Whats the Standard Issue UNSC rifle? Why so many?

Games Halo 5: Guardians
#1

In-Game and in the lore, the Ma5 assault rifle and Br55 battle rifle are supposed to be the most common rifles. However, sources seem to contradict which gun is standard issue one.

Also why do they have two rifles when they can easily make a single select-fire rifle that has both semi-auto, 3 burst, and full-auto settings. This would eliminate the need for the AR, BR, and DMR. In fact they could take the DMR and give it those 3 settings along with a bigger magazine. Its supposedly select fire in the lore which means it would support the settings.

#2

Standard-issue can apply to any weapon, particularly for their intended roles. The AR is the standard issue automatic rifle, the BR is the standard issue mid-range rifle, and the DMR is the standard issue designated marksman rifle.

#3

> 2533274973295070;1:
> In-Game and in the lore, the Ma5 assault rifle and Br55 battle rifle are supposed to be the most common rifles. However, sources seem to contradict which gun is standard issue one.
>
> Also why do they have two rifles when they can easily make a single select-fire rifle that has both semi-auto, 3 burst, and full-auto settings. This would eliminate the need for the AR, BR, and DMR. In fact they could take the DMR and give it those 3 settings along with a bigger magazine. Its supposedly select fire in the lore which means it would support the settings.

You’re forgetting that just because a weapon has the ability to select different firing modes, doesn’t mean it works the same as all other weapons under those firing modes. Sure you could switch the AR to single fire in theory, but that doesn’t mean it would match the DMR’s range and damage output. This would be the reason there are separate standard weapons for separate weapon classes.

#4

Wouldn’t it be more efficient and effective to give soldiers a weapon that would work well in any circumstance. If you give a fireteam of marines all ARs they would struggle in long range, especially because the AR in halo has pitiful range compared to say an M16.

If you were to give a fireteam say half ARs and half BRs, only half of them would be very effective at a time. Especially because neither are select-fire.

#5

> 2533274973295070;4:
> Wouldn’t it be more efficient and effective to give soldiers a weapon that would work well in any circumstance. If you give a fireteam of marines all ARs they would struggle in long range, especially because the AR in halo has pitiful range compared to say an M16.
>
> If you were to give a fireteam say half ARs and half BRs, only half of them would be very effective at a time. Especially because neither are select-fire.

An all-purpose weapon would be big, heavy, and expensive. That’s why we have weapons better suited for close/mid/long range engagements against troops and armor.

#6

I think that the Assault Rifle has generally been the standard-issue weapon, but the Battle Rifle and DMR are common on the battlefield as well. I think the latter two are given to the marines who are better marksmen than your average one.

#7

Its no different than modern soldiers really; each squad has a mix of weapons, ranging from M4 carbines to some form of automatic support weapon and occasionally a specific marksman rifle. A tool for every job.
Also, making a DMR full-auto is a horrifically stupid idea. The BR was made three-round for a reason after all…firing full auto with a 9.5mm bullet is a real good way to waste ammo. 7.62mm magnum rounds at that rate would probably knock the shooter on his -Yoink-.

#8

M6D of course you guys come on… :slight_smile:

#9

Weapon size and shape. even if the AR has those 3 settings it wouldn’t be able to perform good enough to give it those changes. If the AR was given a single shot setting it wouldn’t be able to perform at par due to how the weapon is designed to work. If they wanted to do something to that nature they would have to make a new design essentially a new weapon which would cost too much money when mass producing the AR, BR wouldn’t cost as much (more than likely)

#10

Ma5B

#11

It’s hard to say. There are game logic reasons for these weapons, (i.e. gameplay balance, fun factor) and then there are lore reasons for these weapons. The two often contradict each other.

Let’s get this out of the way first: the DMR is a marksman rifle. It’s meant to be used by the squad marksman. The US Army does this in real life as well: there are one or two shooters within the squad who carry a longer range, slower firing battle rifle that’s designed to hit targets with precision.

Then we’ve got the AR and BR. In Halo 2, there was no AR. The BR, while replacing the CE Pistol for gameplay purposes, replaced the AR for in-universe lore purposes. It was essentially a new service rifle. Or so we thought… in Halo 3, the AR makes a triumphant return. The gameplay (aka real) reason this change was made was because Bungie preferred the balance of spawning with a mid-range rifle as opposed to a weak SMG. They saw how popular BR starts were in Halo 2 and wanted to make non-BR starts a little more popular. They also wanted to bring back an iconic Halo weapon, which despite being pretty mediocre in multiplayer, shreds pretty well in single player.

The lore/canon reasoning gets a little confusing here. Unlike, say, the US Army, where the M4 carbine is essentially the standard issue rifle, the Halo universe now effectively has two: the AR and BR. It’s hard to say which one is “standard” because so many sources, from the Halo Encyclopedia to the books to the games, seem to contradict each other. It’s pretty likely that we can assume the MA5 is the “standard issue” rifle of the UNSC, aka the rifle each UNSC Army or Marine trooper would be issued after basic training. However, we can also assume that the BR is slowly superseding the AR in use when available. We know this because of how popular it is as a service weapon, how common it is in Halo 2 and how it seems to exist in even numbers with the AR in all future Halo games.

You might argue that either rifle could be the standard. It’s a pretty extreme example, but let’s compare it to the way the US Army issues optics. The Army has two primary optics that it uses: the Aimpoint and the ACOG. The Aimpoint has no zoom; it’s a simple and extremely efficient red dot reflex sight, easy and fast to use, which makes it lethal. The Army also commonly issues the ACOG, a 4X zoom optic that gives enhanced accuracy over range at the cost of target acquisition speed.

While the Army issues both optics, the proportion of each is distributed based on a number of factors. Different units prefer more riflemen to have the Aimpoint; others prefer them to all have an ACOG. If you’re deploying to a dense, urban, battlefield, you might prefer an Aimpoint; if you’re in the mountains of Afghanistan, you might prefer the zoom of an ACOG.

You could compare these optics to the way the UNSC issues rifles. Sometimes, the AR is a preferable choice. It has a higher rate of fire and it’s an all-around workhorse, much like the US Army’s Aimpoint optic. On the other hand, sometimes the BR is preferred. It’s more precise at range, and it still offers a decent rate of fire.

The DMR is a specialist weapon. It’s a marksman rifle through-and-through. The AR and BR, on the other hand, are more numerous and can be used somewhat interchangeably.