This 'A' battery is as good as any other 'A' battery. (LONG)

As far as technology differences and quality, I think the "this A
battery
is as good as any other A battery" argument is a little weak. I think
the
issue at hand is the current system can't show the small differences and
assumes that the user of the system compensates. I have no problem with
that. It probably saves a lot of die rolling and chart look up. We
aren't
interested in the smaller details - we just want to resolve the battle.

Here are a few cases based on a Real Life (tm) experience I have had. 
On
Independence Day 2 years ago I found myself at a State Police
(Massachusetts) Barracks Firing Range. There I got to play with a wide
assortment of toys (read: guns). My first try was with a raced up .22
cal
target gun. It had very little bang, no kick and I could put the round
in
the X-Ring every time. Boring. I didn't even need to change the paper
target because the .22 has no real stopping power and did not really
harm
the paper much.

Then I got to use a Russian mass-produced, stamped metal .22 cal.  That
thing was dangerous. It was a joke weapon for one of the officers (this
guy
had a personal collection of 20-30 guns).  It jammed on the third shot.
I
was most unimpressed.

Then I got to try a Barretta 9mm with one magazine of American made ammo
and 3 magazines of Chinese made ammo.  The American ammo (expensive)
gave
quite a kick but was manageable and was fairly accurate. I was getting
50%
in the kill ring and 25% on the body with the other 25% either hitting
the
target stand, the dirt mound or other targets!	The Chinese ammo was
another story indeed. Though it was inexpensive it was not high quality.
The powder must have been burning inconsistently. The kick increased
over
the course of the clips and I assume it was because of the barrel
getting
dirty. My accuracy fell right off. Finally, something you don't consider
until you've done it, I noticed that with the American ammo the casings
were forming a nice pile to my left. The Chinese stuff was ejecting all
over the place! It was really weird. Again, I assume it was because of
inconsistent powder burn. Being the beginning of July it was fairly hot
out
and I had an open shirt. For the last magazine I decided to have fun and
punched out all 16 rounds in double time. I felt like I was in a John
Woo
movie, that is until two of the hot shells ejected straight up and then
down INTO MY SHIRT!!! Well, trust me, they don't cool down nearly as
fast
as you'd hope.	There I was dancing around like I had lost my mind, gun
waving about, and the entire line at the firing range dropped to the
ground. It was over in 3 seconds. I eventually put down the gun and
untucked my shirt so that the rounds would drop out.  I looked to my
left,
saw glowering troopers and said "sorry!" I then looked to my right and
saw
glowering sergeants and did the same!

Luckily they all understood once I explained the fact that this didn't
happen with the American rounds. I guess that is one good use for
Nationalism. ahem. Anyway I got to finish the day with a .45 caliber Sig
Sauer. It was a massive and mighty weapon. It doesn't quite fit in your
hand. It feels heavier than it looks and it looks HEAVY. Everything
about
this gun said "professional."  It is a very fine piece of machinery. I
used
American made .45 cal. ammo (the Sergeant insisted...) which costs about
$0.60 a round for your basic ball ammo and significantly more for the
Hydroshok and Black Talon rounds. These other rounds are special in that
the first one is a hollow point filled with liquid Teflon and a
penetrator
dart. If one doesn't get you the other will. Apparently it is really
good
at going through body armor.  The second round breaks open into fangs
which
do a nasty job on flesh. I was informed that it's stopping power went
down
drastically in winter because winter coats could drastically slow it
down.
I asked why they needed such violent ammunition and the straight
response I
got was "we're not sending Christmas Cards."  That made sense, I figure
if
I was ever going to pull a weapon on someone it would have to be because
I
was convinced they needed to be stopped and I too would want to maximize
my
chances.

OK, now onto the .45. It fired like a dream. Though it had substantially
more kick back the gun was always ready to fire when I had it back down
on
target. It was incredibly smooth. The larger gun had a lot more built
into
it such as better recoil absorption (it was easier to handle than the
9mm)
and much better feel. I don't think I would want to rapid fire it, but I
don't think I needed to. I was able to X-Ring the target 70-90% of the
time
and the rounds were clearly tearing up a lot of paper, so much so that I
didn't really need to get the target to count the rounds.

So, in the realm of small arms at least, a lot can vary between the
quality
of the weapon, the quality of the ammo, and together those are even more
potent. I would say that the high quality .22 cal was much more deadly
than
the 9mm with the cheapass ammo. The high quality .45 with high quality
ammo
was like Zeus.	MA State Police use a 9mm gun in service by the way.

Again, in FT/MT we don't care about these differences in the current
system. I wonder if crew quality or weapon quality will vary at all in
FT3?

--Pete