As the size and strength of the Irish Dragoons grew under the generosity of the Royal Alterian Armed Forces, not only did they begin to take on more assignments for the R.A.A.F., but those assignments started becoming more and more dispersed. For a long period of time when the Dragoons deployed it tended to be at full unit strength. However, when the Dragoons reach full division size, more often than not the assignments required up to battalion strength deployments. This meant that the Irish Dragoons could be supporting operations on three or more planets depending on the force requirements. This resulted in the Dragoons becoming increasingly dependent on ComStar or Word of Blake for long distant communications. This gave the Dragoons' high command nightmares about units being cut off and stranded incommunicado.
The Dragoons’ high command got wind of a Clan Moonraker project. The Clans had always made wide and unrestricted use of Hyper Pulse Generators where ComStar had maintained a stranglehold on Inner Sphere communications. Add to that fact that the Clans were past masters of miniaturization, it came as no surprise that the Moonrakers were developing a transportable version of an H.P.G. Most Clans with the exception of Hell’s Horses, held vehicle combat units in relative disdain, preferring the power and might of the Battlemech. Because of this mindset, there was very little official interest in the project. The Moonraker high command considered it little more than a waste of time and resources for the Scientific and Technicians classes. As such, when the Irish Dragoons issued a Trial of possession batchal for the H.P.G., the bidding came down to a single Moonraker Dragonfly, light ‘Mech pitted against the Templar, Thunder Hawk, Pillager, and Gauntlet Assault ‘Mechs originally bid by the Dragoons. At the conclusion of the "Trial", a Moonraker transport unceremoniously dumped the prototype unit on the loading ramp of the Dragoons DropShip.
It turned out that the unit was relative easy to reverse engineer and produce. The Third Regiment’s Morningstar, Mobile Headquarters, and Blackhawk command vehicles were retrofitted with an even smaller, receiver version of the device. The main units were mounted on massive, 24 wheeled trailers that allowed all necessary equipment to be self contained. The trailers were towed by a tracked vehicle. An additional reason for the use of such a large trailer was the decision to mount the actual transmitter dish on an articulated arm. Although for communication purposes the dish was aimed at another planet (i.e. at a vertical or near vertical angle) accidental testing proved that even at half power the beam could disrupt electronics in vehicles up to the size of DropShips not to mention lances of Battlemechs. Thus a little more directional control than straight up was deemed desirable.
At this time most command vehicles have the receiver version of the H.P.G. due to the large amount of power required by the full fledged transmitter. The Irish Dragoons currently have six of the mobile H.P.G. vehicles at their disposal. Further production is planned and if the existing six units prove to be sufficient for Dragoon operational requirements, then the additional units will be sold to the Bengal’s Tiger Brigade.
