting edge.  The Griffins which arrived on Soren in 2732 had been thoroughly overhauled, not the least component being a retrofit of the engine’s integral cooling systems to SLDF ‘freezer’ specifications.  With now-superfluous single heat-sinks removed, the ’Mech’s armour was thickened to a full ten-point-five tons and its armament was replanned somewhat.  The old Defiance Thunderbolt A5M laser-cannon was replaced with a Plevetskaya Ordnance Model.9k (a licence-built local copy of the Newhart extended-range laser-cannon so famously mounted on the Hussar), and the Defiance B3M medium lasers that bracketed it were deleted in favour of the locally-available Plevetskaya Ordnance Model.6c, with one of each being mounted in the ’Mech’s left and centre torso for better fields of fire (somewhat redressing the MechWarrior community’s long-standing complaint about the ‘dead ground’ down the Griffin’s left side).  Where the GRF-1S mounted a Coventry LRM/1 rack, the GRF-1S/u installed a Consolidated Armaments LRM/2, restoring the long-range fire-support capability that earned the Griffin its original fearsome reputation; concerns about pilot survivability saw the magazine provided with CASE protection.  In a slightly unusual move, a vehicular grenade launcher was installed just above the ’Mech’s left hip, allowing a pilot to load and deploy missile-decoys, smoke canisters, anti-personnel fragmentation-rounds, or riot-dispersal CS/concussion grenades as needed.  Finally, in an effort by the SLDF to instill Christian’s Legion with its own ésprit de corps, their Griffins (and the Archers they supported) were customised with an additional feature: the original head and cockpit systems were replaced with units taken from Earthwerks’ cousin design the SHD-2H Shadow Hawk, including the famous Sparrow 300J life-support system.  This both lent the Legion’s ’Mechs a unique look (prompting the nickname ‘Shadow Griffin’ which has clung to these ’Mechs ever since) and vastly improved their pilots’ long-term alertness and resistance to battlefield fatigue.
 
  With the Principality of Salerno conquering world after world in the Cavaretta Expanse, the Griffins of Christian’s Legion were overhauled with Union technologies to the new GRF-1S/u2 standard in the early 2800s.  The first changes were the use of a last-generation lightweight powerplant (complete with enhanced cooling technology) and the replacement of the old Starshield A armour-plates with the new HHI.17 ferro-lamellor armour, which although somewhat heavier in pure tonnage terms offered better resistance to enemy fire than an equivalent thickness of conventional armour.  After some debate over fitting the LRM rack with the Artemis millimetric-radar fire-control enhancement, or even replacing it with the new Javelin ripple-fire LCM system and several tons of MTM/34A missiles, the argument that Soren lacked the optronics industry to natively produce such sophisticated munitions carried the day, and the Union engineers opted simply to increase the ’Mech’s magazines to a full sixty missiles, allowing a pilot to lay down protracted barrages.  (Comments appended to the revised schematics indicate that the use of alternate munitions such as Thunder mine-laying rounds was also on their minds.)

  (It is worth noting that the MIG-Power 280 Light powerplant used by the GRF-1S/u2 is in fact the same system used on the Legion’s refurbished Archers, in a measure quite consciously aimed at reducing logistical burden and improving readiness rates through commonality of training and components.)


Deployment:

  While these refits were relatively straightforward, the fact that the Union did not manufacture the Griffin for its own use (instead preferring the more advanced Hurón) meant that the only examples upgraded to this standard were those purchased in the Inner Sphere by the SLDF and imported to Soren for the Legion’s use since its formation in 2732.  However, some observers have noted a great degree of similarity between this reinvigorated Griffin and the Cylon Protectorate’s Artemis medium ’Mechs (q.v.), and while the Union takes some amusement from this seeming act of flattery, the Principality of Salerno has lodged formal protests with the Protectorate government over the matter as a flagrant breach of the Protectorate’s declaration of neutrality.

  (Despite persistent hearsay, gossip-mongering, and the best efforts of several Union talk-show hosts, there has never been any official comment by the Protectorate government on the rumour that Governor Doolan’s response to those protests was, quote, “Build a bridge and get over it.”)


Variants:

  As operational experience with the type grew, several lance-commanders amongst Christian’s Legion voiced concern about the Shadow Griffin’s lack of electronic-warfare capability, arguing that this would make the type far more useful for raiding operations and ‘headhunting’.  As the /u2 refits progressed, approximately one-quarter of the Legion’s Griffins were reconfigured into this role, deleting their VGLs and foregoing a ton of LRM ammunition to mount a Guardian ECM module in the left torso.


GRF-1S/u Griffin

Technology Base: - Inner Sphere - Tournament
Equipment                                                Mass
Internal Structure: - Standard                             5.5
Engine:                275                                15.5
    Walking MP:         5
    Running MP:         8
    Jumping MP:         5
Heat Sinks:            11 [22]                             1
Gyro:                                                      3
Cockpit:                                                   3
Armor Factor:          168                                10.5

JJ crits: LT 2, CT 1, RT 2

                     Internal          Armor
                    Structure          Value
Head                    3                9
Center Torso           18               27
Center Torso(rear)                       6
R/L Torso              13               19
R/L Torso(rear)                          6
R/L Arm                 9               18
R/L Leg                13               20

Weapons and Ammo                     Location   Critical  Tonnage
Medium Laser                            LT          1        1
Vehicular Grenade Launcher              LT          1        0.5
Medium Laser                            CT          1        1
LRM/2                                   RT          2        5
LRM/2 Ammo (20 missiles)                RT          1        1
ERLL                                    RA          2        5

QUIRK: Fast Reload (+1)
QUIRK: Improved Life Support (+1)


GRF-1S/u2 Griffin

Technology Base: - Inner Sphere - Tournament
Equipment                                                Mass
Internal Structure: - Standard                             5.5
Engine:                280 Light                          12
    Walking MP:         5
    Running MP:         8
    Jumping MP:         5
Heat Sinks:            11 [22]                             1
Gyro:                                                      3
Cockpit:                                                   3
Armor Factor:          168 Ferro-Lamellor                 12

FLA crits: 2 LL, 2 LA, 2 RA, 2 RL
JJ crits: LT 2, CT 1, RT 2

                     Internal          Armor
                    Structure          Value
Head                    3                9
Center Torso           18               27
Center Torso(rear)                       6
R/L Torso              13               19
R/L Torso(rear)                          6
R/L Arm                 9               18
R/L Leg                13               20

Weapons and Ammo                     Location   Critical  Tonnage
Medium Laser                            LT          1        1
Vehicular Grenade Launcher              LT          1        0.5
Medium Laser                            CT          1        1
LRM/2                                   RT          2        5
LRM/2 Ammo (60 missiles)                RT          3        3
ERLL                                    RA          2        5

QUIRK: Fast Reload (+1)
QUIRK: Improved Life Support (+1)


GRF-1S/u3 Griffin

Technology Base: - Inner Sphere - Tournament
Equipment                                                Mass
Internal Structure: - Standard                             5.5
Engine:                280 Light                          12
    Walking MP:         5
    Running MP:         8
    Jumping MP:         5
Heat Sinks:            11 [22]                             1
Gyro:                                                      3
Cockpit:                                                   3
Armor Factor:          168 Ferro-Lamellor                 12

FLA crits: 2 LL, 2 LA, 2 RA, 2 RL
JJ crits: LT 2, CT 1, RT 2

                     Internal          Armor
                    Structure          Value
Head                    3                9
Center Torso           18               27
Center Torso(rear)                       6
R/L Torso              13               19
R/L Torso(rear)                          6
R/L Arm                 9               18
R/L Leg                13               20

Weapons and Ammo                     Location   Critical  Tonnage
Medium Laser                            LT          1        1
Guardian ECM Suite                      LT          2        1.5
Medium Laser                            CT          1        1
LRM/2                                   RT          2        5
LRM/2 Ammo (40 missiles)                RT          2        2
ERLL                                    RA          2        5

QUIRK: Fast Reload (+1)
QUIRK: Improved Life Support (+1)