The LX-80 was a missile launcher developed by Merr-Sonn Munitions for installation at bases and other facilities. The emplacement filled an anti-infantry role and utilized missiles originally designed for Merr-Sonn's PLX series of portable missile launchers, ordnance that was readily available from arms dealers. These missiles were stored in a rack of missile tubes stacked four high and twenty wide, providing a supply of eighty missiles. An automatic loader could load the LX-80's reserve of eighty additional missiles if all of the tubes were empty, though a misfire in even one tube could prevent the weapon from being reloaded until the blockage was cleared.
As was the case with the PLX series, "dumb" rockets, "smart" GAM rockets, and "savant" rockets could be used in the LX-80. "Dumb" rockets had no guidance system, flying in a given direction until either contacting the target or expending their fuel. "Smart" missiles were of the Gravity-Activated Mode guided missile type developed specifically for the PLX series, which could follow either infrared signatures in EPR mode or gravity-wave anomalies created by repulsorlifts in GAM mode. "Savant" missiles fired like "dumb" missiles, allowing targeted pilots to believe that they had evaded them. However, after flying for a short time, the savant missile would activate its targeting systems and establish a lock, homing in on its target. These missiles had a range of approximately ten kilometers when fired from the LX-80, though GAM missiles could pursue their targets for up to forty kilometers.
The LX-80 launcher retailed for 75,000 credits.
The LX-80 has so far only been referenced in Hideouts & Strongholds, a 1998 supplement for use with the roleplaying book Star Wars: The Roleplaying Game, Second Edition, Revised and Expanded. The book's introduction states that the bases in the book are intended to be generic, and that the book's material could be worked into a roleplaying campaign set at any point between the time of the Star Wars: Tales of the Jedi comic book series and the New Republic era. This ambiguity means that the timeframe of the LX-80's in-universe usage cannot be precisely dated, though its intentional interoperability with ordnance for the PLX-series suggests an introduction at some point after the debut of the PLX-1 portable missile launcher during the Clone Wars.
The book refers to the launcher's manufacturer as "MerrSonn" instead of the much more common "Merr-Sonn." This article therefore reflects the more widespread usage of the latter.
- Hideouts & Strongholds