Machine Gun

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The Machine Gun is the quintessential anti-infantry weapon, issuing a stream of bullets at a high rate of fire to cut down opposing soldiers, while still being effective at damaging BattleMechs. Vehicular-scale machine guns mounted on BattleMechs can lay low entire platoons in just a few passes thanks to their high rate of fire, though they are more commonly found on Combat Vehicles and ProtoMechs.[1] These weapons are much heavier than those typically carried by infantry, but can be used by them when placed on a static mount, where they are called Support Machine Guns.[10][11] Battle Armor can also carry machine guns, typically upgraded versions of infantry-support weapons, which can rival their larger vehicular-scale cousins.[12]

Beyond the "standard" models Clan Smoke Jaguar was the first to create Light Machine Guns and Heavy Machine Guns, which the other Clans and the Inner Sphere eventually fielded as well. The Federated Suns were also the first to mount multiple machine guns on the same linked platform creating the Machine Gun Array.[1]

Additionally, to their feature of being brutally effective against infantry units, Machine Guns can be reconfigured to spray a significantly higher amount of bullets at the cost of heat. This by default consumes triple the amount of ammo measured against the actual damage applied (regardless of if this hits or not). This in turn enables them to do a notable amount of damage to armor as a result of simply throwing more bullets at the problem. This unfortunately doesn't make these types of weapons any more damaging against infantry however.[13]

Ammo Handling[edit]

BattleMechs and vehicles (massing more than 5 tons) allot Machine Gun ammunition in half-ton (100 "round") as well as full ton (200 "round") lots. Powered Armor (of all types, including BattleArmor) and vehicles massing less than 5 tons are alloted ammo in 5 kg lots that are consumed in a single "round" or turn of fire. This sheer amount of stored ammunition is exceptionally dangerous to have loaded into a 'Mech or Vehicle, and many Mechwarriors will opt to forgo the use of Machine Guns on their 'Mech especially if the 'Mech doesn't have CASE.

Models[edit]

The Machine Gun is manufactured on the following planets:

Notes[edit]

Some weapons are occassionally described as .50 Cals but this is likely to be more a generic terminology for Machineguns. One instance of this is the M100, described in different sources as being a .50cal[17] (12.7mm[18]) and a 12.5mm,[15] the figure expressed in mm would be considered the canon as BattleTech Universe officially uses the metric system. Vehicular machine guns in BattleTech can be anywhere from caliber 12.5mm, up to 20mm, (30mm enters into the range of Autocannon territory in BattleTech) depending on the model. Infantry scale models are usually smaller, but there are support weapon variant guns firing larger caliber shells above 20mm as well.

Probable uses[edit]

The following pages link to the Machine Gun:


References[edit]

  1. 1.0 1.1 1.2 TechManual, p. 228, "Machine Gun"
  2. 2.0 2.1 2.2 2.3 TechManual, p. 290, "Heavy Weapons And Equipment - Table"
  3. 3.0 3.1 3.2 3.3 3.4 3.5 3.6 3.7 3.8 TechManual, p. 341, "Inner Sphere Heavy Weapons And Equipment Table"
  4. Total Warfare p. 217 "Burst Fire Weapons Versus Infantry Table
  5. A Time of War p. 211 Anti-Infantry Weapons Table
  6. TechManual, p. 343, "Clan Heavy Weapons And Equipment Table"
  7. TechManual, p. 294, "Heavy Weapon Ammunition - Table"
  8. 8.0 8.1 TechManual, p. 318, "Clan Weapons and Equipment BV Table"
  9. 9.0 9.1 TechManual, p. 317, "Inner Sphere Weapons and Equipment BV Table"
  10. MechWarrior: Third Edition, p. 137, "Machine Guns"
  11. MechWarrior: Third Edition, p. 143, "Battle Armor Primary Weapons"
  12. TechManual, p. 258, "Machine Gun"
  13. Tactical Operations p. 102, "Rapid Fire Machine Guns"
  14. 14.0 14.1 Historical: Reunification War, p. 211, "T-12 Tiger Medium Tank"
  15. 15.0 15.1 Ghost of Christmas Present, p. 3
  16. 16.0 16.1 Technical Readout: 3039, p. 294, "Produced Crusader 3R Components"
  17. 17.0 17.1 Lethal Heritage, Ch. 16
  18. https://www.convertunits.com/from/mm/to/caliber

Bibliography[edit]