Infantry Firearms in the Universal Century?

[Black Knight]

I hadn't heard of this one, Ryujin, but yes; a lighter MMG than the ~50-year-old M240 design would be nice, but even better will be a lighter replacement for the M249; that's a heavy bastard under the best of circumstances. The only real concerns I have will involve the ease of field maintenance & cleaning (the SAW actually requires some dirt in the chamber to function smoothly), and the fact that heavier weapons are in fact easier to aim.

But that's neither here nor there regarding infantry weapons in the UC. Still, I think the point has been sufficiently made that modern firearms technology is hardly stagnant, and that there are some rather revolutionary things on the horizon. I'm most excited about caseless ammo; that should dramatically cut ammo weight.

On the other hand, every time someone tries to cut the weight carried by the infantryman, someone else says "Here, take this new piece of gear with you, it doesn't weigh much..."

[Zeonista]

Given that their security forces work in the close confines of side colonies and ships, using less-powerful pistol rounds make sense.

Ships I'll give you, but trying to describe Island 3s as "close confines" when they're five miles wide and 20 miles long is a bit of a stretch, wouldn't you say? Maybe that's close quarters in terms of, say, artillery, but for small arms it's plenty big.

I was mainly thinking of the service room & corridor layouts at the access areas of the colonies, where things can get close real quick, and having rifle-power rounds penetrating walls and smacking into things they ought not to might be considered a detriment to combat. Now, the Island-3 colonies have relatively high population densities, so chances are after clearing the docks & ports the attacking infantry find themselves in a built-up urban area. In that case, the SMGs are proven handy for house-to-house work!

Black Knight: Your comment about weight subtracted/added for the common soldier could doubtless have been repeated by one of Marius's legionaries. I'll believe in the future of caseless ammo when a US or Russian manufacturer makes 10,000 units of a weapon that uses it. Steyr & HK's caseless weapons haven't held up to utility requirements that American/Russian military testing would like, to date. Could we expect the EFF or ZMF to expect anything different? I've heard about the polymer case ammo too, and that would be a plus, although when Tomino wrote out his original story polymers of that type hadn't been thought of yet. Lots of shiny brass cases rolling about in UC, just ask Al's buddies... The recoil-compensation weapons used by White Base crew are genuine innovations for low-gee situations, but other than that feature, there's nothing especially different to them that a contemporary soldier would fail to understand.

[Fall_Ryan]

I was mainly thinking of the service room & corridor layouts at the access areas of the colonies, where things can get close real quick, and having rifle-power rounds penetrating walls and smacking into things they ought not to might be considered a detriment to combat. Now, the Island-3 colonies have relatively high population densities, so chances are after clearing the docks & ports the attacking infantry find themselves in a built-up urban area. In that case, the SMGs are proven handy for house-to-house work!

I'd rather have a short barreled carbine in rifle caliber than a SMG, people tend to get behind things when shot at, and one might need to take a shot past 100 meters where a pistol round would be marginal.

Thanks for your service Black Knight! I take it your ideal replacement for the 249 wouldn't be the Marines new Browning Automatic Rif... I mean H&K M27 IAR?

This has been a fun thread, but I need to restrain myself as I'm getting a little AR15.com-y on you guys.

[Zeonista]

I was mainly thinking of the service room & corridor layouts at the access areas of the colonies, where things can get close real quick, and having rifle-power rounds penetrating walls and smacking into things they ought not to might be considered a detriment to combat. Now, the Island-3 colonies have relatively high population densities, so chances are after clearing the docks & ports the attacking infantry find themselves in a built-up urban area. In that case, the SMGs are proven handy for house-to-house work!

I'd rather have a short barreled carbine in rifle caliber than a SMG, people tend to get behind things when shot at, and one might need to take a shot past 100 meters where a pistol round would be marginal.

In contemporary terms I concede your choice. I imagine that a contemporary redo of the original story would feature rifle-caliber carbines, since the Japanese staff like to stay current. Perhaps in AGE...

Black Knight is a cool guy, he always gives me something to consider, even when I feel the need to disagree with him.

This has been a fun thread, but I need to restrain myself as I'm getting a little AR15.com-y on you guys.

Oh yeah, like we're all afraid of bullet-pointl discussions at this forum! Don't be afraid to strut your stuff if you think it will make a worthwhile contribution.