A Field Guide to the Weapons of Wing Commander Academy

Last month we took a close look at the various spacecraft weapons identifiable in the Wing Commander movie. The resulting field guide helped show me the incredible level of detail and consistency that went into the background of the world… and of course it's pretty neat to catalog more of the Wing Commander universe, too! With that in mind, I decided to take a similarly close look at the weapons of Wing Commander Academy. Like movies, TV shows have a detailed preproduction process where style sheets showing the characters, vehicles, props and sets would look. These would then inform writers, storyboard artists and the animation production companies at all stages of making the show. Coming through all thirteen episodes has let us take a sort of 'space telescope' look backwards in time to learn more about what those style guides must have included!

PART ONE: GUNS

Laser Cannon

As in the original game it prequels, the simple laser cannon is by far the most common weapon seen on Wing Commander Academy. Laser cannon blasts are typically portrayed as rectangular bolts of varying lengths, more like their appearance in Privateer and later games. Our most interesting discovery about lasers concerns their colors. Some episodes have Confederation and Kilrathi lasers distinct colors: human weapons are light blue tinted while the Kilrathi ones are yellow. However, several episodes make all lasers an orange color that is maybe closer to the games themselves. A little research revealed exactly what's going on here: it's different style guides for different animation outsource companies! The nine episodes produced by Madhouse use the GI Joe-style faction colors while the four episodes produced by Koko have orange lasers (while Invisible Enemy is credited to Madhouse, it's actually a co-production). In addition to fixed lasers on fighters, capital ships use a variety of different laser turrets including barbettes, point defense emplacements and then single and dual mount turrets.

Particle Cannon

The Broadsword mounts two rear-firing particle cannons which are seen fired in The Last One Left. Unlike laser bolts, they fire smaller balls of energy.

Plasma Gun

Plasma guns are identified in dialogue on the Broadsword but they are never seen fired. The "wing plasma guns" mentioned by Maya refers to the single mount turrets above and below the Broadsword.

Flak Gun

The same flak guns seen in the early Wing Commander games appear sporadically on Wing Commander Academy. They are seen active defending the Tiger's Claw, the Agon'Ra'Sivar and a Dorkir. As in the games, we do not ever see their specific firing site.

Anti-Matter Gun

Large capital ships on Wing Commander Academy also mount more powerful Anti-Matter Gun batteries like those introduced in Wing Commander II. The Tiger's Claw has six of these weapons and others appear on the Dorkar, Kamar, Ralar and Naukar shared-style Kilrathi ships. Dual and triple mount versions are seen.

Tractor Beam

Multiple ships on Academy are seen using tractor beams in a variety of colors. The Scimitar, Broadsword and Kilrathi Salvage Tug have glowing yellow tractors while the Tiger's Claw has a pair of large scale green ones and a Grikath is seen with a pair of darker orange beams.

PART TWO: MISSILES

We've identified what we classify as eleven different missile types over the course of the show. That seems like a lot, but they're actually pretty consistent and different types match their equivalents from the game! For our purposes we've numbered the types in order of appearance (a spreadsheet linked below identifies each firing).

Type 1 - Heat Seeker

The standard Heat Seeker is by far the most common missile to appear on Wing Commander Academy with a very consistent look in almost every episode. It seems to be the animator's go to missile and it very consistently matches dogfights that involve a rear aspect lock.

Our research also identified three variants of this missile with slightly different warheads. Type 9 is a 'blunt' version which appears twice… although one of these is only in Archer's dream! Type 10 has a red warhead and Type 11, which is fired by a ground-based Kilrathi missile turret, has a distinct red sensor.

Type 2 - Dumb Fire

Dumb Fire missiles are seen mounted on the wingtips of the Epees and fired by the Broadsword's centerline missile tube.

Type 3 - Image Recognition

More advanced Image Recognition missiles, identifiable by their fins and red warhead cones, occasionally appear including fired by Epees and the secret Strakha.

Type 8 - Friend or Foe

The Friend or Foe missile doesn't appear frequently but it does make a few cameos throughout the series.

Specialty Missiles

These four missile types are seen only as more specialized weapons system. Type 4 are the munitions for Kilrathi jump buoys, which fire multiple rockets at once. Type 5 is an all red missile seen (but never fired) turreted aboard Achilles-class ships. Type 6 is a capship missile fired by the Kamekh. Type 7 is a Kilrathi MIRV fired by the Strakha and capable of targeting multiple capital ships at once.

Torpedoes

Wing Commander Academy's Broadswords routinely fire torpedoes but the design is not as consistent as the missiles. In some cases, the torpedoes use the Heat Seeker or the Image Recognition missile models while other episodes introduce two unique blunted-nose torpedoes for a total of four distinct classses.

The Confederation also has a MIRV torpedo seen only in the finale: it splits into three submunitions as it approaches the target.

Decoys

Scimitars and Ferrets both drop decoys at various points in the show and they're typically represented as starbusts of chaff.

In Word of Honor we get a good look at the decoys being fired: Blair's Scimitar launches two projectiles that then ignite into the decoy's flare.

Appendix A: Ship Specifications & Appearances

As part of the research for this article we created a spreadsheet of ship appearances and identifiable weapons! Images of both are available below or you can access the original Google Sheet here which includes pages on the different weapon uses observed.

Appendix B: Dialogue Mentions

We picked out references to weapons spoken in the show's dialogue to help discern what is intended to be what. Here are the lines we picked out and the ships they're discussing:

Scimitar: "Hey, aren't those lasers supposed to be quarter strength?" (Red and Blue)
Epee: "Don't worry, I got mine when Hyena's laser shorted out my cockpit circuits." (The Most Delicate Instrument)
Broadsword: "These control the wing plasma guns and the quad lasers linked to your heads up computer. Now this is your real firing particle cannon. That sets your dumb fire and image recog missiles." (Expendable)
Sartha: "That last laser hit took out our life support." (Expendable)
Kamekh: "The laser turret's offline." (Walking Wounded)
Strakha: "I'm getting laser fire but no…" (Invisible Enemy)
Naukar: "Watch out for those laser turrets." (Price of Victory)

Appendix C: Visual Guide to Turrets

Mini Turret