Something that always struck me odd,....

[Abbott Shaull]

You know after watch show on the military channel about the Marine Reserve Aviation unit assigned to Afghanistan.

Well you know back in the barracks in the armory, at least for the Infantry unit there was enough M16s for everyone in the company. I mean on range days everyone from Machine gunners, AT gunners, and SAW Gunners would draw out M16s.

After watching the show noticing that the pilots were carrying what looked like M4s or some similar short barrel variant of the M16/AR15 around camp. When a unit were in say their bases, would the everyone carry a common weapon, turning in the likes of SAW and M60/M240 into some type of armory. I am not talking about temporary bases, but established bases where Machine gun emplacements have been worked out as well AT tank position where people don't need to carry weapons all of the time.

Also how many shotguns would be in Company size unit? I mean by t2k these weapons could be used both for hunting purpose and close-quarter fighting. I can even see at Company level or higher having some hunting rifles for the same purpose. So as not to waste military ammo for game hunting.

How many non-authorized side-arms and abundant amount of SMG? Would troops who didn't have need or regular be issued side arms and/or Submachine guns would they be allowed to "borrow" them from elsewhere and keep them. Especially troops that Assault Rifles or Battle Rifle that have been in lot of urban built area fighting, might accept the extra weight for peace of mind having something they can handle more readily than their regular weapons. I mean the Machine gunner are issued side-arms for reason of self-defense at close range, but I can see them using them at times while clearing a house for use of outpost later where you don't want to tear it up too badly if you do find previous 'owners' still in residence.

Any thoughts?

[Legbreaker]

From my own experience, you carried the weapon you were issued with whether that be a rifle or machinegun.
If the machinegun for some reason had to be left on the perimeter, then you borrowed the rifle of the person who was behind the gun at that time.
You NEVER went unarmed unless you'd handed your weapon into the armoury (when meant you were well out of danger anyway).

[Arrissen]

This all really depends on the unit, the setting and the current risk level as to who carries what and these days alot more money has been thrown at front line units. This means that yeah, some pilots will carry carbines or sub-carbines or an SMG in addition to their issue sidearm i.e. the US Army's 160th SOAR do this. These guys support SF units and are trained and authorised to do so in case they get shot down and have to put their SERE training into effect. Most modern troops on bases deployed overseas whether it's a main base or forward operating base (FOB) are required to carry their issued weapons with them at all times for security reasons. And that means for both base security reasons and for their own personal security. Besides, they have signed for their weapon(s) and will be held responsible for them. This is why you see guys standing in the chow line or whatever maybe dressed lightly but still armed, and if they're not for some good reason i.e. they're in hostpital, then their weapons will be locked away and re-issued to them later.

The more funding a unit has the more availability there will be for things (some would say luxuries) like sidearms and shotguns. For example, SF units get the most funding so an operator will be issued, as standard, a primary weapon and a secondry weapon (a sidearm). During close quarters battle (CQB) they are trained to immediately quick transition to their secondry weapon if their primary weapon fails to fire in order to maintain a good volume of fire. Remember, they work in small teams and so in a firefight they need as many rounds going down range as possible. They talk to eachother and state what they're their doing so their shooting partner/ team will know what's happening so as to maintain good spatial awareness. They will then take cover if or when they can and reload. When operating in built up areas they will carry at least one shotgun per squad, but this is more for breaching hard points i.e. locked doors than for actual fighting, although they can get used for this if necessary and of course as stated, they're good for hunting. Marine units are moving toward this same sort of system but historically have received the least funding and have therefore been required to do more with less, so not everyone will say be issued a sidearm.

Shotguns may be in scarce supply. MP's and security units routinely employ the use of shotguns and may issue them as a primary weapon but usually supported by someone else carrying a rifle, carbine or SMG, with both people working/ moving together as a two-man team. As for non-issue weapons being used, this would be more common in T2K IMO given the dire situation, rather than in a real world setting, but it would once again depend on the unit, standing orders on such things and the current level of discipline. Modern well-trained units use task specific equipment in order to maximise their chances of sucessfully completing their mission. It's not so much about what they'd like to carry.

As a player I always found that you could carry whatever you liked within reason, but still prefered to maintain my original issue weapon(s) out of a sense of personal pride and satisfaction, and also in order to maintain compatibility of ammunition type(s) with my team mates, so as to increase our overall battlefield effectiveness as a team. I hope this helps.

[Targan]

Originally Posted by Arrissen

As a player I always found that you could carry whatever you liked within reason, but still prefered to maintain my original issue weapon(s) out of a sense of personal pride and satisfaction, and also in order to maintain compatibility of ammunition type(s) with my team mates, so as to increase our overall battlefield effectiveness as a team.

So what was Wolfgang Heckler's issue weapon again? An EZ-curl bar and disc weights?

[Arrissen]

True he wasn't even in the military, was he? A cat buglar if I recall. Ba ha ha

[dragoon500ly]

For an infantry company, its surprising the number of different weapons that you would find in the arms rooms. I've seen everything from M-21s to Remington 870s to M1911A1s (years after the blessed Berretta cursed our Army), M-16A1s (years after they were supposed to be turned in for conversion), M-60s and M240s....even M202s.

NCOs were always being pulled for inspections, and it always seemed that some field-grade officer had signed the paperwork for an exception to TO&E.

[perardua]

The Squadron I deployed to Afghanistan with went from having a total of 12 Browning pistols to have 160 Sig P226's (so one per man) as soon as we arrived. The British forces in general have seen a massive increase in the issue of pistols in the last couple of years due to the nature of combat in Afghanistan. We also had the squadron weapons augmented by extra LMGs and UGLs, enabling the sniper section to be equipped as a rifle section in addition to their .338s (oh, the joy of watching one of the snipers lugging around both an LMG and a .338 on a foot patrol!)

As for L85A2s, we had enough for everyone to be assigned a rifle, including the LMG gunners and sneaky sneaky snipers. Of course, when I was at KAF UK forces didn't routinely carry their weapons on camp unless the alert state went up, preferring to leave them in armoury. Even when it did go up for a couple of weeks, most of us just carried our pistols around the place and kept our other weapons in our vehicles, seeing as being on camp meant we were the QRF, and if we were off camp patrolling it was a moot point.

As an aside, every British transport helicopter I have been in has had the crew with rifles as well as their pistols - they all have rifle racks fitted to the pilot and co-pilots seats and for the loadies. I also recall reading that Apache pilots carry L85 carbines in their cockpits.

GPMGs aren't individual weapons, they were generally vehicle mounted and simply dismounted and carried in lieu of a rifle if going on a foot patrol where it was felt the firepower would be needed.