Weapon

Ok, so I was just looking at the guest comic this week, and was struck by Tenzin's gun. It reminded me of another weapon, the MP-35 from Old Man's War. Anyone heard of it?

In short, it's a multi-purpose gun that utilizes nanotechnology to construct and fire different types of ammunition on the fly.

The following is taken from the Wikipedia page:
The MP-35, also known as "empee", is the main infantry weapon used by the Colonial Defense Force (CDF). The weapon features self assembling and self repairing capabilities, the ability to interface with BrainPal, and ammunition composed of nano-robotic bullets able to transform immediately into any type of projectile desired, including bullets, incendiaries, explosives, and beams.[5] These features make it superior to conventional weapon types, as it solves the problem of excessive weight associated with carrying multiple weapons, weapon jamming, and enemy use.[5] The weapon proved to be very versatile and adaptable in the battlefield, as shown in Perry's first battle against the Consu where he took full advantage of the weapon's adaptability and used BrainPal to program a sequence of fire that exploited the enemies' weakness to win the battle.

Here's the link to that section of the book.

WARNING Explicit Language Ahead.

books.google.com/books?id=XVwOEeHTU4QC&pg=PA134&lpg=PA134&dq=MP-35+Old+Man%27s+War&source=bl&ots=gog81OdfZd&sig=DlPt1rAVSFInY5ljvcoRW5zaARI&hl=en&sa=X&ved=0CEMQ6AEwCWoVChMIyqfflb3PxwIVSZ-ACh1LRwGO#v=onepage&q=MP-35%20Old%20Man's%20War&f=false

Sweet. So, is Tenzin's gun more along the lines of having two types of ammo stored in the magazine?

Hmmm... I'm no engineer myself, but you could say that the magazine holds two types of round (hollowpoint, FMJ), while internal tubular mags hold specialty ammo (AP, Incendiary, Shot, flechette). This would allow Tenzin to carry multiple mags of the most used ammo, and have two or three internal mags of special ammo. He'd have to wait a second or two while the gun switched types, but that's faster than having to reload it by hand.

Referencing Ch3, Pg6, it looks like the grenades come from a launcher below, as in a "normal" rifle. You could launch multiple types of weapon from there (rockets, grenades, flares), and change between missions.

On the other hand, we could just go with the simple yet effective explanation of: "It's a big ass gun shooting bullets the size of small dogs. Nuff said." Certainly, that would be one major advantage of wearing power armor: The ability to carry and fire a weapon usually reserved for a vehicle.

(I didn't get all the way through that, but I'm intrigued)

Hmmm... So, are there multiple power armor loadouts? I could see those soldiers becoming very useful. Heavy gun we've seen, but how about other heavy weapons? I could see a couple of these guys with surface to air missiles, guided rockets, flamethrowers, chainguns... Heck, supersized shields for their squad to advance behind. With the aid of the AI's stability override, I could even see them using tactical artillery.

The question then becomes... "When do we just send a tank instead?"

In the Mirage prequel, the primary weapon is described as an autocannon, and it fires 20mm solid shells. However, this is inconsistent with Tenzin's weapon. The ejected casings are too short to be a modern 20x102mm NATO standard. My guess is that it's a modified version of the experimental 25x59mm, which exist but has not been standardized with any army. It is used in the Barret XM109, which could destroy vehicles 2,000 meters away in tests. However, it produced unacceptable recoil: 60 foot-pounds! For comparison, the Barret M82 fires .50 and only produces 36 foot-pounds.



By decreasing the diameter, the recoil is reduced. I think the projectile is also more streamlined to reduce air drag and extend range. It would still be very overpowered for infantry, and each magazine only holds 10 rounds of ammunition. Tenzin's weapon does not have a muzzle brake for some reason, possibly to reduce the total length. It's also possible Aegis deliberately allows high recoil, so none of their enemies can use a captured weapon.

Tenzin's grenade launcher is not mentioned in the prequel, but it visibly doesn't eject spent casings. However, Tenzin does use rapid semi-automatic shots. This means the grenade launcher uses caseless amunition, probably stacked in the barrel. A similar weapon exists: it was developed by an Australian company that went bankrupt and sold the designs to a new company, DefendTex. China offered to purchase the design and the American Navy adopted it for testing.