Reflex Cannon
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In the science-fiction anime television series Robotech, the Reflex Cannon is a super-powerful energy weapon, used as a heavy anti-spacecraft weapon to destroy enemy warships in a single blow.
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[edit] Background
The name reflex was derived from a mistranslation in the scripts (provided by Tatsunoko Productions) of "reaction," the shortened euphemistic term for thermonuclear reaction in The Super Dimension Fortress Macross. [1] Coincidentally, Genesis Climber Mospeada had a location crucial to its story named Reflex Point. Macross and Mospeada were two of the three Japanese animated series which were adapted into Robotech. The term reaction is used in the context of power systems and warheads in the Japanese Macross series, whereas the term reflex is used in the context of energy weapons, in addition to power systems and warheads in Robotech.
[edit] The SDF-1
The first known usage of a reflex cannon on Earth was the firing of the SDF-1's gigantic main gun at the beginning of the First Robotech War in 2009. The front of the ship opened into two gigantic booms. The protoculture charge built up between these two points until enough energy was collected to fire. The range of this weapon was great enough to hit interplanetary targets and usually everything within the line of fire was vaporized. In a state of disrepair by 2014, the battle-ravaged main gun of the SDF-1 disintegrated after its final firing and was too weak to destroy just one Zentraedi vessel, its intended target.
[edit] The Grand Cannon
The Grand Cannon was a much more powerful version which built up the charge in a giant underground shaft secretly built in Alaska. The beam could be adjusted during firing and was great enough to destroy countless numbers of Zentraedi warships orbiting the Earth. Unfortunately, the Grand Cannon was damaged from the energy of its own blast and could not be used again.
[edit] Synchro Cannons
By the Third Robotech War, a new variant called the Synchro Cannon was introduced on Shimakaze-class battlecruisers, and later adopted by the SDF-3 and SDF-4 Izumo. A smaller unit was also observed on Earth by Sue Graham of the Jupiter division.
