History Main / FixedForwardFacingWeapon

** In Der Film, the University team fields [[spoiler: a T28 Super Heavy Tank with a forward-facing high-velocity 105mm and a Karl Device Siege Mortar with a ''600mm'' weapon]].

*** Armored ships would continue to mount rams for decades to come, and when Whitehead motorized torpedoes and their successors were introduced, experiments combining the two systems led to the brief development of the 'torpedo ram'. While this design didn't lead anywhere, it did show up in some fiction of the time, including the ''HMS Thunder Child'' in the novel ''Literature/WarOfTheWorlds''. Even battleships would have ram prows (that is, a prow designed so that the underwater section jutted forward) as late as the ''HMS Dreadnought'', and indeed the ''Dreadnought'' would use its ram prow to sink a U-boat!

* In ''FanFic/{{Fractured}}'', a ''Franchise/MassEffect''[=/=]''Franchise/StarWars''[[spoiler:[=/=]''[=Borderlands=]'']] [[MassiveMultiplayerCrossover crossover]], the United Defense Command builds ships based on this trope ("Aspirations Toward Infinitiy") with the goal of killing Reapers. This doesn't work out well, creating ships with CripplingOverspecialization that are PointDefenseless to boot! In the sequel, ''Fanfic/{{Origins}}'', the Star Dreadnaught ''Ultimatum'' has a superlaser running along its axis. ''Farsight'' has ''[[RuleOfThree three]]''. Cronos Station had one, until it [[PhlebotinumBreakdown malfunctioned]] in a [[StuffBlowingUp rather explosive fashion]].

*** Prow-mounted torpedo tubes are also a regular feature of several of the fleets, though the Imperial Navy, Space Marine Chapter Fleets, and the Orks are the ones that primarily play this straight. Even then, the Space Marines are also prone to using ''boarding torpedoes''[[note]]which exchange the typical standard plasma warhead with cutting tools and melta-charges, with several squads of Adeptus Astartes onboard, functioning as assault boats[[/note]], which have limited maneuverability. The Tau, notably the "Forge World" designed ships, do make use of "bow" (often, "wing") mounted ship-grade missile launchers, but avert this as the missiles are guided and far more maneuverable.

** ''VideoGame/CommandAndConquerTiberianDawn'' and ''VideoGame/CommandAndConquerRedAlert'' both had the Mobile Artillery, essentially a big cannon on wheels (the MRLS on the other hand, did have its missile launcher on a turret in-game). ''Red Alert 2'' added the V2 Rocket Launcher that fires a big rocket forward.
** ''VideoGame/CommandAndConquerTiberianSun'' had the Mammoth Mark II, which in addition to its ventral machinegun turret and dorsal missile pods, packed devastating railguns on each side, which could only be aimed vertically.

* The A7V "heavy tank," the St. Chamond "assault tank," and the Char C2 in ''VideoGame/Battlefield1'' have their main cannons sticking out the front of the tank; drivers have to rely on crew to man the machine guns on the sides to kill would-be flankers.

*** Dolphins, Yari minisubs and Akula subs can only fire straight ahead. Riptides have a pintle-mounted machine gun, but when on water can only fire their torpedoes forward. The Akula's special ability fires a pair of high-powered torpedoes straight ahead.

*** Subverted with ''Uprising's'' (RA 3's ExpansionPack) Harbinger gunship, where the fixed-facing weapons are mounted on the side (it can switch to a swiveling chin-mounted chaingun), meaning the plane keeps circling the target until it's dead. While shooting miniature-fusion-bombs or gatling guns ensures this happens quickly, it often sends the plane right into enemy AntiAir.

* ''Film/{{Asteroid}}'': The [[EnergyWeapon lasers]] are mounted on the noses of jet fighters and feature no auto-targeting of any kind. Justified in that the engineers had a limited amount of time to install these before all life on Earth ended. This becomes a plot point when one of the three fighter pilots is unable to keep the asteroid in his crosshairs due to a storm, and the asteroid is only hit with two beams.

** Oarai has Team Rabbit's M3 Lee, with a sponson-mounted forward-facing 75mm gun in addition to its turret-mounted 37mm gun, Team Mallard's Char B1-Bis with a forward-facing 75mm howitzer in addition to its 47mm gun in the turret, and Team Hippo's [=STuG=] III is only armed with a forward-facing 75mm gun. Team Turtle's MidSeasonUpgrade to a Hetzer also leaves it with only a forward-facing 75mm.

** In Der Film, the University team fields [[spoiler: a T28 Super Heavy Tank with a forward facing 105mm and a Karl-Morser Siege Mortar with a ''600mm'' artillery cannon]].

** The [[KillSat Death Star's]] [[EarthShatteringKaboom planet-killing]] superlaser. The second Death Star in ''Film/ReturnOfTheJedi'' was shown to have some aiming ability, enough to fire off-axis and hit individual ships in a fleet without rotating to face each one.[[note]]Aiming is not a major consideration when it's being used as intended: How hard is it to miss an entire ''planet'' from an orbital distance, after all?[[/note]]
** Also notably in effect with fighters. Even after the attack on the first Death Star, nobody in the Rebel Alliance figured out that having weapons that could fire off axis (or even just directly backward) would be a good plan. The Y-Wings have turret-mounted ion cannons, but are never seen to fire them. [[AllThereInTheManual Various explanations]] claim that either the cannons require a GuyInBack, and there were none available during the Battle of Yavin, or that the Y-Wings are old and unreliable and the cannons are mostly non-functional. And when a Y-Wing is flown with only one pilot, the turret has to be locked into a specific direction before takeoff in order to be used. Pilots almost always opt for fixed forward-firing, because that at least lets them ''aim'' the ion cannons...though rarely some pilots opt for fixed aft-firing instead. While this configuration generally won't hit anything unless it's much bigger than the Y-Wing or by dumb luck, even blindly firing backward can deter pursuit by an [[FragileSpeedster unshielded TIE Fighter]].

* ''VideoGame/BrothersInArms'': The German StuG III Assault Gun is a vehicle armed with a powerful 75mm tank gun based on the Panzer III tank, complete with good frontal armor protection. However, thanks to lacking a turret, it must move to face its target, exposing its weaker side and rear armor, a weakness that can be exploited by both Baker and Hartsock in order to defeat it.

* In the AlternateHistory series ''ComicBook/JourJ'', World War 2 is between England and France and without nuclear weapons. Spies discover a plan for a submarine that at first glance appears completely stupid as the torpedo tubes point towards the surface (the idea of {{roboteching}} ICBMs being completely foreign to them, but not the audience).

** The ''FlyingDutchman'' is equipped with a pair of forward facing long-nines. Anyone proficient in sailor lingo was already saying OhCrap, but then the "long-nines" turn out to be [[GatlingGood rotating triple-barrel cannons]]. Not bad for a time when cannons were still loaded manually.

[[caption-width-right:350:Let's hope the enemy went to the ''Film/{{Prometheus}}'' [[WebVideo/CinemaSins School of Running]] [[OneDimensionalThinking Away from Things]].]]

* The armament of the ''Amun-Ra''-class stealth ships in ''Series/TheExpanse'' consists largely of a single huge rail gun that takes up a considerable amount of their interior space. They can only fire the gun straight ahead, but as they are nearly impossible to detect they almost always get the first shot, which is all that they need.

** ''VideoGame/CommandAndConquerTiberianDawn''and ''VideoGame/CommandAndConquerRedAlert'' both had the Mobile Artillery, essentially a big cannon on wheels (the MRLS on the other hand, did have its missile launcher on a turret in-game). ''Red Alert'' added the V2 Rocket Launcher, that fires a big rocket forward, and the Grand Cannon which, while nominally a turret, is just so incredibly massive it easily counts as an entire building turning around to fire.

** ''VideoGame/RedAlert3'': While most vehicles have turrets, quite a few lack it:
** Multigunner IFVs must turn the entire vehicle around to fire. Particularly odd as they use the same gimmick as the Multigunner Turrets (loading an infantry unit inside changes the main weapon), which can rotate 360 degrees, and sometimes leads to the actual projectile firing at an angle to the barrel of the IFV's gun.
** Dolphins, Yari minisubs and Akula subs can only fire straight ahead. Riptides have a pintle-mounted machine gun, but when on water can only fire their torpedoes forward.
*** The Akula's special ability fires a pair of high-powered torpedoes straight ahead. Their range is technically infinite and can be used without surfacing, making it a minor AIBreaker in the right hands.
** The Giga Fortress' flying mode has a massive superlaser known as the God's Breath Device, able to obliterate defenses from well beyond their range. As it comes from the Fortress' mouth, the entire monstrosity needs to turn around, allowing surface AntiAir units to get in its minimum range and shoot it out of the sky. Its sea mode, on the contrary, can attack any target from any direction.
** The Apocalypse tank's main guns are on a turret, but its magnetic harpoon forces it to face the target.
** Subverted with ''Uprising's'' (RA 3's sequel) Harbinger gunship, where the fixed-facing weapons are mounted on the side (it can switch to a swiveling chin-mounted chaingun, meaning the plane keeps circling the target until it's dead. While shooting miniature-fusion-bombs or gatling guns ensures this happens quickly, it often sends the plane right into enemy AntiAir.
** The Imperial Sunburst protocol summons a wave of robot drones to crash into the target location, shooting enemies along the way. Despite moving in a straight line, they can shoot at quite a wide angle from their line of movement.
* A popular GameMod for ''VideoGame/CommandAndConquerGenerals'' called ''Shock Wave'' adds a few more such vehicles, such as the Chameleon (a World War II "Hetzer" tank destroyer) and the Basilisk, a huge assault gun that breaks vehicles and structures with ease, but whose sole other weapon is a small machine gun to deal with infantry.

* ''Anime/LegendOfGalacticHeroes'':

** The [[KillSat Super MACs]] take this trope UpToEleven, as they are simply [[BiggerStick massive floating]] [[WaveMotionGun guns]] with support structures built around them. A single round from a Super MAC is said to weigh ''4 million pounds'' and is be able to take out any [[ScaryDogmaticAliens Covenant]] ship in one shot, even the 29 kilometer long ones, even with full shields. While normally outclassing humans in every way, the Covenant have to resort to tricks in order to take out the Super [=MACs=] before attacking a planet, such as [[RammingAlwaysWorks ramming]] or boarding.

** ''Homeworld 2'' has a few examples. Aside from the Hiigaran Ion Cannon Frigate (a descendant of the Kushan Ion Cannon Frigate of the first game), we have: the Vaygr Battlecruiser, whose Trinity Cannon is a battery of three forward facing kinetic cannons of enormous power; the Progenitor Dreadnought, with her [[WaveMotionGun phased cannon array]] is practically the equivalent of a frigate's ion cannon on steroids and scaled up to dreadnought size; and [[spoiler: ''Sajuuk'']], that sports a phased cannon array with ''[[UpToEleven over three times the firepower and range]]''. Again, this is tactically important, as all these ships have limited turn speed.

** Taken UpToEleven with the ''Ragnarov'' Titan in the Rebellion Expansion, where the ship is built around a gigantic railgun. This can actually make the ''Ragnarov'' very vulnerable to another Titan with most of its firepower focused forward. The Loyalist Vasari ''Vorastra'' Titan can perform a short-range phase jump to the rear of the ''Ragnarov'' (i.e. where most of the ''Ragnarov'''s weapons can't target) and pound it mercilessly, performing another jump when the ''Ragnarov'' turns to face it.

* ''[[VideoGame/SuperSmashBros Super Smash Bros. Brawl]]'' has two examples: The [[AirborneAircraftCarrier Battleship]] [[Franchise/{{Kirby}} Halberd]] has a large cannon mounted below the mask which does not seem to aim. This is upped to eleven with the Subspace Gunship (literally a space gun). This ship is easily the largest in the game, and most of its length consists of a single immense cannon with a WaveMotionTuningFork on the end. The main gun is never used in combat; it is actually used to tear the fabric of space, creating portals to subspace.

** The player could modify any acquired capital ship to use this trope in the two older games, although the only ship to truly fit it from the start in the first game was the non-acquirable [[spoiler: Alien Cruiser]], with its Heavy Fusion Beam. The second game, ''Override'', had the Phased Disruption Beam of the Zidagar, a powerful (but fuel-draining) weapon by default mounted on both their fighters (in contrast, their ''normal'' weapons actually weren't fixed, having a swivel radius) and their dedicated warship, the Zidara (which got around the inflexibility of the gun by being a highly maneouverable "pocket warship").

** ''Homeworld 2'' has a few examples. Aside for the Hiigaran Ion Cannon Frigate (a descendant of the Kushan Ion Cannon Frigate of the first game), we have: the Vaygr Battlecruiser, whose Trinity Cannon is a battery of three forward facing kinetic cannons of enormous power; the Progenitor Dreadnought, with her [[WaveMotionGun phased cannon array]] is practically the equivalent of a frigate's ion cannon on steroids and scaled up to dreadnought size; and [[spoiler: ''Sajuuk'']], that sports a phased cannon array with ''[[UpToEleven over three times the firepower and range]]''. Again, this is tactically important, as all these ships have limited turn speed.

** ''Cataclysm'' features most of the frigates from the first game (the Kadeshi and their ships don't appear) and features a new addition: the Siege Cannon of the ''Kuun Lan'', a WaveMotionGun that is mounted to the side and forward-facing because it's an addition to an already complete ship and is just that big. This is not as important as with the frigates, as the Siege Cannon is an area-effect weapon for long range fire. and in fact hitting something too close has the risk of destroying the ''Kuun Lan'' herself. ''Cata'' also has an aversion in the form of the [[BeamSpam Somtaaw Multi-Beam Frigate]], which bears a noticeable family resemblance to the Kadeshi ship from the previous game but has five significantly less powerful beams in proper turret mounts, and is a lot more manoueverable on top.

** The [[KillSat Super MACs]] take this trope UpToEleven. As they are simply [[BiggerStick massive floating]] [[WaveMotionGun guns]] with support structures built around them. A single round from a Super MAC is said to weigh ''4 million pounds'' and is be able to take out any [[ScaryDogmaticAliens Covenant]] ship in one shot, even the 29 kilometer long ones, even with full shields. While normally outclassing humans in every way, the Covenant have to resort to tricks in order to take out the Super [=MACs=] before attacking a planet, such as [[RammingAlwaysWorks ramming]] or boarding.

*** Flying vehicles, for the most part, are also this to certain degrees, for the same reasons as real life military aircraft. Most flyers though use fairly common weaponry on their flyers though, (Rapid Fire Auto-Cannons, Gatling style Assault Cannons, multiple launch missile/rocket pods, lascannons, or a races rough equivalents to these), then, because this is of course, ''Warhammer 40,000'', there's the Super Heavy Flyers, and bombers who take this to a further extreme. Space Marine Thunderhawk Gunships, being a jack of all trades troop lander, space fighter/bomber/assault boat, and of course, gun ships, mount a huge, Super-heavy class cannon on top. The Tau, being ones for being ultra efficient, have the Tiger Shark bombers, which mount Twin-Heavy Railguns with the expressed purpose of hunting the Titans and other vehicles of their enemies. And being a Destroyer strength weapon, basically means whatever get's hit by it, is going to have a really bad day and likely shorter remaining existence on the tabletop.

** The Romulan Mauler, essentially a ship built around a massive beam weapon and its supporting batteries/capacitors designed to break starbase or planetary defense shields in one shot. Not typically a stand alone vessel though - it depends on its sisterships to defend it while it gets into position. They sold the design other races, but even when it was an addition to an existing ship, it still had to be hard bolted into a single direction.

** The Romulan Mauler, essentially a ship built around a massive beam weapon and its supporting batteries/capacitors designed to break starbase or planetary defense shields in one shot. Not typically a stand alone vessel though - it depends on its sisterships to defend it while it get's into position. They sold the design other races, but even when it was an addition to an existing ship, it still had to be hard bolted into a single direction.

* In ''VideoGame/{{Stellaris}}'' battleships might carry spinal-mount weapons (dubbed as X for extra large, to differentiate them from small, medium and large weapons), which are indeed massive and require the entire ship to turn to aim. Such weapons are the particle beam, the gigacannon and the arc emitter, and their upgrades.

** The player could modify any acquired capital ship to use this trope in the two older games, although the only ship to truly fit it from the start was the non-acquirable [[spoiler: Alien Cruiser]], with its Heavy Fusion Beam.