Re: DS: SAW versus APSW versus RFAC

Glover, Owen wrote:

> Firstly there are not to my knowledge currently many multi barrel
> infantry weapons about (but in DS/SG we are looking 200 years on);
> anyway I thought much of this discussion was about the comparison of a
> single barreled .50 Cal or Dshk type weapon.
>

The only place you see these fanciful miniguns are on TV and movies.
They
are beyond the capacity of modern technology or human capabilities to
employ
in a cost effective manner, nor would one gain much in actual effect
over
current MGs.

> Next, a support weapon is not developed to fire three five or 9 round
> bursts. The changes in MG fire control are a result of observation and
> experience. Anyway, long bursts are still used as required eg in Fixed
> Lines. The soldiers who use them adapt to obtain the best performance
> from their weapons.

What exactly do you mean by fixed lines? I'm not tracking here. There's
only
one stat that matters in a MG. That's sustained fire rate. How many
rounds
can you ACCURATELY put down range on target without melting the barrel
or
causing some other malfunction. You also have to look at how portable
the
weapon is. This discussion started about man portable machineguns and
min
guns. If you want to mount the thing on a vehicle, aircraft, power
armor,
whatever, then go ahead and fire 6000 rounds a minute. Just make sure
you
have a little RC Flyer wagon towed behind you chock full of rounds.

Regarding caliber, I want an MG that can kill vehicles. Any old caliber
can
kill a guy, that's no problem. But what happens when a vehicle rolls
into
view? Try killing a BRDM or a HUMVEE (kevlar model) with a 5.56mm SAW.
You're not going to have the punch. I'll take penetration, impact and
accuracy over ROF everytime. 500 rounds per minute on your position is
jsut
as suppressive as 3000 rounds per minute as long as they're accurate. So
will any gunner that knows his business.

As an aside:
Cyclic rate of fire on machineguns is one of those dubious statistics
that
layman banter around much akin to "How far out can that sniper rifle
shoot?"
Fact is a sniper rifle is only as good as the guy using it. Anything
over
600 meters and the primary factors effecting the round are
atmospheric/environmental conditions and firer experience. Optics
caliber
and make have some impact but it's all in the shooter's knowledge of his
personal weapon and his "kentucky windage afer that. We use the M24
system
in SF. It's a great weapon and I myself have dropped man sized targets
(on
the range)out to 900 meters, but that's with a spotter and a couple of
rounds. Now matter how accurately zeroed a rifle is, even Carlos
Hathcock
you can't just pick it up off the bench and drop people at 1000m.

Also someone mentioned 50 cal sniper weapons. Hathcock did have a kill
out
to 2500m with an M2 50 cal MG with a spotter scope. The unfortunate sap
had
the bad luck of actually hiding directly in the impact point of where he
was
zeroing the weapon!

Los