Is the smart gun from 'Aliens' practical?

[Sidewinder]

I intend to write a war story with a futuristic setting, and am thinking of arming soldiers with machine guns that automatically aim themselves at a target, similar to the smart gun in 'Aliens'. But I'm concerned about the weapon's practicality. Do a smart gun's advantages (reduced reaction time, accuracy and possible conservation of ammo) outweigh its disadvantages (size and weight)?

Assume the weapon's capabilities, size and weight are comparable to the Colonial Marines' M56 smart gun.

The M56A2 is a 10mm general purpose automatic squad support weapon... The entire system is mounted to an operators harness and slaved to an IR tracking system. The gun is self-steering on its mount but is manually fired.

Prepping the Smartgun: The M56 system consists of 4 major components: the operator's combat harness, the Head Mounted Sight (HMS), the articulation arm, and the gun itself. The harness is composed of composite micromesh ballistic armor and is heavily padded to reduce chafing. The armored breastplate holds the communications transceiver and the tracking/targeting processor.

The stabilized articulation arm is attached to the left hip mount point and plugged in via a coaxial cable to the processor and power outlets on the breastplate with the gun at the end of the arm. The HMS is plugged into the tracking and comms system in the armor. The gun tracker is jacked into the processor by a universal connector and the gun must be powered up prior to loading; power is from a Li battery rated for 50,000 rounds.

Smartgun Movement: While the operator is standing, the gun is held and steered by the fore and aft grips. Vertical range from slightly downward to straight up and horizontally from straight ahead to the entire left side...
The articulation arm is gyrostabilised and provides additional recoil dampening while the user is walking or running. When tracking a target, the arm self-steers the barrel to bore sight the target's center of mass. An operator can override the gun at any time simply by moving the barrel away.

Target Tracking: When powered up, the gun starts tracking targets via its IR tracker mounted above the barrel. This system views a 30° cone in front of the gun and transmits high-resolution thermal images to a video display on the HMS. If a target is detected, a lighted rectangle will be placed over its center of mass and the arm will steer the gun to aim at this point. As soon as it does this, a target lock circle is then lit to indicate the target is bore sighted. If engaging multiple targets or if IR decoys are targeted, the gunner can manually steer the lighted box to the desired target.

The M250 ammunition is 230 grain caseless round similar to the Pulse Rifle's ammo. The biggest difference is that the Smartgun's ammunition has a selectable fuse; a switch on the hand grip electronically sets the bullets fuse as it's loaded into the breach. The “Super” setting is designed for soft targets and detonates on impact while the “Delay” setting explodes the shell only after penetrating the target.

[Zor]

Not for running around inside buildings with.

Zor

[Stark]

Let's be honest: light machineguns aren't supposed to be used running around in buildings.

I think if it WORKS they're good. Machineguns provide most of a platoons firepower apparently, and being able to use it on the move seems good. On the other hand, you're a big target standing up, and the smartgunners had much less armour due to the stabiliser arm...

[Patrick Degan]

Feh. Doesn't stack up to the ZF-1 from Zorg Industries.

[Stark]

Well you can't beat zero recoil, hundreds of homing bullets and fucking netguns, can you?

[Patrick Degan]

Well you can't beat zero recoil, hundreds of homing bullets and fucking netguns, can you?

Don't forget the freeze-vapour and flamethrower settings.

[Sidewinder]

I think if it WORKS they're good.

Assume that it does.

Machineguns provide most of a platoons firepower apparently, and being able to use it on the move seems good. On the other hand, you're a big target standing up, and the smartgunners had much less armour due to the stabiliser arm...

Assume the soldiers' armor has mounting points so the stabilizer arm can be directly attached to it. This is the design I used for another story:

Gung Ho and Leatherneck both wear armor with a mechanical arm over their right shoulders; MG3 7.62 mm machine guns, the stock replaced with a mount for the mechanical arms, lie diagonally across the breastplates. The marines extend the arms to inspect the MG3s, lower VR visors over their eyes, and turn to Falcon; their HUDs read, "TARGET LOCKED-- MG3 STANDBY" as the backpack computer-controlled "smart guns" automatically target the Army lieutenant.

A computer-controlled gun system whose visor-mounted radar and infrared sensors automatically detect and track enemy targets, and whose fuel cell can provide energy for 30 days of continuous operation. Yet the computer, sensor, and energy storage systems remain light and compact enough to allow an average human to carry it without overtaxing his or her strength and endurance.

The soldiers in the new story have similar equipment.

[Inquisitor Ryan]

I don't think it's entirely a practical weapon, how does the recoil effect the mechanical aiming, or indeed the entire robotic mount.
Can the rig be ditched in a hurry?

Machine Guns are spray and pray weapons designed to throw out a huge volume of fire with which to take out the target. A mechanical aiming device would be put to better use on something like Quakes railgun instead of a MG.

[Stark]

Christ, spot the guy who hasn't seen Aliens! I love how he doesn't understand the role for a device that not only allows you to use a machinegun accurately without lying down, but ON THE MOVE.

[InnocentBystander]

Vasquez was using her smartgun unpowered, as I recall. Right? Even unpowered, I seem to recall her handling the weapon pretty well. How easy would it be to fire a real medium MG from the hip (say the MG3, since thats basically what it is)?

[NecronLord]

The harness is a steadicam harness, so no, it doesn't require any power to operate.

That said, IIRC, the DVD has the actors reminiscing on how heavy the bloody things were.

[SylasGaunt]

Vasquez was using her smartgun unpowered, as I recall. Right? Even unpowered, I seem to recall her handling the weapon pretty well. How easy would it be to fire a real medium MG from the hip (say the MG3, since thats basically what it is)?

It wasn't unpowered she just wasn't able to use the computer targeting and had to aim manually.

[Admiral Valdemar]

The mount used IR to accurately track predictively and aim for firing. They couldn't use it because the xenos were the same temp as their surroundings, so she fired blind. The mechanics are sound, but the weight might put it off given MGs use an amazing amount of ammo (especially with something derived from the MG god MG42).

If you can make it light and low enough calibre to be effective, but not cumbersome, you're on to a winner. Computer assisted targeting is the icing on the cake.

[Jaepheth]

Perhaps if you added powered armor, or just a leg frame, to take the weight off the operator it'd be a more viable weapon.

[Alyeska]

The weapon is rather interesting. Using LMGs in close quarters isn't a bad idea. The US Army loves using cut down M249 SAWs for this job, calling them automatic rifles. The problem with the Smart Gun is its not designed to fire from a bipod and that makes prone firing impossible. Its length also makes indoor combat questionable. The weapon would be best suited in an urban enviroment in the exterior areas, but the lack of prone firing puts the shooter at greater risk.

[Major Maxillary]

Vasquez was using her smartgun unpowered, as I recall. Right? Even unpowered, I seem to recall her handling the weapon pretty well. How easy would it be to fire a real medium MG from the hip (say the MG3, since thats basically what it is)?

Having fired an M240B, which is in the same range, I can say that a GPMG can be operated well enough from the hip, it won't be as accurate as if you were, let's say, prone like you're supposed to be, but the size and weight of the weapon compensates for the recoil, so in a pinch you can fire the thing from the hip, and if you feel like throwing your back out you can try to fire the thing from the shoulder, but I wouldn't recommend that, since your arms would get tired real quick.

All in all I'd say a smart gun is alot more practical than a smart bullet, and it's pretty easy to do with just a little refinement of several current technologies. I wouldn't say it would be anywhere near as accurate, because the whole point of the machine gun is to be used against area targets. you have to have a "beaten zone," a general area where all your rounds land, so that you won't just hit one guy with three bullets, but can hit maybe two guys with five, or seven with twenty. ammo is cheap. but yeah, add a steadyboom and targeting system to an M240B and it would be beautiful.

the machine gun is the centerpiece of the squad. you need at least two SAWs or GPMGs. everyone else gets armed with other weapons.

one thing you should remember; autofire is overrated. and if you want accuracy, get some squirrel hunters and give them extra trigger time.

[Darwin]

Machine Guns are spray and pray weapons designed to throw out a huge volume of fire with which to take out the target. A mechanical aiming device would be put to better use on something like Quakes railgun instead of a MG.

machineguns are also used to accurately engage medium and long range targets with short bursts. There's no disadvantage to an accurate machinegun.

[DPDarkPrimus]

Let's be honest: light machineguns aren't supposed to be used running around in buildings.

I think if it WORKS they're good. Machineguns provide most of a platoons firepower apparently, and being able to use it on the move seems good. On the other hand, you're a big target standing up, and the smartgunners had much less armour due to the stabiliser arm...

There is an illustration in the Technical Manual showing a Smart Gunner firing from a prone position. IIRC it's fired while lying on one's back.

[Stark]

I've head that pose described as retarded and stupid, and I can kinda see where they're coming from. It'd be interesting to know if it's possible to remove the gun from the arm and use it on a tripod or something: I'm not even sure it has a regular trigger and it certainly doesn't have a stock.

[InnocentBystander]

Let's be honest: light machineguns aren't supposed to be used running around in buildings.

I think if it WORKS they're good. Machineguns provide most of a platoons firepower apparently, and being able to use it on the move seems good. On the other hand, you're a big target standing up, and the smartgunners had much less armour due to the stabiliser arm...

There is an illustration in the Technical Manual showing a Smart Gunner firing from a prone position. IIRC it's fired while lying on one's back.

That doesn't sound all that comfortable.

[DPDarkPrimus]

I've head that pose described as retarded and stupid, and I can kinda see where they're coming from.

How else do you propose they lie with that harness?

[Alyeska]

Now if the smartgun could be easily detached and had a folding bipod, it would make a decent support weapon that can be fired while prone.

[DPDarkPrimus]

Now if the smartgun could be easily detached and had a folding bipod, it would make a decent support weapon that can be fired while prone.

A bipod would not be great for the auto-targeting system.

[Alyeska]

A bipod would allow the weapon to be fired prone on a forward fixed axis.

[Inquisitor Ryan]

Christ, spot the guy who hasn't seen Aliens! I love how he doesn't understand the role for a device that not only allows you to use a machinegun accurately without lying down, but ON THE MOVE.

Yes I do, they're called rifles... Any MG can be fired on the move, my entire basic point was that recoil from the Smartgun, or any MG would be bad for the mechanical auto-aim nature of the arm, I doubt todays technology could design a robotic frame as complex that could withstand the recoil and serve as the automatic aiming as well.
I also mentioned the pointlessness of putting an automatic aiming device on an area support weapon.