[[File:VW Banner.png|thumb|Banner believed to be used by the Grand Company of the Virtuous Worms]]
| name = RAS-16
The '''Grand Company of the Virtuous Worms''' was a [[Corumm]]ese mercenary army active in various conflicts starting in the early 10th century until their forceful disbandment in 1250 CE. Formed in the dying years of the Chen dynasty as its power waned and desertion became more widespread among border garrisons, its initial core was formed from the soldiers of the fortress of Kathok who deserted after their wages were stolen by treasury officials. Under the command of the self styled High Marshall Xol, Will of Thousands they entered the service of the usurper Tengu Peg-Leg and after his overthrow, the [[United Cities]]. From an initial size of around eight hundred men, the intake of adventurers, bandits and prisoners of war would by the 1200's balloon the company to a size of around nine thousand men under arms.
| image = File:RPG-32 YDF.png
==Origin==
| image_size = 300
The general malaise and military decrepitude of the late period Chen dynasty coupled with the start of the crisis of the Four Great Impostors meant that the years from 900 CE and onwards saw considerable upheaval in all strata of society, including military formations. Corruption and falling military budgets meant that military forces guarding the borders often went unpaid for long stretches of time. This led to high rates of desertion, pillaging and abuses towards local populations and revolts. The fortress of Kathok was one of the most important strongholds protecting Pingu province, sitting right on the border with all the eastern territories that had already defected to usurper Tengu Peg Leg. Having repulsed at least two attacks by Tengu's forces and having not been paid for six months, mutinous sentiment began to quickly spread inside the garrison. Upon news that a caravan from Zhongzi carrying the soldier's wages had either been robbed by bandits or diverted by corrupt officials, the garrison mutinied. They immediately sent messengers to Tengu and offered to sell Kathok to him, an offer he agreed to. The now renegade group of soldiers now moved by an appetite for revenge moved towards Zhongzi, led by Kathok's former quartermaster, an officer named Xol. Having no walls and only small garrison, the defenses of the city of Zhongzi were quickly overwhelmed after which an entire week of pillaging and brutality was observed. In order to save his daughter from rape, the town magistrate agreed to marry his daughter to Xol, a practice common to the era. The brutal ransacking of Zhongzi led to Xol's men being dubbed as Vile Worms by a government pronouncement, a name that they changed to the Virtuous Worms when they began taking on mercenary work.
| caption = A RAS-16
==Service with the [[United Cities]]==
| origin = {{flag|Yonderre}}
The occupation of the fortress of Khartok created such panic at the Chen court that the military response to Tengu Peg Leg's rising was accelerated, with Da Beipan's army being ordered west to confront the usurper. Having made themselves at home in Zhongzi, the Worms were sent into a frenzy of anxiety at the news of the rapidly approaching imperial army. Gathering their new wives and all the loot they could carry, the company decided to retreat back to Khartok in all haste. They set Zhongzi on fire before leaving to slow down Da Beipan.
| type = {{wpl|Rocket-propelled grenade}}
==Service with Corummese dynasties==
<!-- Type selection -->| is_ranged =
==Disbandment==
| is_missile = yes
==Notable Commanders==
<!-- Service history -->| service = 2016–present
*Xita the Nurturing Worm
| used_by = See ''[[#Users|Users]]''
*Akka the Worm of Secrets
| wars = [[The Deluge]]
*Eir the Keeper of Order
<!-- Production history -->| designer = [[FNC]]
*Ur the Ever-Hunger
| design_date = 2012–2016
*Xol Will of the Thousands
| manufacturer = [[FNC]]
*Yul the Honest Worm
| unit_cost =
| production_date = 2016–present
| number =
| variants =
<!-- General specifications -->| spec_label = RAS-16
The '''RAS-16''', short for the [[Burgoignesc language|Burgoignesc]] ''Roquette Antichar System modèle 16'', literally "Rocket Anti-Tank System model 16", is a [[Yonderre|Yonderian]] handheld rocket-propelled grenade launcher designed by [[FNC|Fabrique Nationale Collinebourg]]. Introduced in 2016, it is the primary RPG of the [[Yonderian Defence Force]], superceding the [[RAS-88]] and supplementing the lighter single-shot disposable [[RAS-66]]. The RAS-16 fires either a tandem 72mm/105mm HEAT warhead for anti-armour purposes or a 105mm thermobaric warhead for anti-personnel use.
Despite its overall length of 1.2 meters, a loaded RAS-16 weighs only {{convert|8|kg|lb|abbr=on}} which is equivalent to many modern single-shot disposable RPGs, but offers more than twice the effective range and greatly increased post-armoured interface effectiveness. The RAS-16 also has a built-in laser rangefinder for greatly increased first shot hit probability.
With the infantry of the [[Yonderian Defence Force]], the RAS-16 is generally deployed as a two-man weapons team inside a regular infantry squad, with the gunner carrying the weapon and two spare rounds (typically two HEAT and one thermobaric) and the loader carrying a further three rockets (typically another two HEAT and one thermobaric), with more ammunition carried in their vehicle. They are also used as remote-operated sentry guns or vehicle-mounted turrets, with four tubes mounted together 2x2 with a thermal laser rangefinder.
==Development history and design features==
[[File:RAS 16 designer.png|thumb|Rachet Couronne, lead designer of the RAS-16]]
Development of the RAS-16 began in 2012 by a [[FNC|Fabrique Nationale Collinebourg]] design team led by Rachet Couronne in response to the recent adoption of the [[MAS-12]] ATGM. The [[RAS-88]] RPG in use at the time, also a product of FNC, was slowly approaching obsolescence despite repeated upgrade kits to prolong its service life. Further funding for development was secured from the [[Yonderian Defence Force]] via [[AMY]] in 2013, with [[Army Procurement Command (Yonderre)|Army Procurement Command]] keen on keeping the [[Yonderian Defence Force]] on top of anti-armour capabilities in case of war. The first functional prototypes entered testing in Autumn of 2015 and the weapon was approved after tweaking in the Spring of 2016.<ref>Couronne, Rachet: "''The RAS-16 Developmental Process and How I Stopped Caring''". [[Armes et Munitions Trimestrielles]] IV, 2016. pg. 81-82 (2016)
</ref>
The RAS-16 is a shoulder-fired, unguided, tube-style, breech-loading anti-tank rocket system with an effective range of 800 meters designed to take on and destroy modern and future tanks equipped with explosive reactive armour. The RAS-16 is designed with economic viability in mind, keeping production cost as low as possible while maintaining a high degree of effectivenes on target. When launched, the rocket deploys eight fins as it leaves the launcher, stabilizing the rocket during flight.
The RAS-16 aims through an optical sight with 2.7x magnification wtih night-vision capability. A laser rangefinder is also built into the optical sight of the RAS-16, with which it can accurately find ranges out to approximately two kilometers, 600 meters beyond the maximum firing range of the RAS-16. Both the thermobaric and tandem HEAT warheads of the RAS-16 are deliberately designed to have the same flight path, simplifying the aiming process by eliminating the need for seperate range tables in the optical sight's reticle.
The reticle of the RAS-16's optic is graduated in hundreds of meters from 100 to 800 meters to account for gravitational influence on the warheads, and the sight places a red dot at the correct range in the reticle once the laser rangefinder has been used to designate a target. The RAS-16 furthermore has a programmable fuze setter to allow warheads to explode in mid air at a set distance. For added safety and cost savings, an automatic round counter enables soldiers and logisticians to accurately track the service life of each weapon.
==Ammunition==
[[File:RAS 16 ammo.png|thumb|Inert cutaway RAS-16s at the [[Catalina Wine Mixer]] showing their warheads, top RAS-16 armed with thermobaric, bottom RAS-16 armed with tandem HEAT]]
===Tandem HEAT warhead===
The armour piercing ammunition of the RAS-16 is its tandem HEAT warhead featuring a 72mm charge in front of a 105mm charge. The 72mm precursor charge at the tip of the rocket is designed to hit the explosive reactive armour of its intended target and detonate it before the main charge hits. The reactive armour plate should deploy, exploding and disrupting the precursor charge's HEAT jet. As reactive armor is usually single usage only, this renders that particular block of reactive armor useless and unable to protect against the much larger and more powerful main shaped charge. The main shaped charge is a full calibre 105mm warhead supposed to penetrate the target through the weak spot created by the precursor charge. It is also capable of penetrating two metres of brick or 1.5 m of reinforced concrete.
===Thermobaric warhead===
The anti-personnel rocket used in the RAS-16 is a thermobaric warhead. While most conventional explosives consist of a fuel–oxidizer premix, thermobaric weapons consist only of fuel and as a result are significantly more energetic than conventional explosives of equal weight. Their reliance on atmospheric oxygen makes them unsuitable for use under water, at high altitude, and in adverse weather, but makes them considerably more effective when used in enclosed spaces such as tunnels, buildings and non-hermetically sealed field fortifications such as foxholes, covered slit trenches, bunkers. It has a lethal radius of 12 meters and contains {{convert|2.2|kg|lb|abbr=on}} of thermobaric mixture, with an explosive yield roughly equal to that of {{convert|9|kg|lb|abbr=on}} of TNT.
==Operational History==
The [[Yonderian Defence Force]] began taking delivery of RAS-16s in the Summer of 2016 which began the process of replacing the present RAS-88s. RAS-16s are deployed with the YDF on several different platforms including shoulder-borne and quad-stacked for vehicular or remote controlled mounts. The RAS-16 has seen combat use in [[the Deluge]], particularly during the [[Final War of the Deluge|Final War]] where it has proven itself a very capable and reliable means of destroying [[Varshan|Varshani]] heavy vehicles. It is used both in the ground role as a shoulder-fired weapon, on quadropedal mounts as remotely-operated sentry guns and mounted to vehicles.
==Users==
* {{flag|Pelaxia}} - Produced locally under license by [[Fabricaciones Militares]]
* {{flag|Yonderre}}
===Non-state users===
[[File:EI_Logo.png|18px]] [[Intrepid Enterprises]]: Purchased directly from [[FNC]]<br>
File:RAS 16 CROWS.png|Quad-monted RAS-16s for vehiclar use, marketed internationally as Combat Remotely Operated Weapon Station (CROWS)
File:RAS 16 LRF.png|RAS-16 optical sight and laser rangefinder
</gallery>
==See also==
* [[MAS-12]]
* [[List of equipment of the Yonderian Defence Force]]
==Notes==
{{reflist}}
[[Category:Weapons]]
[[Category:Military technology]]
[[Category:Military]]
[[Category:AMY]]
[[Category:Yonderian Defence Force]]
[[Category:Yonderre]]
[[Category: Canonical Article]]
[[Category:IXWB]]
[[Category:IXWB]]
[[Category:Award winning pages]]
[[Category: Corumm]]
Revision as of 03:06, 27 December 2022
Banner believed to be used by the Grand Company of the Virtuous Worms
The Grand Company of the Virtuous Worms was a Corummese mercenary army active in various conflicts starting in the early 10th century until their forceful disbandment in 1250 CE. Formed in the dying years of the Chen dynasty as its power waned and desertion became more widespread among border garrisons, its initial core was formed from the soldiers of the fortress of Kathok who deserted after their wages were stolen by treasury officials. Under the command of the self styled High Marshall Xol, Will of Thousands they entered the service of the usurper Tengu Peg-Leg and after his overthrow, the United Cities. From an initial size of around eight hundred men, the intake of adventurers, bandits and prisoners of war would by the 1200's balloon the company to a size of around nine thousand men under arms.
The general malaise and military decrepitude of the late period Chen dynasty coupled with the start of the crisis of the Four Great Impostors meant that the years from 900 CE and onwards saw considerable upheaval in all strata of society, including military formations. Corruption and falling military budgets meant that military forces guarding the borders often went unpaid for long stretches of time. This led to high rates of desertion, pillaging and abuses towards local populations and revolts. The fortress of Kathok was one of the most important strongholds protecting Pingu province, sitting right on the border with all the eastern territories that had already defected to usurper Tengu Peg Leg. Having repulsed at least two attacks by Tengu's forces and having not been paid for six months, mutinous sentiment began to quickly spread inside the garrison. Upon news that a caravan from Zhongzi carrying the soldier's wages had either been robbed by bandits or diverted by corrupt officials, the garrison mutinied. They immediately sent messengers to Tengu and offered to sell Kathok to him, an offer he agreed to. The now renegade group of soldiers now moved by an appetite for revenge moved towards Zhongzi, led by Kathok's former quartermaster, an officer named Xol. Having no walls and only small garrison, the defenses of the city of Zhongzi were quickly overwhelmed after which an entire week of pillaging and brutality was observed. In order to save his daughter from rape, the town magistrate agreed to marry his daughter to Xol, a practice common to the era. The brutal ransacking of Zhongzi led to Xol's men being dubbed as Vile Worms by a government pronouncement, a name that they changed to the Virtuous Worms when they began taking on mercenary work.
The occupation of the fortress of Khartok created such panic at the Chen court that the military response to Tengu Peg Leg's rising was accelerated, with Da Beipan's army being ordered west to confront the usurper. Having made themselves at home in Zhongzi, the Worms were sent into a frenzy of anxiety at the news of the rapidly approaching imperial army. Gathering their new wives and all the loot they could carry, the company decided to retreat back to Khartok in all haste. They set Zhongzi on fire before leaving to slow down Da Beipan.
