II:Federal army

[justifier]

The equipment of infantry.

The standard infantry uniform of a federal infantryman is a double layered sealed suit with metal shoulder, elbow, knee and groin guards. They wear a full helmet with an attached airtight face seal and oxygen tanks. The helmet has an internal interface where weapon scopes, communications and tactical maps can be brought up. All pockets are zipper sealed and straps with plastic hooks are made to attach to grenades and guns. These suits allow troopers to fight in space and on airless/atmosphere less planets. On planets with breathable atmospheres the air tanks and under layers of the suits are removed to reduce weight. When onboard in a non-combat situation troops wear a standard olive green jumpsuit, during ceremonies troops wear full in insignia bars, ceremonial hats and suits.
The standard issue weapon to a federal infantryman is the Cable-81(CA-81) assault rifle. It uses 6mm rounds. Underneath the barrel is an attachment space where a number of standardized weapons such as grenade launchers, light flame throwers or rocket barrels can be attached. The CA-81 uses iron sights as well as electronic sights linked directly to an infantryman’s helmet interface.
Other weapons commonly used by the Federal army:
Ock-7: 8.6mm light machinegun, which is normally belt fed. Troops who wield this gun wear stabilizing exo-skeletons on their chests and arms which allow them to use it nearly as easily as they would and assault rifle.

D-Ock9: 12.7 heavy machinegun, belt fed equipped with a tripod.

Castle-5:12 gauge, semi-automatic shotgun equipped with an electrical scope and 29 round cyclical clip.

Rhino-11: 8.6mm sniper rifle equipped with flash suppressor, bipod, x20 electrical scope and fifteen round internal load.

Rhino-15: 20mm anti-material sniper rifle equipped with flash suppressor, bipod, x20 electrical scope and six round internal load.

Spine-3: Rocket launcher ??? info???

Spike-10: 10.4mm pistol, with eight round clip, standard federal sidearm

Spike-10F:8.6mm pistol, with twelve round clip, common rear line sidearm

P.L.A.N.B.-Standard issue canister grenades.

Coming soon, federal vehicles, power armor, and heavy corps/O.D.D. corps

(Most federal weapons use gas rounds. Gas weapons operate using similar principles to gunpowder weapons, however instead of powder inside of a bullet or shell they use a heavy explosive gas. This makes logistics easier, because the gas can be made from more common chemicals.)
Coming soon, federal vehicles, power armor, and heavy corps/O.D.D. corps

[Sea Skimmer]

It uses 6mm rounds

British trials found that 6.25mm would probably be the optimum caliber for an assault rifle. But really anything from 6-7mm works very well, the US Army is looking into a M16 modified to take 6.8mm rounds.

Rhino-15: 20mm anti-material sniper rifle equipped with flash suppressor, bipod, x20 electrical scope and six round internal load.

A 20mm anti material weapon would be extremely cumbersome and heavy; the caliber was used for several WW2 anti tank rifles that didn't work very well. For the same weight you could have a 60mm mortar and a couple rounds of ammunition. I assume this is in the future, so giving each mortar bomb its own guidance system is quite possibul. Fit them with a shaped charge and you'll easily destroy light armored vehicles. Regular HE kills softer targets.

Spike-10: 10.4mm pistol, with eight round clip, standard federal sidearm

Spike-10F:8.6mm pistol, with twelve round clip, common rear line sidearm

Smallish magazine capacities, the current 10mm Glock 20 can hold 15 rounds and a capacity of 15 rounds is basically the standard for 9mm weapons.

(Most federal weapons use gas rounds. Gas weapons operate using similar principles to gunpowder weapons, however instead of powder inside of a bullet or shell they use a heavy explosive gas. This makes logistics easier, because the gas can be made from more common chemicals.)

That sounds like it would be incredibly dangerous and I somehow doubt handling an explosive gas will speed up production. In fact it's likely to drastically slow things down. When your producing billions of rounds adding even a fraction of a second to the production time of each round can have a considerable effect on production.

The amount of ammo an army can go through is incredible; at one point during WW2 the German army had eight billion rounds of 7.62mm rifle ammunition in stock, and that was all for bolt action weapons.

[Grand Admiral Thrawn]

Where's the GPMG?

[justifier]

British trials found that 6.25mm would probably be the optimum caliber for an assault rifle. But really anything from 6-7mm works very well, the US Army is looking into a M16 modified to take 6.8mm rounds.

Yeah, I wanted to steer away from common reallife calibers, but still have something recignizable and 6mm seemed about right for rifles

A 20mm anti material weapon would be extremely cumbersome and heavy; the caliber was used for several WW2 anti tank rifles that didn't work very well. For the same weight you could have a 60mm mortar and a couple rounds of ammunition. I assume this is in the future, so giving each mortar bomb its own guidance system is quite possibul. Fit them with a shaped charge and you'll easily destroy light armored vehicles. Regular HE kills softer targets.

Ok I'll add a mortar. What is a decent anti-material rifle caliber?

Smallish magazine capacities, the current 10mm Glock 20 can hold 15 rounds and a capacity of 15 rounds is basically the standard for 9mm weapons.

Ok, I'll fix that

That sounds like it would be incredibly dangerous and I somehow doubt handling an explosive gas will speed up production. In fact it's likely to drastically slow things down. When your producing billions of rounds adding even a fraction of a second to the production time of each round can have a considerable effect on production.

The amount of ammo an army can go through is incredible; at one point during WW2 the German army had eight billion rounds of 7.62mm rifle ammunition in stock, and that was all for bolt action weapons.

Well, I wanted something fairly futuristic sounding, maybe I'll just have them use something similar to modern gunpowder

[justifier]

Where's the GPMG?

?

[Grand Admiral Thrawn]

General Purpose Machine Gun AKA Medium Machine Gun. M-60, M240, PK...

[Sea Skimmer]

Ok I'll add a mortar. What is a decent anti-material rifle caliber?

You really should have several mortars, a 60, an 82 and a 120mm. 82mm has the advantage that you can use captured 81mm ammo but the enemy cannot use ammo they captured from you. That’s why the Soviets started using it. There was something similar in WW1 in which the Germans used a 77mm gun, so that captured enemy 75 and 76.2mm guns could be bored out to use German ammo.

Your anti material rifle should be between 10 and 15mm, the vast majority of nations have gone with 12.7mm with only a few larger 14.5 and one 15.2mm examples.