Weapons?

[Trev1]

Hi everyone bored so been looking on youtube watching military videos etc.. just wondering how is it decided who has what weapon when out on ops? e.g afghanisthan. How do they decide who has the LMG or the GPMG or the SA80 A2 with the UGL? or the LSW? Hows it all decided?

[DARREN_ROSS]

hi, i think that when you do your p1 training you get to use most of the weapons and i think they decide then who is good at using what.

this is only what i think, im sure some1 else thats done the training will be able to tell you for sure.

[Sportacus]

I know there are things like the machine gun platoon and the sniper platoon so obviously if you manage to get yourself into one of them you get to use those sort of weapons. I also think that in each rifle section there's a minimi man and a gpmg man so maybe if you show enough skill with your weapons you'll get chosen.
Someone who knows for sure will come along in a minute and say.

[jstagg]

Yeah in P1 you're trained on all of the main weapons used buy foot soldiers, and you under go a kind of Shooting competition, people who score abouve others using LSW are a like.


Just a question, i was watching doctors and nurses on the front line, and a woman in the MED corps had a .45 (looked like a 45) pistol, and i've seen Marines with 9mm, .45's ect.. I had the thought (Since i was a young lad) that the British army doesn't use side arms?

[DARREN_ROSS]

i think they were given side arms because they need there hands all the time and it would be a lot quicker to get to it rather than have a SA80 sat in a corner of the room when they are dealing with a casulty.
(only a thought).

[Trev1]

I agree with the above post. Also the pistols are usually given to officers I think.

[gt1980]

I agree with the above post. Also the pistols are usually given to officers I think.

they did actually say on the program that the side arm were only given to the higher ranking personnel.

[Trev1]

And I didnt even watch the program

[druadan]

Generally duty sprog gets to carry the gun It's only a prof if you actually like the things enough to put up with lugging the extra weight around

Pistols are issued where required. I don't know how they decide where they're required, but I've carried a Browning on both tours to date.

[Fusilier]

They use to always give the GPMG to the new boy as no one wanted to lag it about.

[SandyTheGuvnor]

They use to always give the GPMG to the new boy as no one wanted to lag it about.

I used too always carry the GPMG as a tom and i certainly wasnt the crow or new boy as you call them.

[Fusilier]

They did in my platoon as I was the new lad and spent the next 6 months carrying the thing all over South Armagh. They tried telling me it was because I was sooo good a gunner but I knew the truth. I really wanted to get my hands on the nice light AR-15.

Actually it was red arse, not new boy. Come to think about it we also had the Bren with a 30 round mag but that was lighter than the GPMG.

[jstagg]

Must have missed that particular part lol, thanks for clearing it up thou.

[Tab]

We used to carry pistols with the two inch mortar, and 3.5 rocket launcher as you had enough to carry with that lot let alone a rifle as well. The medics also carried a 9mm Browning pistol. Platoon officers would carry a Sten gun, mind you that was 50 years ago

[Stinky]

Where i am drivers, officers and medics are issued pistols, crow cannons are given to the crows, i was lucky to get a gat but im always honored with the burden of the TES-EX N-LAW, but what you get issued at depot you might not have at batt. Guys who are taking crow cannons to afghan will probably swap them with GPMGs. I dont want to say anything classified so i will stop there.