Fictional/What If/Parts Bin Units

[IanWilliams]

Using Mobhack I created a few fictional, what-if and “parts bin” variations of real stuff for the US.

Some of my creations:

“Ranger Squad SR”
A super ranger squad with a M82 sniper rifle in the #3 slot and 40 vision (40). They are pricey but super effective as they can suppress infantry and take out soft and lightly armored vehicles far beyond the normal effective range of 8-10 hexes.

HE Bradley
Essentially a Bradley turned into a Close support tank. 80 he ammo, 12 HE dumb fire rockets in lieu of Tows.

M1A3 Abrams
140mm NATO 10 gun, Mk 47 40mm AGL in the #4 slot, 2 VIRSS shots and Advanced ERA on the roof and Hull sides.

AH 64D COIN
Replaced the 30mm chain gun with a 7.62 minigun with more ammo, 20 HE Tow missiles. Works great for suppressing infantry in a helicopter assault or sniping infantry Sam teams.


Comments, Thoughts, Suggestions?

Ian

[JaM]

AH-64 COIN - 30mm M230 if far more effective veapon than 7.62 minigun.
AH-64 is not able to shoot TOW missiles as they are wired SACLOS guided.Apache use laser beam to guide Missiles. They have HE Hellfire missile, Israelis use them against Hamas leaders and similar geeks... (TOW is not as big as Hellfire, so Hellfire is more effective with HE warhead)
M1A3 Abrams - Current guns are quite effective, so they dont need 140mm so soon. New projectiles such as M829A3 could penetrate over 900mm at 2000m,It is enough to kill even most modern T-80/90... Other things are in TUSK improvement

[kevin]

Your M1A3 sounds like the specs for the new FCS. They're still debating 120mm vs. 140mm as far as I know, but they'll incorporate the 40mm AGL and advanced armor. Cool

The Ranger Squad SR sounds like a Special Forces A-Team. I like it.

Have you ever played SP3? I always felt the Bradley was better modelled their. I imagine your CS Bradley turns it into the infantry killing machine that it is in SP3.

Gotta agree with JaM on the Apache. As annoying as I find MANPADS, they are very effective in what they do and helos will never be the best way to get rid of them. I'd boost the accuracy at long range of the Hellfires if you want to make a change. IRL they have an effective range of some 8,000m. Have them pick-off tanks without getting into MANPADS range.

[IanWilliams]

JaM
I know that the minigun is less effective than the M230, but I figure that I can carry far more ammo; if i'm trying to supress infantry to allow my squads to get close not having to fly back to a ammo truck every 7 turns is nice.
Thanks for the heads up that Apache can't use TOW, I'll Mobhack over a HE Hellfire.

On the M1A3 the mk 47 GL is quite effective against soft and lightly armored vehicles (less than 4 armor) leaving the limited big gun shots (I guestimated 34 rounds) for hunting the "big game."

I have also created another version of the Ranger Squad with the 1060 thermobaric round for built up terrain. Both have 12 men so they can take some damage remain effective.

Ian

[loktarr]

A super ranger squad with a M82 sniper rifle in the #3 slot and 40 vision (40). They are pricey but super effective as they can suppress infantry and take out soft and lightly armored vehicles far beyond the normal effective range of 8-10 hexes.

This sort of unit, mixing snipers and normal riflemens is in the original orbat of some countrys (US Marines BTW), but never with a M-82 like rifle.
I don't like this mix because not really realistic...
But it's good work...
Edit:
Sorry, not so bad in fact if you consider it as a "weapon squad", with long range weapons...

[PlasmaKrab]

Bradley CS: how about M202 flash rocket in the TOW pods? I'm realy one for flame warheads for suppressing infantry... (ingame, I mean)


AH64D COIN: Best way would be to keep the 30mm, add pod-mounted MiniGuns with large loadout, and maybe thermobaric FFAR? Or replacing H-fires with Israeli laser-guided Mapats TOW (though you'll only get 8 shots anyway)?

BTW, how about a missile- or rocket-firing gunship? Maybe that was tried in the late Vietnam era?

M1A3: please... does the name relates to anything official? I personnally was going for -A3 and -A4 interim upgrades besides the Reaganian "Tank block-3" behemoth in my cold war mod, so if there is anything real called like this... I would be really relieved to be able to use the name freely.
Now 140mm (classic CE or ETC?), ERA allover, AGL OHWS... and how do you move it?

[Randy]

Many of these look like some good ideas, even in real life! I've often thought of the idea of an M1A1 w/ a grenade launcher included-good idea for suppressing snipers, and infantry. The idea of a Bradley FSV w/ M202 flame rockets would be a good force multiplier. I hope DoD reads some of these posts for ideas!