• Choose a category
• All
• Classic-Fiction

By Root 1315 0

Launcher: Arguably the most destructive ground-based automatic-weapon system in the Marine Corps arsenal, the MK19 chews up targets at the rate of 350 per minute—not with standard rounds, but with 40 mm high-explosive grenades. With a maximum effective point-target range of 1,500 meters (nine-tenths of a mile), the weapon can reach out to just over 2,200 meters (1.3 miles). Since the rounds don’t just penetrate, but explode, gunners don’t have to hit the target directly, just be close—as with horseshoes and hand-lobbed grenades. While the casualty radius of each exploding round is classified, one can easily imagine what a burst of Mark-19 can do to a group of attackers. While effective, the M19 must be diligently maintained, more than any other automatic weapon, as the large linked rounds easily jam the MK19’s inner workings. The MK19 is heavy and bulky, like the rounds it fires, restricting it to fixed positions or mounted to turrets of vehicles.

M9: Semiautomatic sidearm firing the 9x19 mm NATO standard round. Not very useful for the long-distance engagements typical in the mountains of Afghanistan due to the weapon’s limited range and small round size. Marines were nevertheless required to pack it.

AT4 Rocket: A “fire and forget” antitank rocket; the Marines of ⅔ used the version of the AT4 preloaded with HEDP (High Explosive Dual Purpose) rounds for shots against fortified bunkers.

M40A3: Handcrafted by U.S. Marine Corps gunsmiths at Quantico, Virginia, the M40A3 combines extreme accuracy with extraordinary ruggedness. The M40 is a bolt-action rifle, firing a 7.62x51 mm round. In the hands of a Marine scout/sniper, working closely with his team, the maximum effective range of the weapon exceeds one thousand meters. A scout/sniper team may mount a wide variety of scopes to the M40A3 for various applications.

M82A3 SASR: The SASR, or Special Application Scoped Rifle, is a semiautomatic .50-caliber (12.7 mm) rifle capable of engaging targets up to 1,500 meters distant. While available to the snipers of ⅔ during Operation Red Wings and Operation Whalers, the SASR was not used; the Marines utilize this weapon primarily for antivehicle missions. The SASR is considerably heavier than the M40A3, and not as reliably accurate.

M224 60 mm Lightweight Mortar: Referred to as “the 60,” the M224 is a packable mortar tube with a maximum effective range of over two miles (3,490 meters) that while technically requiring a crew of three, can be fired by just one in a pinch (using the “direct lay” technique). Marines of ⅔ frequently employed these during combat operations, not only to hurl high-explosive rounds at enemy positions, but to turn night into day above enemies’ heads with phosphorus illumination rounds.

M252 81 mm Medium Extended Range Mortar: Referred to as “the 81,” the M252 is an extremely accurate—and extremely deadly—weapon, capable of firing up to thirty fifteen-pound rounds per minute out to a range of nearly three and a half miles (5,608 meters). While it is possible to carry the 81 throughout the mountains of the Kunar (in pieces), this mortar system was typically set up at established bases and not used by infantry on the move. Marines use the 81 to fire a variety of mortar types in addition to high explosive, including illumination rounds.

M120 120 mm Heavy Mortar: While not “organic” to Marine Corps units, ⅔ borrowed several 120s from the Army during their tour in the Kunar province. Capable of firing up to sixteen rounds per minute (for the first minute, four rounds per minute sustained) of massive, football-size, thirty-three-pound mortar rounds, the M120 can hit targets as close as 200 meters or as far as 7,200 (4.5 miles), and everything in between. Like the other mortars on the list, the M120 can fire a number of types of rounds.

M119 105 mm Lightweight Towed Howitzer: With the rated ability to lob a thirty-three-pound standard high-explosive round 14.5 kilometers (9 miles), and a Rocket Assisted Projectile (RAP) round 19 kilometers (11.8 miles), the two-gun battery operated