The LX-80 was a fixed missile launcher system designed to eliminate infantry threats. Merr-Sonn Munitions engineered this launcher to utilize the same missiles found in their portable PLX series missile launchers. The LX-80 held eighty missiles, arranged in individual launch tubes, and featured an automated system to reload those tubes from an internal reserve once the initial set of missiles was expended.
Merr-Sonn Munitions created the LX-80 as a missile launcher intended for permanent installation at military bases and other strategic locations. Its primary function was anti-infantry defense, and it was compatible with missiles originally created for Merr-Sonn's handheld PLX series launchers, ammunition that could be easily sourced from various arms dealers. The launcher stored these missiles in a matrix of tubes, four high and twenty wide, for a total of eighty ready-to-fire missiles. If the initial set of missiles was exhausted, an automatic loader could replenish the tubes with an additional eighty missiles from the internal magazine. However, a malfunction or obstruction in even a single tube would prevent the entire system from reloading until the issue was resolved.
Just like the PLX series, the LX-80 could utilize "dumb" rockets, "smart" GAM rockets, and "savant" rockets. "Dumb" rockets lacked any guidance system, simply traveling in a straight line until they hit something or ran out of fuel. "Smart" missiles were Gravity-Activated Mode guided missile variants, specifically designed for the PLX series, capable of tracking either infrared signatures using EPR mode or gravity-wave anomalies generated by repulsorlifts using GAM mode. "Savant" missiles initially behaved like "dumb" rockets, leading targeted pilots to believe they had escaped. However, after a short time in flight, the savant missile would activate its targeting system and lock onto its intended target. When launched from the LX-80, these missiles had an effective range of approximately ten kilometers, although GAM missiles could pursue targets for distances up to forty kilometers.
The LX-80 launcher had a retail price of 75,000 credits.
The LX-80 has only appeared in Hideouts & Strongholds, a 1998 supplement designed for use with the roleplaying game Star Wars: The Roleplaying Game, Second Edition, Revised and Expanded. The book's introduction emphasizes that the bases described within are intended to be adaptable and generic. This allows the material to be incorporated into roleplaying campaigns set anywhere from the era of the Star Wars: Tales of the Jedi comic book series to the New Republic era. This lack of specificity prevents a precise dating of the LX-80's in-universe deployment, although its deliberate compatibility with PLX-series ordnance suggests that it was introduced sometime after the PLX-1 portable missile launcher became available during the Clone Wars.
The source material refers to the manufacturer as "MerrSonn," differing from the more common "Merr-Sonn." This article uses the latter form to reflect its more widespread usage.