Model number: AM-004A
Code name: Lion
Unit type: mass production aerial combat armored module
Manufacturer(s): Iris Corporation, Tesla Leicht Institute, others
Operator(s): numerous
First deployment: January UC 224
Accommodation: pilot only, in canopy-style cockpit in head
Dimensions: overall height 20.9 meters
Armor materials: titanium-elektron nonferrous composite
Powerplant: ultracompact fusion reactor, output rated at 950 kW
Equipment and design features: sensors, range unknown; Tesla drive system
Fixed armaments: 2 x 50mm vulcan gun, fire-linked, mounted in torso; 4 x chaff discharger, 1 mounted in each leg, 2 mounted in torso
Optional fixed armaments: burst railgun, 40 round internal magazine, mounted on left arm; 3-tube missile launcher, 5 round magazine per tube, mounted on right arm
Optional hand armaments: none

Technical and Historical Notes

The unfairly-maligned Iris Corporation had garnered a reputation for designing unusual mobile weapons in the post-Interregnum period, and perhaps more infamously, another for passing them off to anyone with cash on hand. One of Iris' last major inventions, the Tesla drive, proved an incredible boon to their production of mobile weapons. By allowing for nearly lossless conversion of electrical energy into thrust, as well as with a minimum of moving parts, the Tesla drive's modest output is still fully capable of providing sufficient lift to sustain level flight even for heavy objects, including mobile weapons. With technical and material support from the Vanguard Horizon organization, Iris' waning Flag series was effectively shelved for the creation of a new type of mobile weapon - the 'armored module'.

The Lion, designated AM-004A, is the first successful armored module to reach mass production. Compared to a mobile suit, an amored module is much more simple, with significantly less complex mechanical equipment. As the earliest model of armored module, the Lion appears to have more in common with a fighter aircraft than a mobile suit, with only rudimentary limbs and no faculty for walking at all (its "feet" even have aviation-type landing gear). The Lion's legs are purely for mobility control in flight, and the pair of simple arms has very little manual dexterity, serving primarily to allow easier aiming of mounted weaponry. The sleek and aerodynamically-sound shape of the body allows the Lion a significant degree of lift - combined with the Tesla drive's great thrust output, the Lion is one of the fastest flying mobile weapons currently in production. Its maneuverability is somewhat lacking in comparison, although a skilled pilot should have no problem flying circles around a ground-based mobile suit. The Lion's extremely lightweight composite armor offers rather mediocre protection, however, making the armored module quite reliant on its ability to avoid enemy fire in combat. The extreme simplicity and mechanical reliability of the Tesla drive, combined with its excellent performance as a flight system, has raised some eyebrows in the defense sector as being "too good to be true", however, and rumors about the origins of the Tesla drive being anywhere but an Iris research laboratory continue to this day.

With no capability to arm beam weapons due to its low generator output, the Lion is nevertheless well armed with the potent "burst railgun", an electromag-netically-accelerated cannon that can fire multiple non-explosive shells in rapid succession. Although incapable of penetrating the best armor, the burst railgun can make quick work of most forms of protection, and is also quite accurate. The Lion's other arm is typically furnished with a multi-tube missile launcher, which can be used effectively in both the air-to-air and air-to-ground role. A pair of vulcan guns are installed in the torso for local defense and strafing thin-skinned ground targets. Due to the Lion's vulnerability to explosive warheads, as well as a rather obvious lineage to aircraft, it is also capable of deploying a chaff-type countermeasure to help protect against enemy guided weapons.

The Lion's extremely economic cost and perceived high level of performance made it immediately popular with Iris' clients - by the mid-220's, Earth Union analysts began to refer to it as the corporation's "top export". The Lion ended up becoming a victim of its own success, and played a key role in the Union's forced shutdown of the company in August UC 228. Most of Iris' design staff ended up avoiding prosecution, and were later intrumental in the founding of the Tesla Leicht Institutite, which continues research and development of the Tesla drive (as well as new armored modules), this time well outside of the Earth Union's jurisdiction.

Lineart

Burst railgun
Front detail
Landing configuration
Rear view