Ion cannon


 * This article is about the satellite-based weapon system. You may be looking for the man-portable version or the GD-10 weapon attachment.

"The boys at R&D have completed preliminary testing on the ion cannon, the next generation of strategic defense armaments. Its geosynchronous orbit gives it a target diversions factor of 8-to-1. It's an awesome weapon, the most powerful in our arsenal."

- General Mark Jamison Sheppard near the end of the First Tiberium War.

The orbital ion cannon is a satellite-based particle beam weapon system developed by the Global Defense Initiative. It allows the delivery of accurate and powerful tactical strikes. The weapon has undergone continued development since its debut and multiple systems were in action at the end of the Third Tiberium War. They have effectively supplanted tactical nuclear weapons in the GDI arsenal.

First Tiberium War
The ion cannon was developed during the First Tiberium War. Two versions became operational during the war. One fired a single beam while another produced multiple beams that coalesced into one as the firing cycle completed. The advent of the satellite-based weapon corresponded with a promise by GDI never to use nuclear weapons. However, GDI continued to keep nuclear weapons in its arsenal.

An advanced communications center at field bases provided operational commanders with a secure control uplink to the ion cannon. It was through this control system that Commander Solomon decisively ended the Battle of Sarajevo by directing an ion cannon strike on the Temple of Nod.

The GS-2 beacon was developed for troops to request strikes in the field. One was used to penetrate the Temple of Nod in Cairo.

A queuing system was introduced to manage the demand for the deployed systems, and this practice continues.

Nod discovered the ion cannon development project in Africa. On Kane's orders a commando assassinated Doctor Wong Hu Chan, the project's leader, to impede development. Despite the doctor's death GDI carried on and eventually began field testing. Nod struck Johannesburg and captured the ion cannon security codes from an advanced communications center. Using these codes, Netwarriors operating from a South African Temple of Nod infiltrated GDI's orbital defense matrix and gained access to the ion cannon. The weapon was used to destroy a notable Western landmark.

Second Tiberium War.
A single-beam weapon was most common during the Second Tiberium War. The uplink for operational commanders was mounted on the Upgrade Center.

For security purposes the ion cannon control codes were divided into three parts and stored at three separate Upgrade Centers at a facility near Hammerfest. These measures were considered "paranoid" by the Nod AI CABAL.

Third Tiberium War
The orbital ion cannon network was well established by the Third Tiberium War. The battlefield uplink was through an Ion Cannon Control Center.

The type of system deployed had at least two firing modes. The first was commonly used against ground targets. Initially eight secondary beams arranged in a circle gradually spun inwards until they joined at the center, destroying lesser targets inside the circle. After that the primary beam fired and caused a massive blast in the target area. The second mode dispensed with the secondary beams altogether. This was used for the strike on Temple Prime which detonated the Liquid Tiberium Bomb and when the network was turned against Scrin starships in Earth orbit.

The satellites were deemed accurate enough to intercept ballistic missiles. Individual beams were also accurate enough to target moving targets, even into space. This was demonstrated when a distressed Boyle ordered the Ion Cannon to strike the incoming Scrin forces. While the strike was successful, it only caused the large capital ships to fragment into smaller, Drone Ships.

Being the target of the ion cannons on multiple occasions, the Brotherhood of Nod continued their efforts to neutralize its effects. Nod surmised GDI's dependence on the ion cannon network was a critical weakness. In the leap up to the war the Nod AI LEGION raided the Johannesburg research facility and stole the plans for the ion cannnon network. From those Nod identified a single-point of failure in GDI Space Command's control over all of the orbital weapon systems, including the ion cannons: the entire network was directed from a single ground side location at Goddard Space Center. This led directly to the disabling of the A-SAT system which made the destruction of the Philadelphia possible at the beginning of the war.

The temporary unavailability of the ion cannons due to the attack on Goddard was used by Nod to implement Ion Cannon Disruption Technology, rendering a number of locations, notably Temple Prime, immune from ion cannon attack while the disruption arrays remained intact.

The ion cannon was powerful enough to destroy Scrin Threshold towers once the protective phase generators were disabled.