back to the Index or the Equipment page or the Ordnance page

     A note on "rate of fire" (ROF):

• ROF burst: use the Attack major action. 
  

• ROF 1:  use the Attack major action.

• ROF 1 or burst:  use the Attack major action.

• ROF 2:  use the Attack major action, and the Second Attack minor action.

• ROF 2 or burst:  use either Attack major action and Second Attack minor action for two single shots, or just one Attack if firing a burst.

• ROF 1 per X rounds:   use the Reload major action X-1 times, then the Attack major action.

     Also, the various "burst" rates include the rate one step slower ... so a weapon capable of "long burst" can also fire "burst".

Mk 20 grenade launcher

     A 40mm belt-fed blow-forward air-cooled operated select-fire grenade launcher. The cyclic rate of fire is 250 RPM. This weapon is mounted in various remote turrets, or on a tripod or pintle with spade grips, or on a standard U.S. military tripod. As a manually-operated "pintle" weapon, a simple ammunition box holding 24 or 48 rounds is attached to the weapon; when used in remote systems or turrets, a light alloy feedway connecting the gun to a 400 round magazine is typical. Weight of the weapon is 11.8 kg, not including magazine. The steel belt links belt can be reloaded, but require specialized tools. Maximum range 400 meters -- remember, these are the "low velocity" version of the 40mm grenade system.

     The Morrow Project has an adapter to allow a PVS-4 or TVS-4 night vision sight to be attached to the side of the receiver for pintle- or tripod-mounted versions. Turret versions have charging and firing solenoids, and use the turret's sighting system.

     In theory the weapon could be carried and fired by a single person, "Rambo"-style -- the recoil is not heavy, and the weight of the weapon is about like that of a belt-fed machine gun. However, the bulk and weight of the magazines, and the lack of proper grips, etc. make this inadvisable and awkward.

     Note that the high-velocity version of this system, the Mk 19, went on to widespread use in the U.S. military (though the later versions use a different operating system), and uses the same steel links as employed in the Mk 20.

• Effective range 30 meters (though turret mountings or pintle mountings will often increase that value), ROF 1 or 3 round burst, malfunction 97+ (commonest malfunctions are jams inside the magazine or feedway). The weapon skill used is either Grenade Launcher, Full Auto or Indirect Fire Weapon (if being used for indirect fire).

M174E3 grenade launcher

     A blowback-operated select-fire grenade launcher, which fires from a 12 round drum magazine; the cyclic rate on full auto is 300 rounds per minute. While normally mounted on an M122 tripod or compatible pintle, a sufficiently strong person could carry and fire this weapon -- the recoil is not bad, but the weapon is awkwardly shaped and balanced for "carried" firing. A canvas sling is attached to the top of the weapon. The drum magazine can only hold the MBA Stunbag, the M406 HE round, the M433 HEDP round, and the M651 tear gas round -- the other 40mm rounds employed by the Project won't feed through the magazine. Other rounds can be loaded individually by hand into the chamber and fired; and magazines can hold mixed round types (though why you would want to fire a mix of stunbag, HEDP, and tear gas I'm not quite sure). Note that the drum magazines have a spring-operated feed system -- they each have to be "wound up" after being loaded. Weight empty, 7.25 kg; empty drums weigh 1.8 kg each, loaded drums weigh about 4.5 kg each; the M122 tripod weighs 6.35 kg. There is no provision for mounting telescopic sights or night-vision scopes to this weapon. Maximum range 400 meters.

• Effective range 30 meters, ROF 1 or burst (3 grenades), malfunction 97+ (commonest malfunctions are jams inside the magazine). The weapon skill used is either Grenade Launcher, Full Auto or Indirect Fire Weapon (if being used for indirect fire).

• Some pictures here, here, and here of the M174 being used during the Vietnam War. 

M2HB .50 cal machine gun 

     A recoil-operated select-fire machinegun, used by the Project as a coaxial weapon, on a vehicle pintle, or on a tripod. It feeds from belts, which are usually 100 or 105 rounds. The upper surface of the weapon has dovetails for mounting telescopic or night-vision sights (though an adapter is usually needed). The weapon weighs 38 kg empty; the M3 tripod (including traverse and elevation mechanism) weighs 19.5 kg. Spare barrels weigh 11 kg; the weapon is issued with a headspace and timing gauge, which usually is required when assembling a barrel onto the receiver.

• Effective range 200 meters, ROF 1 or 10 round burst, malfunction 00. The weapon skill used is Full Auto or Direct Fire Weapon  (though Indirect Fire Weapon might be used with the tripod, observers, etc.)

AN-M3 .50 cal machine gun

     Originally developed for use in aircraft, including turrets and hand-held mounts, the AN-M3 is mechanically very similar to the M2HB and the AN-M2 aircraft gun. Only a few parts are interchangeable (most notably the barrel, barrel support & bushing, back plate (complete with trigger and spade grips), front & rear sights, and the retracting slide group). It can easily be converted to feed from the right or left side; it comes with a feedway adapter.

     The cyclic rate of fire is 1150 to 1250 rounds per minute with the lightened AN-M3 barrel; with a "regular" M2HB barrel, the rate of fire is about the same as an M2HB. At high rates of fire, the proper M3 back plate should be fitted. The AN-M3 is not as reliable as the M2HB. It weighs 28.9 kg empty.

• Effective range 200 meters, ROF 1 or 30 round burst, malfunction 97. The weapon skill used is Full Auto or Direct Fire Weapon.  

M29A1 81mm mortar

     This is the normal company mortar of the US Army since about 1952 -- a smooth-bore, muzzle-loading weapon, firing a fin-stabilized shell. It is designed to be carried as three parts (baseplate 11.66 kg, barrel 12.73 kg, and bipod/sight 20.39 kg) by a three-man crew. Minimum range is roughly 50 meters, though it's possible for a round to land close enough to the mortar for the crew to be damaged. Flight time for a mortar shell is 20 to 40 seconds -- the longest flight time is for the shortest ranges! Empty weight 44.8 kg including the carrying case for the sight.

     A variety of useful accessories -- a plotting board, aiming stakes, fuze wrench, etc. -- are usually supplied with the weapon.

     Vehicle-mounted mortars use a built-in rotating baseplate, but are usually also issued with the normal baseplate so they can be carried away from the vehicle and fired. The bipod allows a traverse of a bit more than 5 degrees before it must be lifted up and re-adjusted.

     Rate of fire is greatly affected by how much preparation the crew has made -- fuze setting and propellant charge adjustment take a bit of time for each round. A safety pin or wire is present on each fuze, and must be removed before firing. Most notably, at ranges under 500 meters, the crew will usually be removing all or almost all of the "range increment" propellant charges from the rounds.

• Effective range extends out to 4400 meters, almost the maximum range of the weapon (4700 meters). A loader can drop prepared rounds at ROF 1, but pulling safey wires, removing range increment charges, setting fuzes, and setting azimuth and elevation take time. A trained three-person crew can fire rounds at ROF 2 for a short period, but adjusting point of aim requires at least one turn. The weapon skill used is always Indirect Fire Weapon. 

• Accuracy of fire depends on the quality of the gun and ammunition; weather conditions; the skill (including math skills) and care of the mortarmen; the skill of the observer; and the availability of surveys and measured ranges. If all are 'good', it's quite possible to hit a vehicle-sized target at 2200 meters consistently. Inherent range error is about 1% of the range; deflection error is about half of that. Thus, at 2200 meters, half the shells will land within 22 meters of the correct range; and half the shells will land within 11 meters "left or right" of the aiming point (assuming everything else is correct).
  

    

Mk 2 Mod 1 mortar/gun mount

     A combination 81mm mortar and M2HB .50 caliber machine gun, on a sturdy tripod mount.

Definitely the M174E3 grenade launcher, and probably other weapons, can be substituted for the M2HB machine gun.

Adapter hardware may have to be fabricated.

     Any of the various .50 cal ammunition supply boxes can be mounted to feed the machine gun.They have to be mounted on the right side of the weapon (since the mortar's sights are on the left side).

     The mortar is muzzle-loaded, with a large hydraulic recoil cylinder above the mortar barrel. The perforated basket at the rear of the mortar is entirely a protective guard to keep crew members from being injured by the recoiling (10 inches travel) mortar barrel.

     The mount provides a full 360 degrees of traverse, elevation up to 71.5 degrees, and depression to 30 degrees below the horizon. There are two fire modes:  DROP, for normal mortar-type firing (18 rounds per minute), and TRIGGER, for firing over the sights at short range (10 rounds per minute). Indirect fire range is the same as for the M29A1 mortar; direct fire range is out to about 1000 meters.

     There is a traverse-and-elevation mechanism on the left side of the mount, and the usual optical sights for indirect firing of 81mm mortars. There's a longish handle to traverse the mount. The machine gun is fired using its own sights. Elevation and traverse stops are provided to prevent the mount from firing into the boat.

     The crew might be as few as one person, but rate of fire is best with three:  gunner, loader/fuse setter, and ammo passer.

     Mass of mount, including M2HB machine gun, but no ammunition, 308 kg. This mount has been installed on vehicles as small as a 3/4 ton cargo truck.

• The skill used is Indirect Fire for ... well, indirect fire; and Direct Fire when pointing the mortar "at the target" like a cannon.

• ROF is the same as the M29A1 mortar, but add one extra turn of reloading in direct fire.
  

   
  

Rh202 cannon

     A select-fire, gas-operated, autocannon, mounted in vehicle turrets in the Project (and in the West German Marder, Luchs 2, and Wiesel vehicles, among others from the 20th Century). It fires 20x139mm shells at 880 to 1020 round per minute; the Project stocks include both armor-piercing incendiary tracer and high-explosive incendiary tracer (the other varieties produced by the manufacturer were inert training rounds, and discarding sabot armor-piercing rounds). The effective range against ground targets is 2500 meters. This version (the Type 3) of the Rh202 does not have the ability to switch between separate belt supplies; it can be configured to accept drum magazines, but drums are only used for the similar HAAM Gun. The Rh202 as employed by the Project doesn't have a manual trigger, tripod or pintle mounting hardware, or sights (although Rheinmetall produced versions on naval, AAA and helicopter mounts with spade grips, triggers, and sights). Weight 75 kg, length 2.612 meters; the barrel is 2.002 meters long.

• Effective range 200 meters, ROF 1 or 10 round burst, malfunction 99+. The weapon skill used is  Direct Fire Weapon. The weapon is normally used mounted in vehicle turrets.
  

90mm Cannon Mk II

     In production since 1974, and eventually licensed by one of the Council of Tomorrow companies, this light-weight gun system has recoil forces down to only 8.5 tons, allowing the gun to be mounted on light tanks, armored cars, or watercraft weighing as little as 7 tons. Due to the design of the muzzle brake, discarding sabot rounds cannot be employed.

     Ammunition types (90x353mm)  include:

• HEAT (capable of penetrating 250mm of RHA steel), weight of shell 4.1 kg. Muzzle velocity 900 meters per second, effective range 1500 meters.
  

• HESH (perforating 330mm of RHA steel), weight of shell 4.3 kg (including 1.1 kg of Composition A3 explosive). Muzzle velocity 800 meters per second, effective range 1200 meters.
  

• HE (with a lethal radius of 8 meters), weight of shell 5.1 kg. Muzzle velocity 700 meters per second, effective (and maximum) range 2200 meters.
  

• canister (dispersing 1400 pellets), weight of shell about 5 kg. Effective range 250 meters, with a spread of 50 meters at that range.
  

• WP smoke, weight of shell 5.4 kg. Muzzle velocity 695 meters per second, effective (and maximum) range 2200 meters.
  

     The HEAT, HESH, HE and smoke rounds incorporate tracer elements in the projectile.

M159C rocket pod

     This is a reusable, multi-tube rocket launcher, holding nineteen 2.75" unguided fin-stabilized rockets. The pod is normally mounted on helicopters, propeller aircraft, or large vehicles. The rockets can be fired in various combinations, one per second per pod. The pod weighs 131 kilograms empty, or 285 kilograms fully loaded.

LAU-68D/A rocket pod

     This is a reusable, multi-tube rocket launcher, holding seven 2.75" unguided fin-stabilized rockets. The pod is normally mounted on helicopters, propeller aircraft, or large vehicles. The rockets can be fired in various combinations, one per second per pod. The pod weighs 42 kilograms empty, or 140 kilograms fully loaded.

2.75" FFAR

     The M1 rocket has a minimum range of 40 to 90 meters, and a maximum range of 3000 meters. The motor provides thrust from 2500 newtons (at launch) to 4000 newtons (at motor burnout), and burns out between 2 and 3 seconds after ignition; maximum speed when launched from a slow aircraft is 600 meters per second. Accuracy is poor, due to several factors:

• the rocket motor ignition having a random delay up to 0.1 second

• the variable time to motor burnout

• variations in thrust at different temperatures.

     Four fins unfold just after the rocket leaves the launch tube.

this is the M229 warhead only

     The high explosive/fragmentation M229 warhead ("17 pound warhead") will make a hole in 35 centimeters of steel or 1.4 meters of concrete. It weighs 7.3 kilograms, of which 2.2 kg is Composition B explosive. A complete rocket weighs 13.9 kg; the rockets are supplied complete with warheads in wooden cases holding three rockets; a case weighs 47 kilograms.

     The M433 multi-option fuze has several operating modes:  superquick for open terrain; time delay (for use in dense forests); and bunker penetration (for up to 10 feet of penetration in packed earth before detonation).

Malfunction number 96.