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Old 02-03-2017, 08:32 AM   #2
Icelander
 
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Join Date: Mar 2006
Location: Iceland*
Default Marksman rifles for special operations

Mackenzie Chase Taylor, my PC mentioned in the original post as the character who will take on a quartermaster-esque role for our secret black ops team under the DHS, was a Weapons Sergeant in the 7th SFG(A) in his former career. Taylor attended the Special Operations Target Interdiction Course not long after SFQC and was usually the team marksman.

Taylor served in Alpha Company of the 2nd Battalion/7th SFG(A) for the majority of his career, assigned to ODA 746, ODA 765* and ODA 7216 (post-2007 numbering of ODA 746). He was also briefly assigned to a Crisis Response Element (CRE) under JSOTF-A in a 2004 deployment to Afghanistan and served as part of the 7th SFG(A) Combatant Commanders In-extremis Force (CIF) Company as both assaulter and sniper.

Taylor spent much more time with in a regular ODA than he did in any unit with a Direct Action (DA) role. Deployments were usually primarily Foreign Internal Defense (FID), such as training the Colombian Army Counter-narcotics Brigade (BRCNA) or the Afghan National Civil Order Police (ANCOP), and Village Stability Operations (VSO) in Afghanistan. The teams did intelligence gathering, reconnaissance, patrolling and classic Green Beret unconventional warfare involving joint security operations with indigenous forces, but a whole deployment might pass without a force-on-force infantry engagement.

As a result, Taylor preferred to carry a weapon not much more cumbersome than an assault rifle. From googling, it looks like good candidates for him to have carried while serving as a Green Beret between 2000-2011 would be the M4A1 SOPMOD, Mk 12 Mod 0 SPR, M14 EBR-RI, KAC SR-25 and one of the FN SCAR-H SV / FN SCAR-H (Long) / Mk 20 Sniper Support Rifle.

The M4A1 SOPMOD is in HT p. 120. The M14 and several variants are on HT p. 115 and while the M14 EBR-RI differs slightly from the published variants of M14 DMR and the MK 14 Mod 0 EBR, I believe that it only amounts to a minimally altered weight and different accessories in game terms.

The KAC SR-25 is in TS p. 62-63, along with the MK 11 Mod 0 and the later M110 SASS. The FN SCAR is in HT p. 121-122, but the write-up there mentions only three varieties of the SCAR-H / MK 17 Mod 0, the CQC, the Standard and the SV. I can guess that the SV is probably either a name change for the SCAR-H (Long) or a minimal variation from it, but I don't know if the Mk 20 Sniper Support Rifle justifies Fine (Accurate) stats. I'd like to get the opinion of forumites on it.

The Mk 12 SPR doesn't appear to have been written up in any GURPS source I can find. It is, of course, a heavily modified M16/AR15 HT p. 117, but the question is whether the modifications have any game effects. I'd like to try to stat it, but I have some questions for forumites about judgment calls relating to that.

7) Should the Mk 20 SSR, a FN SCAR-H with a longer receiver, different 20" barrel than the SCAR-H (Long), new trigger and a precision stock, rate Fine (Accurate) in GURPS terms?

8) Should the Mk 12 SPR rate Fine (Accurate) compared to other M16 variants?

9) I found several online sources that the Mk 12 SPR weighs just under 10 lbs. loaded and with optics. The Mk 11 Mod 0 is listed at 11.7 lbs. online, but it doesn't specify what accessories are included. What should the weight of the Mk 11 Mod 0 be in GURPs terms, i.e. without accounting for optics or other removable accessories, which can be changed, but including a full magazine?

*I realise that numerically, that ODA should belong to Charlie Company. However, at the time he served in it, ODA 765 was TACON to Alpha Company for real-world reasons I have not yet determined. As the specific instance where it was clearly deployed as part of Alpha Company was in June 2006, within the timeframe when the new numerical designation system was in the process of being adopted, it may be some odd bureaucratic snaggle. However, for the purposes of my game, the reason for the odd numerical designation is that ODA 765 was a special detachment.
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Last edited by Icelander; 02-03-2017 at 08:58 AM.
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