Futuristic P90 design

[Archangel Michael]

This is the main weapon of the Terran Union in a sci-fi idea I've been working on for a few weeks now. The basic line image is the MACO plasma rifle from Phaser.net (http://www.phasers.net/2150/maco.htm), but with modifications.

http://img350.imageshack.us/img350/3331/futurstucfnp900jv.png

So what, do you guys think? I even made matching combat uniform based of the MACO uniform, which I'll post later.

[DarkSlavik]

I always like the Idea of modern day weapons being reconfigured into high-tech sci-fit stuff, it just seems like it would be cool to see a MP5 shoot plasma or a M16 be a laser pulse rifle.

[NapoleonXIV]

Some things to remember about energy beam weapons:

1. You don't need a magazine, there's no ammunition.

2. You don't need a stock, there's no recoil

3. You don't need a barrel, as you're not launching an object

4. You don't need to make it all that big. If the device generating power is of any size it will be carried somewhere on the soldier and connected to the weapon by a quick-disconnect cable or a limited type of power broadcast. This will be much easier to manipulate and make the weapon useless to anyone but the soldier.

Look at how modern weapons have developed, most are along the lines of the Uzi, which is essentially a pistol with a very large magazine. Now take away the magazine.

A ray beam weapon need not, in fact, be a separate weapon at all but could be no more than a button somewhere on the soldier's uniform, generating and targeting a beam to anything the soldier is looking at. Helicopter gunships have had targeting systems that work that way for several years now.

The best I ever saw was the pistol used by the aliens in "The Invaders" tv series. It was a small pistol with a tv screen in the rear. Anything in the screen was targeted.

[DarkSlavik]

yea but P90s look cool.

[Archangel Michael]

Who said that it was a beam weapon?

[Flocculencio]

Some things to remember about energy beam weapons:

1. You don't need a magazine, there's no ammunition.

2. You don't need a stock, there's no recoil

3. You don't need a barrel, as you're not launching an object

4. You don't need to make it all that big. If the device generating power is of any size it will be carried somewhere on the soldier and connected to the weapon by a quick-disconnect cable or a limited type of power broadcast. This will be much easier to manipulate and make the weapon useless to anyone but the soldier.


A but with plasma style weapons e.g. Star Wars style blasters, you do need all these things.

Look at how modern weapons have developed, most are along the lines of the Uzi, which is essentially a pistol with a very large magazine. Now take away the magazine.

Depends on what you want it for- Uzi's are useless outside close combat situations.

In any case, what do you mean about most modern weapons developing along the lines of the Uzi?

What about the plethora of assault rifles which form the major effective weapons of most armies?

[Archangel Michael]

Here's the ground combat uniform. The pockets and pouches are a little small, but this is just to show what it might look like.

http://img237.imageshack.us/img237/4020/groundcombat7bt.png

[NapoleonXIV]

Who said that it was a beam weapon?

You said it was a plasma rifle, and the site I looked up on plasma rifles suggests that plasma rifles fire a...uh...plasma. Now a plasma, AFAIK is a superheated gas that stores a great deal of energy as an electric charge. And it seems, to me, that what the rifle actually discharges is a somehow coherent 'slug' of plasma. Now since this has a material component, in the gas, it would probably need a barrel to direct it, yes. It would still, however, not need any real length in the barrel to give the slug energy or direction,(your illustration gives it none to speak of) nor need a magazine to store ammo, (since it could use any surrounding gas to make the plasma or carry the gas on the soldier rather than the weapon in a vacuum) and have negligible, if any, recoil, so not need a stock.

True, it would be more convenient to have a fully self contained weapon, so storing the gas, in a very compressed form, might very well look like a magazine. But this would not have to be very big, even to carry lots of gas in a compressed liquid form and could be placed in the pistol grip

Still looks like a small pistol to me.

Perhaps I misunderstand. In your illustration, the actual working part of the rifle is just the filled in section, yes? Just fold it to make it shorter and attach that to a pistol grip. Why do you need the rest of the weapon at all?

However, you may be right, the actual P90 itself doesnt have much of a recoil and carries it's magazine on the top of the weapon. Perhaps the bullpup configuration is mainly of use in pointing and firing, in which case it would be very useful for a plasma rifle.

[Archangel Michael]

I said the outline was based of the MACO plasma rifle from ENT. I didn't say that this weapon itself was a plasma rifle. The filled in part is the part that came from the line drawing. The whitness is there becaue I'm too lasy to do anything with it. :D

[NapoleonXIV]

A but with plasma style weapons e.g. Star Wars style blasters, you do need all these things.



Depends on what you want it for- Uzi's are useless outside close combat situations.

In any case, what do you mean about most modern weapons developing along the lines of the Uzi?

What about the plethora of assault rifles which form the major effective weapons of most armies?

Phasers have magazines which carry ammo, and recoil?

Most modern assault weapons are short and have short barrels with the 'bullpup' configuration becoming more and more popular. My understanding of this is that this configuration is an engineering compromise between firepower, with its consequent recoil and need for barrel length, and ease of handling.

All assault rifles are designed mainly for close quarters, that's why their barrels are generally short, as accuracy is not as important, particularly with automatic fire

[NapoleonXIV]

I said the outline was based of the MACO plasma rifle from ENT. I didn't say that this weapon itself was a plasma rifle. The filled in part is the part that came from the line drawing. The whitness is there becaue I'm too lasy to do anything with it. :D

OIC

Sorry, but I do wonder about this trend in SF to give future soldiers weapons that look like portable cannons, while present and all historical trends would seem to dictate that most would be much smaller and lighter than we carry now. Yours seems a step in a more realistic direction, but why just copy the P90?

[Othniel]

A conversion might be used as a phase in? either that or its easier to aim? Besides conversions are cool, and if they want to replace the P90 it might be easier than retraining them completely with a new weapon. My thoughts on that matter.

[Archangel Michael]

OIC Yours seems a step in a more realistic direction, but why just copy the P90?

Because it's an awesome weapon. :p

[NapoleonXIV]

Because it's an awesome weapon. :p

True enough, but you're the writer. Make us one even more awesome ;) :D

I can't see the pockets on the uniform. It looks nice though. It's especially realistic to me in that it doesn't follow the old ST dictum "..in the future, most people will wear what looks to us like long underwear."

[Archangel Michael]

I can't see the pockets on the uniform. It looks nice though. It's especially realistic to me in that it doesn't follow the old ST dictum "..in the future, most people will wear what looks to us like long underwear."

Can you see the six pouches on the body armor vest? The standard duty uniform for the Navy, as I see it, is a blue tunic with black trousers with shoulder boards for the rank insgnia, with an undershirt with a collar with the wearer's dearpment color. The female uniform will have a skirt and the dress uniform has a sword. I've made early versions I'm currently revising them.

[NapoleonXIV]

Can you see the six pouches on the body armor vest? The standard duty uniform for the Navy, as I see it, is a blue tunic with black trousers with shoulder boards for the rank insgnia, with an undershirt with a collar with the wearer's dearpment color. The female uniform will have a skirt and the dress uniform has a sword. I've made early versions I'm currently revising them.

Make the skirt fetchingly short. There's just nothing sexier than a little bare thigh under a blazer...uh...waitaminit, sorry, wrong genre. :D

Swords are nice, while I have a problem with their actual use in futuristic combat I have to admit they look great.

[Archangel Michael]

Swords are nice, while I have a problem with their actual use in futuristic combat I have to admit they look great.

The swords are just on the dress uniform for decoration.

[Romulus Augustulus]

You know, for close combat situations and aboard ships, a projectile-firing rifle would be more practical. A 23rd-century projectile rifle would be really something, though. Probably caseless cartridge, and firing a really small, although extremely powerful round. There's just something cool about filling that hideous green alien full of 1.5mm DU slugs at 5,500 m/s and getting softball-sized exit wounds...

[Archangel Michael]

Here are the male and female standard duty uniforms for the Terran Union Starfleet.

http://img297.imageshack.us/img297/2383/dutyuniform22me.pnghttp://img297.imageshack.us/img297/856/femaledutyuniform24ot.png

[Othniel]

Swords are nice, while I have a problem with their actual use in futuristic combat I have to admit they look great.
Well if on a ship it is quite possible that a boarding party would attack, hower I find much more use in a Bayoneted Rifle.

[Othniel]

Here are the male and female standard duty uniforms for the Terran Union Starfleet.

http://img297.imageshack.us/img297/2383/dutyuniform22me.pnghttp://img297.imageshack.us/img297/856/femaledutyuniform24ot.png
If that is standard duty, what are the officers in? Do you have class As and Class Bs? Do you have an overjacket for dress occassions?

[Archangel Michael]

If that is standard duty, what are the officers in? Do you have class As and Class Bs? Do you have an overjacket for dress occassions?

Let me rephrase that. It's a Class B-type uniform for officers.

[Matt]

You know, for close combat situations and aboard ships, a projectile-firing rifle would be more practical. A 23rd-century projectile rifle would be really something, though. Probably caseless cartridge, and firing a really small, although extremely powerful round. There's just something cool about filling that hideous green alien full of 1.5mm DU slugs at 5,500 m/s and getting softball-sized exit wounds...


Holy crap!!

You want something that fast firing inside something as fragile as a space ship!!

[NapoleonXIV]

You know, for close combat situations and aboard ships, a projectile-firing rifle would be more practical. A 23rd-century projectile rifle would be really something, though. Probably caseless cartridge, and firing a really small, although extremely powerful round. There's just something cool about filling that hideous green alien full of 1.5mm DU slugs at 5,500 m/s and getting softball-sized exit wounds...

..uhm...yes, but wouldn't they be hard on even a duranium hull. Just one little hole with hard vacuum on the other side is so annoying.

How about go the other way, a shotgun, firing low velocity (500-600mph) flechettes. They can't hurt your hull at all really but, boy, talk about picturesque wounds in soft monster tissue.

[Archangel Michael]

Here are the revised Class B officers uniforms for both males and females.

http://img209.imageshack.us/img209/1374/dutyuniform23ik.pnghttp://img209.imageshack.us/img209/5923/femaledutyuniform28od.png

And here are Marine Corps Class C uniforms in four different forms of camoflauge.

http://img209.imageshack.us/img209/5865/forestgroundcombat7ih.pnghttp://img209.imageshack.us/img209/9223/desertgroundcombat9bp.pnghttp://img209.imageshack.us/img209/3427/articgroundcombat9kr.pnghttp://img209.imageshack.us/img209/8207/urbancombat3ff.png

[Romulus Augustulus]

Mmm...in my mind, the combat uniforms would probably look more like spacesuits...the torso and head would be combined, and it would be this big-egg shaped thing, with arms and limbs in the usual positions. It would look comical, but it would be pretty effective.

[Romulus Augustulus]

You want something that fast firing inside something as fragile as a space ship!!

Question marks. And haven't you ever heard of something called a self-sealing hull?

[Matt]

:rolleyes:

Sci-Fi writers writing there way out of everything with almost magic like abilities.

[Romulus Augustulus]

No, really. There are self-sealing fuel tanks, which can temporarily plug small holes in the hull because there is a rubber lining, which swells to fill up leaks when it is soaked by gasoline after it has been punctured. I figure it would be an easy matter to stick in a gel layer that could swell up to fill leaks after being punctured, whether through exposure to oxygen or else through its ability to change shape.