What would a firearm need to displace all current firearm classifications the same way the MBT made most other types of tank redundant?
>Pistol>SMG/PDW>Carbine/rifle>DMR>Machine gun>Grenade launcher>Recoilless rifleI could see 3 or 4 of these combined in a way that makes some amount of sense, but I doubt it's possible to incorporate all of them without creating a horrible abomination that's garbage at absolutely everything, even with 2263 tech.
Coil gun with adjustable velocity. It would let you go from air gun velocities to .50 BMG+ energy based on need. Maybe add a 20-40mm tube for firing grenades/airburst. You might even be able to use it to help propel small missiles out of the tube.With mag leved ammunition, which you'll want for barrel wear eventually, you could probably even make the bore adjustable on the same tube.
>>61494486The MBT only "replaced" Medium-Heavy tanks. Everything else changed due new techs (drones, helis, IFV and missiles). The concept of MBT (= "universal" AFV) is stupid.
>>61494753And then just have a way to hook it up to a bigger drum and you have an SMG. Capacity on electric guns will be high anyhow because ammunition will be much smaller and lighter due to not needing propellant. 100 round mags will probably be standard.So, if batteries and supercapacitors get really good it would be possible to do a lot with a fairly small set up with modular attachments. Maybe even use the 40mm tube in a drone directed mortar mode for indirect fire. Thing is, but the time that tech is ready it will have already made it so killbots so almost all the fighting.
>>61494753>20 kJ from .50 BMG>600 rpm = 10 rps>20 kJ * 10/s = 200 kJ/s>200k J/s = 200 kWTrying to match 200 kW of firepower with a 10% efficient coilgun would require a 2 MW generator. Here's a 2 MW generator, it's abut 6 feet tall and 15 feet long.
>>61494486On the fly adjustments of both velocity and fire rate so you can shoot a swarm of angry bees or poke a hole through a reinforced wall at two miles with the same gun just by twiddling some knobs.So basically either some kind of energy weapon or something like a mass effect gun that machines your projectile off of a block and then fires it when you pull the trigger.But even then, some guns are used because of their form factor, if you need a pistol, it's because you need something that can be used with one hand and maybe concealable.
>>61494486A general purpose machine gun would qualify. But they're a bit too heavy and bulky which is why most of the company carries an assault rifle.
>>61494927How about the capacitor bank?
>>61494486the assault rifles is the closest we have, as it was able to replace both the SMG and rifle in squads
>>61495330>A general purpose machine gun would qualify.GPMG was intended to replace squad-level LMGs and platoon-level MMGsand while it initially did so, it has since been reversedsquad level LMGs chambered in intermediate roles have displaced the GPMG leaving the GPMG in the same role as the MMG
>>61495363Not him.For a .50 BMG the capacitor would be 40 to 100 KJ (50 to 20% efficiency). That's 0.05 cubic meter/50 liters for a modern capacitor, ignoring anything else required. Small because a .50 BMG isn't powerful per round but the capacitor life isn't far better than a heavy barrel so it's a consumable.
The Marines replaced their assault rifle, LMG, and DMR with the M27. If you were to make a bullpup version in a full-power cartridge you could maybe call it a PDW and GPMG as well. Add a UBGL and include ammo with frangible breeching slugs and with buckshot and it's a shotgun. That's probably the closest you'd get, but my prediction is it would be pretty shit at everything. Too heavy and too much recoil for a PDW, not enough ammo for an assault rifle, either closed bolt and compromised as an MG or open bolt and compromised as a DMR, no magazine for your shotgun.
>>61494927What model of CAT generator is that?
>>61495584
