MA-340 Reil Heavy/General Purpose Machine Gun
Weight: 17 kg standard, 18.2 kg with bipod, 24 kg with tripod mount
Length: 1700 mm
Length of barrel: 1310 mm
Ammunition: 15.5x115 mm MCAP
Action: Recoil operated
Muzzle Velocity: 1000 m/s
Range: 2400 effective range, 7000m maximum.
Feed: Single or Dual belt
Rate of fire: 450 rounds/min
Sights: Iron, BALCOTH, alternates accepted on rail.
Background and Abstract
The BRG-15 was the most commonly fielded heavy machine gun in the Marshite military on vehicles and its lighter version, the BRG15L, the heavy machine gun of choice. As the rise of general purpose machine guns eroded the heavy machine gun classification and the prevalence of the Mary Jane fulfilling other roles, the BRG-15 was relegated to vehicle use only. The Militia Rate Second and Third still fielded them however, and during the Marshite Civil War the BRG-15L saw extensive use. Against the heavy DAUNTLESS armor fielded by both factions the BRG-15 proved invaluable, capable of tearing apart the greatest armor design in the world. The Hardliners were quick to see the possibilities inherent in the development of a new heavy machine gun, but it wasn't until the advent of the MA-300 Berdun light machine gun that a new role was opened. With the Berdun effectively bringing mobile general purpose machine gun capability to infantry sections, platoon and company level heavy machine gun firepower became a possible addition. In an era of intense urban combat and increasingly heavily armor, it was seen as a critical warpath to take.
Post-war, the Church set to develop a heavy machine gun mobile enough for infantry use in prolonged engagements. The result is the MA-340 Reil, a heavy machine gun firing 15.5x115mm Marshite Caseless Armor Piercing rounds. Lighter than any comparable heavy machine gun while still having a task oriented design, the MA-340 is capable of blowing through any body armor design on the market or on the drawing board of any world power. It can reliably penetrate light armor and can damage medium armor, while working effectively as an anti-air mount. The relatively light weight of the design allows it to be effectively mobile and engage with lethality, precision, range, and firepower.
Construction
Following along the lines of many other arms in the Marshite arsenal, the MA-340 is made up of high-durability, lightweight, impact-resistant fibreglass-reinforced polyamide. This comes in a high-grip matte finish, with a variety of colours or camouflage patterns available. This is a notable improvement in both stability and weight over the BRG-15, which had a less efficient use of materials.
The working parts and majority of the gas system are tungsten primarily for its very high heat tolerance, which improves the weapon’s performance and sustained accuracy.
The barrel is cold hammer-forged steel, and is chrome lined, with a 1 in 10 rifling twist.
Sundries are generally composed of synthetics, to keep the weapon’s weight down as far as practical, given the parameters of performance.
All of this led to a massive reduction in weight already, but the real performance enhancer in terms of weight came in the design of the tripod and bipod. Long forgotten pieces of the light machine gun puzzle, they have been left unmolested in all of their mediocrity. As part of the MA-300 redesign and carried over to the 340, the MWSO-16 Bipod and MWSO-17 Tripod were introduced. Vast reductions in weight over previous designs in thanks to their lightweight and high-durability, impact resistant reinforced polyamide construction aided by lengths of titanium to replace the forged steel were achieved. The end result of the physical construction of the MA-340 is that it is supremely mobile compared to the BRG-14L, with the tripod-mounted version in particular being notably lightweight in comparison. Another massive advantage is during vehicle mounted operations that turret traversal is twice as fast, allowing quicker reactions.
Further, use of the patented Pachmayr-designed 'Decelerator' handgrips, approved for the LY46, has been approved also for the development of the weapon system. Decelerator grips feature ergonomic finger grooves, carefully machined tactile palm grips, and a patented soft-durable rubber composite.
Ammunition
The newest development in Marshite round-based lethality, the 15.5mm MCAP is one of the deadliest rounds ever made.
Marshite Caseless is a 78% RDX, 12% cellulose acetate (CA), 5.8% triacetin(TA), 4% low-nitrogen content nitrocellulose, 0.2% cardamite mix. The CA is used as an energetic binder, with the TA serving as the CA’s plasticiser to improve the propellant block’s cohesion. By virtue of its unique composition, both are extremely low vulnerability ammunition, and will not ignite even at 350C, although starts producing yellow fumes at 220C. In contrast, conventional nitrocellulose propellant ignites at temperatures slightly below 175C. Despite the usage of caseless ammunition, both rounds are actually less likely to cook-off than conventional ammunition.
Further, at 1097J/g, the propellant is marginally superior to conventional ammunition propellant in energy terms.
Care has been taken in production to keep the plasticiser percentage below 6%, as irregular combustion becomes more prominent as TA increases.
Theoretical prediction of the ballistic performance of this formulation indicates it can achieve marginally superior ballistics for propellant loading, relative to existing nitrocellulose compositions.
Combustible cellulose end-caps ensure that the projectile and primer sit properly within the round, and disintegrate during firing.
15.5mm MCAP, is a tungsten-carbide-cored, telescopic, armour-piercing round, designed for use against armies fielding personnel with high-end body armour as standard and hits with 54,600 joules of energy, more than two and a half times to three times the brute force impact of a fifty caliber round.
Operation
The MA-340, like the MA-300, is an air-cooled, closed-bolt, recoil operated, belt- or magazine-fed weapon. The advantage in construction with tungsten has allowed it to negate to an extent the heat buildup that plagued the previous heavy machine guns. The weapon is loaded from below, by means of insertion of 100 or 200-round disintegrating belts, held in collapsible box magazines.
The MA-340 is designed as an accurate system with variable rate of fire to be used in a variety of battlefields in prepared defensive positions. It has been specifically engineered for use as a platoon level support weapon, a factor with a number of ramifications, amongst them the provision for a variety of different barrel lengths to be fitted to the weapon for different combat uses. One of the primary factors considered was the rate of fire available to the MA-340. A higher firer rate can be found on the BRG-15L or the M2 Browning, but several advantages in the design are found. With a controlled max rate of fire at 450 rounds a minute and the resistant tungsten and cold-forged steel construction, barrel life is increased tremendously. Caseless ammunition helps tremendously as well. This allows the MA-340 to fire more consistently during battle and eventually put more rounds down range. The ability to restrain the rate of fire also allows for a greater conservation of ammunition.
A full-potency muzzle-brake, the largest devised for a Marshite firearm and mostly hidden behind the forward elements of the weapon’s furnishings, deflects propellant gases upward and sideways, counteracting some of the gun’s rearward motion.This muzzle-brake is internally threaded for use with silencers or sound-suppressors, and is designed to also prevent the propellant gases from kicking up dust in and around the shooter’s location, even from the basic-prone firing position. The bolt-carrier assembly moves rearwards into heavy duty recoil springs, which absorb an appreciable portion of the contact/impact with the back of the weapon.
Electronics and Sights
Internal electrics are composed of Indium Gallium Arsenide, selected despite its higher cost over silicon for its extremely high resistance to electromagnetic pulse attack. Circuitry is further protected by kraton insulation, to further improve electromagnetic resilience. Given the very-short lengths of wiring, however, this was never likely to be a problem, in any case. Factory standard MA-340s uses a three-post iron sight system, which includes both orange and green tritium inserts for night use. A flip-up anti-aircraft sight can also be fitted. Finally a picatinny rail is fitted onto the top of the weapon, allowing for an ACOG, Aim Point, TGTM-4, or other sighting system to be fitted. Other system options include a heat shield, friction buffer, and an advanced muzzle brake, the latter being threaded for the employment of blank-firing attachments, and also functioning as a flash suppressor. Rails can be fitted to the right and left sides of the barrel, as well as below (although the bipod tends to get in the way if one is fitted), to allow a number of first, second, and third party attachments.
In Marshite use, any of this is rarely used. Instead, a small electronic port near the safety switch is attached to the user's BALCOTH helmet. After a few seconds, the connection is established and they can be disconnected. Until the end of battery life, the BALCOTH acts as a sighting system that takes into account bullet drop and all other considerations, giving the user a precise readout of where rounds will land on the HUD of BALCOTH. This is much quicker and far more accurate than other systems and has helped increase the lethality of the MA-340 several times. In battle, this effectively allows the operator to be able to use the first round from the MA-340 as a devastatingly accurate sniper rifle and seamlessly transition into an accurate barrage of brutal firepower without delay or modification.
Due to the implementation of low vulnerability caseless ammunition, the MA-340 uses an electronic trigger, rather than the conventional firing pin/percussion cap layout, to ignite the propellant and release a round. The electrical ignition grants lock times at approximately 20 microseconds; a considerable improvement on mechanical lock times, in addition to the other benefits. Fewer moving parts, and no mass shift during firing also improves accuracy and decreases component wear. Twin 30-volt lithium ion polymer batteries, located in the lower portion of the butt, allow it to fire approximately 6,500 rounds without replacement or recharge. The battery charge status can be displayed through the multi-function battlesight by activation of the appropriate switch on the sighting system, and a plug can serve as a recharge point, from any standard AC or DC power source, including those featured on most Covenant. The battery’s are loaded from the rear of the butt, and can be changed in about 20 seconds, should the need arise.
First Action of the Reil
The first prototype Reils were taken into combat by a Special Tactics Team of the St. Husky Holy Warriors Holy Warriors by request of the Arch-Bishop. Two days after receiving fully prepared Reils, the STT was called in on a snatch and silence operation against Augustine Elmira, a Romandean general believed to be plotting against the Church and Imperial Hearth of the Union. Four operators were deployed near a mansion owned by the general where a large meeting of co-conspirators was to be taking place within a few hours of M-SAD acquiring the intelligence. With no time to deploy a larger strike force, the four operators chose to bring along both Reils while an additional four members breached the mansion. One Reil was deployed near the road with overwatch across the front of the facility, the west side, and the first set of interior rooms. The second Reil was deployed on a small wooded hill nearby, where they could cover the east, rear, and deeper innards of the facility. The entry team had been able to sneak through an underground passage from the nearby coastline and would attack from underneath, hopefully in the chaos of the attack from the outside. With only a few hours notice all operators were able to get to their assigned locations easily even with the Reil's heavy weight taken into consideration. Each Reil was supplied with a 200 round belt feed and a spare 100 round belt feed and was fired in controlled five-round bursts during the course of the engagement.
Once the meeting began, targets were chosen. The deepest rooms could not be reached, but surveillance and SACHERI had allowed the Reil operators to pick out multiple hard locations. Power was cut and the first shots were fired immediately afterwards, striking deep into the mansion itself. The first shot from the west had targeted ammunition being loaded into the rocket pods of an Apache attack helicopter. It impacted the primer and the rocket exploded, starting a chain reaction. Within moment the small helipad and barracks in the rear had turned into a churnel house of fire and explosions. The first shot from the west was instead aimed at the meeting itself. Through four walls, one reinforced, a single shot was sent. It devastated all four walls and entered the meeting room with extreme authority. Decapitating one target and wounding two more, including one who would die of his wound before the firefight was over, the attack began in earnest. Both Reils then took action against any and all available targets, with an emphasis on targets that could aid in the escape of the general.
Reil One engaged multiple light vehicles and a security checkpoint as well as giving covering fire to the insertion team as they pushed into the deeper parts of the mansion. In the open and with little cover besides vehicles, the general's men quickly learned that anything under a heavy IFV was suspect at best. The mounds of dead and dying in and around light vehicles served as a powerful reminder to the others to stay safe. Reil Two had easy pickings as well. The fires from ammunition cookoffs and oil fires had sent many men fleeing in an attempt to enter the mansion proper. They were gunned down in droves, caught between an inferno and a firing squad of one. Squads of men were turned into piles of quivering limbs and viscera.
Return fire was answered harshly. Anywhere from inside the mansion that a guard could conceivably fire into the woods from was not safe enough and internal opposition around the edges of the mansion were suppressed violently and without remorse. They were forced deeper into the mansion, where the stealth insertion team silenced them in swift assaults. The general tried three different escape routes but found each one blocked: The rear was an inferno and all helicopters either destroyed or damaged. The front was under heavy machine gun fire and any effort to escape would put her under the guns of the whole STT. The underground passage had been destroyed. Running like a rat caught in a trap, the general, her conspirators, and the guards were hounded without rest over the course of the engagement and were whittled down to the general and a handful of remaining guards. Any effort to reinforce the General from anywhere other than the deepest recesses of the mansion were futile thanks to the Reil and those from inside that small safe zone had been among the first struck by the insertion team. The fire from the rear had started to reach the mansion and the back half started to become a raging inferno, forcing her and her desperate band of guards to make a break for it.
Reil Two was able to engage the remaining guards and kill them as they ran along a hallway. Reil One got a shot on the general herself as she neared the front and fired, sending a bullet through a wall and a support beam. It removed her right leg from the knee down and ended the engagement. A combat surgeon who had been part of the insertion team saved her life. She was then brought out front amongst the piles of her dead comrades, charged and convicted of her crimes , hung upside down, and disemboweled in such a manner as to make her choke on her own viscera as she died. The STT then collected their weapons and left the area of operations as the fire consumed the rest of the mansion.
The Reil performed remarkably well, capable of reducing even Level IV+ armor protection to an afterthought at great distance. Anything it touched died immediately or died soon after- Romandean teams that scoured the area days later after the fire grew to become a wildfire did not list a single cause of death other than bullet wounds, save for the General. Its controlled and accurate fire allowed both 200-round belts to be used to the last to great effect over a long period of time.
Export
The MA-340 Reil is considered a devastating and lethal weapon of war, making a mockery of armor at anything below the level of a heavy IFV and doing so with such efficiency and functionality as to make it a mainstay of platoons and special weapon squads. As such, due to the potential of this weapon to unleash a terrible torrent of firepower against any targets on the field of battle, the Church is selling this weapon at a Level One Restriction. All purchases include two hundred rounds of 15.5 MCAP and repair kits and part along with bipod and tripod.
The MA-340 Reil sells at a cost of $17,500 standard NS dollars. DPRs are $19.5 billion dollars and includes the DPRs to the 15.5 MCAP.
Sales are made through Covenant Arms.
