[RESEARCH] Long Arms, Short Armament

[VoxApocrypha]

Roskana - Autumn 1933

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 It'd been a problem since the creation of the 'modern military', but in truth this issue wasn't new, and in fact - it had been resolved in the past.
Weapon length wouldn't seem like an issue to some, but when one compares that many weapons are designed with the uses and tolerances of humans and more standard heights and sizes in mind, the problem becomes quickly apparent. 
Festria and Karrashi soldiers, typically standing in the realm of six to eight feet height wise on average, give or take some inches, were usually finding themselves to be holding weapons that for the typical standard of height were average length and height, typically functional and reliable in their role as a standard rifle, and most importantly - accurate. 

 The issue was that because of the discrepency in barrel length as compared to size, the substantial portion of the military that stood past six feet in height, were having issues with accuracy due to having what for them was effectively a short-barrel rifle that while better for them in close quarters, made their actual nominal accuracy suffer more at range.

But as well, it presented the question of if such small armaments were actually a proper use of the talents of these soldiers of whom could potentially hold and use weaponry of somewhat larger size. Again the question of Festria specific armaments was brought before a small team, of which would bring the question to the Diamid Oversight Committee of the Armed Forces, of which would approve it for some funding to begin research into the topic, primarily with the aim of testing to see if longer rifles and armaments would be viable for employment, and how they could be employed - as well, authorized to create prototypes for research purposes. 

[VoxApocrypha]

The discussions would yield a few common findings and issues.
The significant, and easily addressable ones, were as such:

Large hands and digits led to somewhat greater difficulty manipulating smaller switches, levers, etc.
Smaller weapons in the hand of larger soldiers would be more difficult to aim reliably due to the body of the weapons being smaller, requiring more hunching of the body and often times leading to injury, minor and not, if they were too close. As well, it affected their accuracy due to them having to take more time to angle themselves, or otherwise having issues looking down the iron sights and properly setting the sights.
This was in part though because of the somewhat shoddy nature of the sight's manufacture.
As well, the weapons for some had recoil that was tolerable and often not particularly strong due to their bodies having more mass to absorb the recoil, leading to some having issues with overcompensating.

And so the discussion shifted to trying to find solutions, and a couple immediately came to the forefront.

1. Increasing the size of the furniture and perhaps increasing barrel length, to offset the weapons size somewhat and to remove the danger to the user, and the issues with aiming, which seemed like a potentially promising choice. This could be done wholesale with fully replacing the wooden furniture of weapons, or by modular designs that would rely on screws and wooden pieces fitted to hold to a rifle, though either option then potentially compromised accuracy.

2. Creating a prototype weapon in which the Festria and Karrashi would be able to fire somewhat larger rounds, while as well the weapon would be large enough to then withstand the force of its own bullet and recoil, whilst being ergonomic and comfortable for use with larger troops.

An additional one was put forward but for the time being, shelved, in which they could potentially reevaluate the role of Festria and Karrashi in the army and perhaps assign them to particular aspects of a force, rather than having them be mixed in with rest of a squad. It sounded particularly unpalatable, though some understood such could mean just relegating them to operating crew-served weaponry with a team of two others that could very well be normal humans - For the time being however, a pin was put into it.

Both of the more workable options were as well considered viable, and a vote was held to decide which would go first.

(Rolls made 11:52 PM, PST, Bot-room in the discord:
1: 10
2: 13 )

After the vote, 23 of the twenty five had voted, with two abstaining.
The second option would be explored first, though due to the closeness of the votes, both were kept on the table.
Immediately they'd contact the company Tanus Arms, and ask for a team of designers and gun smiths to come to the Army Institute for Technical Engineering.

[VoxApocrypha]

 It'd been a longer than expected process, but Tanus arms had explored a number of potential prototypes drawn up by its Weapons Smiths and Designers, in collaboration with the armed forces. 
They had developed a few, but only two were considered to be promising. 

 The Bolter, a bolt action rifle chambered in a somewhat up-sized 30-06, with the weapon made with those tolerances in mind.
Based on the EAR, for all intents and purposes, it was just an upscaled variant of such. 

 And then the Merideth, a Semi-automatic that was designed with Karrashi/Festria users in mind, based on the R-SAIR-31, chambered in the upscaled 30-06 in use for the Bolter. 

Now they had to test them.

[VoxApocrypha]

The Bolter had undergone testing first, and while the weapon did not necessarily fail, its performance was considered to be 'somewhat scuffed', in the words of a range operator, and as well, a number of the Festria and Karrashi testers. While the bolt could be drawn back, and the weapon cycled the first time, it had trouble cycling rounds out without having to pull the bolt especially hard, and often, having to then tilt the weapon to eject the shell. The weapon had the accuracy they had been aiming to attain which was good, but reloading it also proved to be a bit of a pain, and by itself with reloading being somewhat difficult to affect, the firearm had to be put through another round of development, as otherwise it'd be more or less unusable in the eyes of the army and marines.

The Merideth performed slightly better, but had its own problems.
While it could fire semi-automatic, and the weapon had no issues ejecting cases typically, it was prone to plain jamming at the second to last round. In part this was likely a defect of the spring in the magazine, but it was considered if the action itself might be the cause. It didn't explosively disassemble itself, and a issue with the spring in the magazine was ostensibly better than the weapon just not working, and as well, perhaps easier to fix. But the cause would eventually be ruled to be the action, requiring that they refine it and as well, they found the spring was part of the problem to - requiring that it be replaced with a better spring.

Both weapons would return to the testing range at the start of Winter, where Karrashi and Festria testers would start with testing the Bolter.

[VoxApocrypha]

Winter, 1933

 The Bolter had failed on the range, though it was not the worst of the two. 
They'd redesigned the bolt. But now, it was, simply - too weak. 
It didn't fire, after several rounds, creating a number of live rounds that had ot be carefully extracted from the gun after, and then were tossed into a 'dolt' pit, where a few went off harmlessly. It was a step back that had to be dealt with, but it was not a catastrophic failure. 

 No, the Merideth on the other hand, suffered its own catastrophic failure, when the bullet in the weapon exploded, taking the entire action out, blowing the wooden furniture off, and as well, injuring the operator. 

 In light of the event, the Merideth was shelved for the time being. 
The Bolter could be salvaged, but discussion of abandoning the Merideth came not long after the Operator was admitted to the hospital, and findings were made. As well, Tanus Arms would be notably humiliated by the event, however, they were kept on the project, a sort of last chance to prove themselves or they'd be cycled out for another company to give the contract to. 

 They'd keep at the Bolter, to which they had Tanus work on again, with the revised list of issues practically plastered on the wall for them in the workshop. 

[VoxApocrypha]

Winter, 1933

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Dice roll: 13

 The bolter was back again. 
The design had improved, and range testing had seen it actually overcome the issue of not being able to fire, and at worst would on occassion jam.
Accuracy wasn't amazing but it wasn't horrible either. They'd be told to tweak the weapon and to continue to test it to see if any other kinks needed to be ironed out, to which they'd find that the bolt could be hard to drag back, but not impossible, and that the ergonomics were not the best, but could be improved - to which they set out to handle that problem first. 

 Discussions as well arose regarding the role of such a weapon in the squad. While initially they had considered the weapon as a replacement for their current rifles in use with Festria and Karrashi, an idea circulated and made it to the table after some discussion.

Turn the Bolter into a man-portable anti-material weapon/ and instead create longer regular rifles with altered ergonomics to make operation easier.
A vote would be held, and while it would require additional funding, it passed with a majority, 18 out of 25. As such they communicated this to the Bolter design team, and as well, opted to completely shelve the Merideth project indefinitely. Instead, they'd have the team begin work on a regular rifle with Festria/Karrashi operators in mind, be that through modularity or designing them specifically for the purpose. 

[EpicToaster1]

RESEARCH STATUS

I believe this was addressed at the time the thread was written. So all research in this thread is completed.