| When Southern production facilities were crippled during the War of the Alliance, the Jager was pressed into a variety of operational roles. Anti-armor capability was assured by the Blitz Jager, which featured a single deadly ATML-1 guided missile. As the war dragged on and an approximate front line was established along the savannahs and jungles of the Southern Hemisphere, further variants began to arise. The Colonial Expeditionary Foce's reliance on hovertanks as their main weapon meant that anti-armor weapons were at a premium, and the global scale of the war stretched military resources to their limits. Increasingly, small numbers of Gears were deployed almost alone to strike an isolated target or defend a region of secondary importance. To serve in these missions, a long-range version of the Blitz was developed in TN 1915. The so-called Jager Commando was designed to strike at armored units and be able to return intact. The major modification to the Jager's chassis was the replacement of the standard WV-950A V-engine with the more efficient WV-990C and its somewhat larger fuel tanks. Like the Blitz, the Commando was fitted with a single ATML-1 launcher and received a Rucker RF-10 rifle as a standard weapon. The single shot of the ATML-1 made the Commando a hit-and-fade specialist, but a skirt mounted storage bay for rifle rounds gave it the necessary endurance for light combat. An armored jacket, composed of additional armor plates held in place by a flexible cover, was added for additional protection.
|