Sup Jow Forums

There are a lot of ways to strap an M2 to something. A self-contained pod like the XM14 can put the gun and ammunition together, put a handle on it near the mid point and you are good to go.

First, let me just say that I am happy to see someone wanting to write a sci fi novel. It's always interesting to see what predictions authors try to imagine of the future to be. Now, with that said, let me be honest with you here: You should try to write a novel that revolves around either AI or remote or even both controlled drones considering that it seems to be the trend nowadays.

>You should try to write a novel that revolves around either AI or remote or even both controlled drones considering that it seems to be the trend nowadays.
Would a mercenary company even be allowed to mess with that?

your big problem is this
>y tho
Mercenary companies use armored vehicles and helicopters now. It isn't the 80's anymore but there is a whole industry of uparmored civilian vehicles and LAVs. Soviet era troop transports are a dime a dozen. Hell, you can get them shipped to the US.

Min maxxing your rules
>guy in uparmored TALOS or darpa exoskeleton has hard points for crew serviced weapon like a TOW missile, SAM, or recoilless rifle
>that guy is riding around in the bed of a technical 99% of the time

What would be a neat idea, work in your universe, and bridge the gap of believability for power armor would be to have them driving fast attack vehicles, even if the suits themselves were the weapon mounting points due to some "don't think about it" law about using armored vehicles in "security operations"

They could walk around if their vehicle is disabled, have small arms in addition to crew served style big boy weapons, and be 100% resistant to small arms fire but outside of the golden triangle at risk to heavy machine gun rounds belching out SLAP and have essentially no protection to explosives or rocket propelled grenades. Which would be the main kit for "power armor destroyer" squads.

The fast attack vehicle solves most of the main problems with power armor
>power armor=walking speed
>no ammo storage capacity whatsoever

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Have them 1:1 act as armored vehicles with the added utility of being a self moving heavy weapon emplacement on foot, deployed at the platoon or company level as direct infantry support for some hotshit technologically augment future soldier pmc's.

>creating an FOB or fortifying a position
>power armor guy with an M2 Browning and a fuckload of armor takes a knee
>pilot hops out
>dig that bitch in with sandbags and hesco

I'd say the idea of a direct assault on foot against infantry or hard targets would be a neat plotline for shit going fubar.
>vehicle disabled
>behind enemy lines and being encircled by a fuckload of SinoAfrican PRC supported terrorists
>fuck it. Drop the recoilless rifle or TOW they're trucking
>army of two that shit with secondary armament of a fuckload of aimbotting FLIR having dakka from onboard medium machine guns
>the big threat being the couple of niggas with RPG9s trying to one shot you

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Wouldn't see why not, drones are everywhere these days, and AI is only going to get more refined.

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Maybe the company could have it, but not the average guy on the ground.

let's go down the rabbit hole.
Let's say that these power armor are not going to be crazy efficient and have semi-practical future breakthroughs of energy tech and material (can't imagine bipedal design being good on the two joints).
So with the mindset that these power armored solders are going to be mini walking tanks, they'll probably be on the very front to take small arms punishment or as a way to break through on places OR their ability to carry a lot more stuff might also have them hang back and act as a weapons platform.

So probably LMG's and and lighter heavy weapons for the front units so they can move better but still shock and awe whatever they are hammering down, while HMG and heavier stuff go on the suits that hang back and provide heavier fire for support.
But in all honesty, if power armor become widely used in national militarizes, I am sure international law or whatever entities passing these dumb laws will begin encroaching on regulating power armor, "technicality" or loophole be damned.

Quadrotor drones that fit in a backpack are definitely cheap enough for the average Pvt. Shmuckatelli on the ground. Loitering munitions launched from grenade launchers, biomimetic recon drones, all of these are in development right now.
If you're going to write near future mil scifi, you should just extrapolate current ongoing projects to their logical conclusion. The massive focus on automation is going to hit warfare as much as it hit manufacturing, or transportation.

Unless powered armor carried weapons that violate some bullshit human rights clause I don't see how legal bullshit would be an issue. It's basically just an armor system that makes a soldier more effective at his job (carry a bigger gun, run longer without getting tired, eat lead from enemy soldiers without dying). I imagine it would be something fielded by developed nations which either their frontline soldiers or special forces use almost exclusively because it's expensive and you want to make sure the guys using it are skilled enough to use it to it's maximum ability. Other versions might be used more widely, but a full powered armor system is probably going to be limited to specialist functions like doorkicking or high profile target killing, or giving support to less well armed and armored units. It would be a platform you bring into spaces too tight and awkward for AFVs but where you still want to bring significant firepower to bear without spending minutes setting up a crewed weapon.

Problem 1 with powered armor is they'd have extremely limited battery capacity. I suggest you accurately portray this. Perhaps these guys bring small-ish unmanned ground vehicles with powerful generators as portable charging stations and general mule duty.

Problem 2 is that they really won't have all that much armor, and they'll have a lot of very weak points. Take the arm pit and inner upper arm for example: you simply can't put thick armor there, because then you'd be unable to move your arm much.

>Most of them just have tank periscopes or vision slits, not fancy HUDs showing where they're aiming, etc...
That's dumb. Vision slits should be there, but there's absolutely no reason they shouldn't have cameras mounted on their guns and small high-res monitors inside the helmet. Likewise, paying the enormous amount of money for a powered battlesuit and not including at least night vision would be massively retarded.

>My question is, what should be the weapons mounted to these guys?
Mounted: normal infantry rifles in highly modular clamp mounts. Carrying (not firing) mounts for mortars and grenade launchers on the back, for un-armored comrades to deploy and use. A trio of suits and a a couple of normal guys in a squad could lug a mortar, a few AT missiles and a bunch of smart mortar shells.

Problem 1 could be solved by PA guys riding on technicals and only going on foot for actual combat, kind of like modern dragoons
Probem 2 could be solved by using large shields,
i mean boolerproof shields are in use right now and with powered armor you could lift and carry much better one

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>However, due to international law, mercenary companies are not allowed armored vehicles.

wonder how that will be enforced as mercenaries are illegal as is and not entitled to PoW rights and may face firing squad legally as criminals if captured

>However, due to international law, mercenary companies are not allowed armored vehicles. Leading to most companies utilizing power armor as a legal loophole. ("Its not an armored vehicle, its just body armor! We swear!")

What about light vehicles and helicopters? What about armored cars which are allowed to be owned by civilians? What about uparmoring a car? What about armored technicals? Would PMCs be banned from using MRAPs because of this law? How about just welding some armor to a truck?

>I'm planning on having these armor suits be as primitive as possible; like not even having articulated fingers for hands, just armored shells with weapons sticking out of them. Most of them just have tank periscopes or vision slits, not fancy HUDs showing where they're aiming, etc...

Ok but why? We’ve had NVG before Vietnam, we currently have AI assisted exoskeletons, we’ve had M60 tanks which would much more advanced than this. For this exoskeleton idea to work in the first place, you’re gonna need sensors and AI to simply help keep balance and not rip the user’s arm off. You don’t have to go super advanced, but keeping within modernity please.

>My question is, what should be the weapons mounted to these guys?
What kind of power armor are we talking about here? 10kg? 25kg? 50kg? 100kg? 200kg? 500 kg? What sort of armor would it be equipped with? What are it’s balancing systems and and how does it distribute ground pressure? If super light you’d want mainly infantry weapons like AR-15s and whatever H&K or FN makes. HK21 would make sense if the power armor is mostly for loadbearing purposes.

If we’re talking something in the 100kg to 200kg weight class, you’ll want something heavier. Anywhere from a M240 or MG5 to something like he XM806 (supposed M2 replacement, half the weight) or Mk 47 Striker (more advanced Mk 18 grenade launcher).

Also this will depend on what they’re fighting. I’ll continue in the next post
(1/2)

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If these PMCs are fighting other PMCs they’ll likely be equipped with heavier weaponry such as a forementioned lightened .50 and grenade launcher. Heck even infantry could be equipped with a M32 grenade launchers for this sort of threat. Otherwise just equip higher caliber weapons to deal with threats.

If this is for fighting hajjis who still like to use RPGs and technicals, you’d probably want something lightweight both armor and gun wise. Air support is more feasible (I don’t think fighting PMCs would happily share the skies) and should be used as such. Hit and run tactics are the ideal way to fight a slow movin target, so power armor is at a disadvantage here.

>But what else should they have?
Fire suppression equipment, emergency power supply, load bearing system, comms, etc. Basicaly stuff that increase crew survivability and communication.

>And how many regular infantry should they deploy with to protect their flanks?
They would likely be deployed with a fire team, which would be roughly four to six guys. If the technology has improved by then, they would likely be given some form of power armor (most likely weight bearing).

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>scifi
That's why.

They need an automated in suit system to tend to necessary biological functions like urination and ejaculating.
You could step into the suit and dock crotch first
You need to keep morale up and build in functions to stave off boredom.

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>My question is, what should be the weapons mounted to these guys?
Intermediate caliber automatic rifle for killing unarmored targets, anti-material caliber semi-automatic for armored targets, grenade or rockets for 'oh shit' times.
>I kind of decided on the HK21 as the main "rifle" for the specific company the viewpoint character is in with possibly a Carl Gustav taking the "grenadier" role. But what else should they have?
Anything unarmored infantry needs to evade or kill unarmored and armored targets. Demolition charges, EWAR, drones, etc.
>And how many regular infantry should they deploy with to protect their flanks?
One platoon of standard infantry per squad of powered armor troops.

[spoiler]

international law does not matter if the US empire is not willing to enforce it.
S.O.F will be everywhere.

Drone use will increase to a MASSIVE degree. They will be everywhere. Bunker systems will become NEW again.
They will bristle with signal boosters and Xfers, Wifi range extenders.
Hidden wifi extension nodes. small clandestine solar panels attached powering the battlefield signal. Cities as seen in syria will be common place and their creation will spur outside investors who see $$$ cash opportunities to supply such scenarios.

Anti drone weapons will be prevalent. 22lr large capacity rifles will come into heavy use knock close air support drones from the dropping their single package payloads.[/spoiler]

Drones will absolutely play a massive role in warfare going further. The only question is what role will that be. There are only three things I can see possibly holding them back.

Some people are trying to get AI driven autonomous killing drones banned before it becomes a thing because of the implications on accountability: When a computer decides to kill the little kid down the street because his shirt bunched up in the wind and kind of looked like a gun or bomb, who do you blame? Do you imprison the drone? What about the technician who sent it out on patrol that morning? His CO? The base commander? The committee who approved that model for use? What about the CEO of the company that developed it? The ten man team that programmed it maybe? Point is that legislation MIGHT (probably won't) prohibit drones killing all on their own. This of course only applies to those who obey the law. Some know they won't get caught/prosecuted, others will justify it as necessary to survive and therefore worth the risk of one day being caught if it gets them through today.

Along with drones will come an increase in Electronic Warfare emphasis. If you can interrupt drones signals to prevent communication, you can force them to rely on AI and preprogrammed commands rather than getting a signal while deployed. This could mean surveillance drones having to return to the infantry to deliver video of what is going on a couple city blocks away. This would add a time element to information. You now know that there is a tank, an infantry platoon, or a sniper team over by that building. Or there was three minutes ago. You don't know where they are now. Also they might have seen the drone and followed it back to where you told it to meet you, regardless of whether or not you are there.

Another possibility against drones (unlikely but possible) is that automation kills wages more than it increases production of electronics. A $500 dollar drone is a small price to pay to save a soldier's life when the insurance payout is in the hundreds of thousands. If your troops only make a dollar a day and have no death benefits, it might be cheaper to just risk losing more men.

Keep in mind that there will always be someone willing to use an advantage when they see it, regardless of any implications. Even if your side doesn't use drones, or just doesn't use them to kill, the enemy might not have that reservation.

The ONLY thing these would be useful for is clearing buildings.

Due to the aforementioned battery issue, an APC (which your story and weight requirement doesn't allow) would carry them to a building, they would dismount, try to clear, and fall through the floor.

You are basically describing a sitting-duck turret, which would have to approach an objective on foot without stealth.

It would then be penetrated by anti-tank rifles, and that would be that.

In short, these things aren't viable for anything but guard duty, in which case you want to give them a browning or Kord with sophisticated optics and target detection.

This guy has a brain:

>Anti drone weapons will be prevalent. 22lr large capacity rifles will come into heavy use knock close air support drones from the dropping their single package payloads.[/spoiler]
I agree with you on antidrone weapons being important, but why not just use 5.56 rather than 22lr? I get that you can carry a greater quantity of ammunition, but a lot of it would be very fast, no time to switch weapons and break out specialty gear. Maybe 22lr miniguns mounted on vehicles along with radar as a miniature CIWS, but for infantry? They need antidrone functionality on their primary weapon. I would expect some kind of anti-aircraft like sights on rifles and possibly more usage of underbarrel single shot shotguns for this kind of thing.

>22lr miniguns mounted on vehicles

Or this. thefirearmblog.com/blog/2017/03/07/potd-american-180/

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Then why come to Jow Forums for advice. If you want hard sci-fi listen to us. Otherwisr go to /tg/

>and fall through the floor.
Which country has building codes that would allow this to happen?

I dont think a crane would be entirely necessary, but adjustable suspension and some kinda minimal loading gate retrtofit would be. If these power armor suits cant bare minimum climb in and out of the back of a lowered pickup, theyre just slightly mobile hardpoints like
said

Think of PA as not a man sized tank, but rather as a mobile foxhole.
Weapons will be GPMGs, HMGs, 60mm mortars, beltfed grenade launchers.

Usage is as an infantry assault tank would be in urban combat, tin-can walks point, opens up holes in buildings, and covers your escape route

This kills the powered armor.

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Sure, but the big ugly fat fellow never travels alone, and nor does he just wander across open terrain.

>and nor does he just wander across open terrain.

How does he get to his objective then?

>The ONLY thing these would be useful for is clearing buildings.
That and EoD/combat engineering of certain kinds.

Sure, but if they can't use a drone, it's the same story as today's EOD - hands are still going to get blown off, but definitely better protection from small arms fire.

There was a stupid situation in one of the urban battles in Iraq - the US literally built a war around the city (turned out to be a good tactic), but engineers had to unhook wall segments in the open. This would be tremendously useful there.

However, OP has a retarded "no vehicles" requirement, so all of those goes out the window.

>How does he get to his objective then?
If crossing said open terrain were the only option, the PA would fill the role of mobile fire support, via mortars, grenade launchers, and HMGs, while the infantry advances, closes with, and destroys the defending forces, thus allowing the PA units to advance in safety.

Rinse and repeat.

>I'm writing a sci-fi novel
Stopped right there.

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Hard kill anti-missile systems are spreading out now. In thirty years I wouldn't trust any RPG to hit a protected target.

>Battery capacity

It's a thousand kilogram machine. Why the hell would it be electric only?

Yeah, you're probably right on the EOD.

A load bearing/strength enhancing suit would probably do everything better than a full hard shell armored suit except for anti-terrorist room clearing shit. I bet a fireman would get a lot of mileage out of an exoskeleton with air and power umbilicals.

>However, OP has a retarded "no vehicles" requirement
Bothers me too. I'd much rather prefer a realistic/pragmatic near-future take on mercenary warfare.

>Hitting a man size target at a decent distance with an RPG
The fact that they need an RPG to take out out a power armored suit already speaks volumes. You'd have a man sized target hauling around a traditionally crew served weapon on a high mobility platform. Shit would be quite the force multiplier.

>Why the hell would it be electric only?
For low weight.
6 hours of useful battery life is all you need, if hot spares can be utilized

Forever War focused more on the disconnect of veterans returning home and space combat than it did the power armor

Pretty much this. The suits were neat, but weren't the focus of the story. The only details of the suit that were directly stated were for plot points and foreshadowing.

power sources for the armor?
tonnage?
neuro linked?
what kind of base tactics are these used for? they obviously arent made for silent insertion.
what kind of shielding do they have? could you microwave blast or EMP it?
these things would create a new IED Renaissance, with C4 and thermite covered drones going full on kamikaze runs against the Elemental suits. I name them elementals like the filthy dumb Clanner scum with their mobile suits on the genetically engineered giants.

do they have jump jets?
a big OshKosh or a F650 with a flatbed and a leveling system to keep the truck level and stable is what would be needed. just have a ultra heavy duty flatbed made from some very thick plate, airbags and diesel powered hydraulics. even a flatbed wrecker towtruck would be fine.
my brother has sold over 1400 drones to soldiers at bases through his online store, in the last year. thats the complete take out of the box, charge it up, then go flying around drones. his hardcore build it yourself with a soldering iron and multimeter section has had 150 sales just in January. there are mounts for that SiOnyx Aurora out now too. the DJI Spark is pretty damn good too for a cheapo consumer model, you can carry that in a cargo pants pocket.

soldiers are using these in maneuvers with the lights ripped out to get the drop on the other guys.

Kilo for kilo batteries are a terrible way to store energy. A fuel cell provides an order of magnitude better storage.

Is Anne Frank going to be pregnant?

>OP has a retarded "no vehicles" requirement,
OP has a "no armored vehicles" requirement, not a "no vehicles" requirement. Meaning GP vehicles would still be usable.

So some light criticism/suggestions:

30-50 years is a bit too soon to realistically have Halo/Fallout Power armor. Exoskeletons with partial NIJ III/IV armor and good fragmentation protection would IMO be the most reasonable thing to exist.

A prohibition on Mercs operating armored vehicles is alright but it doesn't prevent tin pot dictators from running roughshod over them with hundred year old T-55s. The mercs either need to operate in enviroments where armor is uncommon or they have indigenous armor support.

Why would someone pay money for mercs with power armor instead of the other cheaper options? Give them a specialty, a reputation, and make it well deserved.

As far as weapons go I'd suggest getting away from the HK21, that's already a man portable weapon. Why do you need power armor to lug that around? Replace it with pic related, the .338 Norma LWMMG which is closer to the M2 Browning than the M240.

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Ok Jager, show me your man portable APS

5.56mm M855A1 can penetrate 10mm of RHA (3/8 of an inch) at 100m. If you're looking for protection from 7.62mm AP you realistically need 20mm+ of RHA equivalent.

Mk 47 has insane recoil, definitely enough to knock over a power armored operator if he fired it standing unsupported. That being said it'd be an interesting weapon to have.

Soft kill is much more reasonable, all you need are some sensors, a laser dazzler, and some radio jammers.

Continuing from The single largest advantage the power armor would have over a regular infantryman would be the sensors and fire control systems they'd be able to carry. When there's power and a way to carry the load available you can toss on ALL sorts of nifty gadgets.

Now here's the single most glaring issue with power armor in a realistic setting: anti-tank rifles. Now AT rifles can't kill tanks anymore but 20mm APDS can penetrate more armor than a human can reasonably wear.

Hello OP. I've also been thinking about this sort of thing recently and building it into my own universe thing. My universe occurs somewhere around 50-200 years after our current one.

>("Its not an armored vehicle, its just body armor! We swear!")

That's a cute way of handling it. I really like that.

In my universe, the powered armor is used in a combined-arms unit alongside mechanized infantry, tanks, and a fleet of drones (both flying and walking).

>I'm planning on having these armor suits be as primitive as possible; like not even having articulated fingers for hands, just armored shells with weapons sticking out of them. Most of them just have tank periscopes or vision slits, not fancy HUDs showing where they're aiming, etc...

I think this is great.

>My question is, what should be the weapons mounted to these guys? I kind of decided on the HK21 as the main "rifle" for the specific company the viewpoint character is in with possibly a Carl Gustav taking the "grenadier" role.

Well, in my universe, I gave each 'armored infantryman' the equivalent of a 25mm cannon, which is mounted on their suit and comes down over their shoulder. In addition to this, they also have a rifle-like weapon they carry in their hands which is sort of like a 7.62 machinegun that fires target-seeking projectiles. These weapons can be changed out with a selection of other things, but this is the standard variant.

>But what else should they have?

Just think about the toys that regular infantry and tanks have today, and extrapolate to some mid-point, like systems that alert them to being looked at by enemy optics/lased, with automatic countermeasure systems, or even active defense. A lot of this stuff seems exotic but is actually really simple and has existed in one form or another for like 50 years already.

(cont)

If you want something that weight, you’re gonna need to account for ground pressure and balance, which essentially means sensors, AI, and relatively wide feet.

(cont)

>And how many regular infantry should they deploy with to protect their flanks?

In my universe you either put a few armored infantry into a regular infantry unit, or you have units that are either all-armored or all-regular. Typically you start mixing the armored infantry into the regular units when you're in dense terrain like a city or a forest so that you 'harden' the regular infantry units a little and give them some extreme short-range punch. In more open terrain you would tend to keep them separated into different units and use the armored infantry (along with your tanks) to create breaches while the regular infantry holds ground and follows behind the armored forces through the breach.

Mercenaries are illegal to begin with. By PMCs are legal considered not mercenaries.

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>I'm thinking 1 1/2 to 2 tons. Something the size of Fallout's power armor in that it is close to man-sized.
With that level of weight you're going full space marine. Fallout power armor was very lightweight, partially due to the composite material complex most of them were made of.

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>The premise is that everything that Peter Zeihan predicted came true: the US became isolationist again, wars start popping up everywhere, etc...
I fucking wish Trump was everything Zeihan had feared, slamming the border shut, shooting Democrats on shot, having John McCain shot for treason, having the kiebler elf whipped for being old, expelling all muslims and leaving the middle east high and dry
>I'm planning on having these armor suits be as primitive as possible; like not even having articulated fingers for hands, just armored shells with weapons sticking out of them. Most of them just have tank periscopes or vision slits, not fancy HUDs showing where they're aiming, etc...
Cameras and FCS systems are so passe now even Iran can produce something passable, that said, and egg shaped container unit for the squishy human thats just a near solid chunk of advanced poly carbitides with protection comparable to better IFVs isnt a bad start.

But it WILL have a "HUD" and fire control system, no matter how much of a pursit nonsensical retor videogame theme you want.

As for weapons. You want a
generalist anti infantry round, so 6.5 Grendel is enough and not not too much to take care of all your needs for a lead thrower,

on top of that,
2x40mm grenade launchers 1 for blowing things up and one for specialist rounds,

a Metal Storm 2 tube racks of 80mm mortars, 4 of them per tube

and for another option, a cheap guided missile with at least a kilometer of range and more punch then your 40 mm

Something like this particular American SPIKE.

Those are some cheapo options

for something better try guided .50 BMG bullets for your standard rifle, 40mm timed explosives that can blow up on command over cover or after going through windows, and some 40mm Pike Missiles from Raytheon, a miniature drone for target spotting, and a Javelin derived missile on a rack of six for a guided heavy hitter

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Its probably most practical as a method of bringing a small arms and light explosives resistant package that containes IFV fire power. So some dude in an 8ft tall suit in a eggshell with a GPMG and a 40mm grenade launcher. Said Grenade launcher can also fire Pike missiles for some short range guided fire power

raytheon.com/capabilities/products/pike

All while able to climb straight up a mountain, weighing less than an IFV and being significantly less stressful to fuel

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The powered armor has better rockets, and they are guided, and is using guided bullets of .50BMG caliber.

Your point blank ambush is the only chance. Better hope you don't just get blapped right off the bat like countless RPG ambushers get
Ever played Planetside 2 before the devs gave up? The MAX units just hopped onto the closest things to technicals that was available. So....drone piloted HUMVEEs.

Yep. But its always the same story with these people, getting mad with wild, outdated claims of replacing tanks. No, thats not the case or goal of Powered Armor and Mini Mechs.

>So....drone piloted HUMVEEs.
I love it.
Dronemobile, with four outboard riding slots for the tin cans.

Likely chassis for that is not a HMMWV, but a stripped down Mowag Piranha with a monster of an engine and transmission in it.

How do tanks do it? How do combined arms even exist? You think like a sand nigger and that's why you fail

>How do combined arms even exist?
Much of Defense Autism arises from this lack of understanding.

Wouldn't bunkers also bristle with ECM and small laser weapons?

Nah, probably just two slots for the 8 foot tall however wide tallbois, but it'd be enough. Two carry slots, and spare batteries, with the PAMechs running off of two batteries, so that they can be switched one at a time without cutting off power or anything. Have the dronemobiles running there engines for recharges until batteries are at 80% and then relying on passive solar recharge if the suns out.
>monster of an engine and transmission in it.
Nah, it wouldn't need much. It just be a flatbed with some batteries and ammo. 300 hp, some fuel, and 4x4 and thats good enough. It doesn't even properly need armor, since humans wouldn't drive it. Just guide it around with instructional paths and destinations. It'd be more than enough to cart something around a battlefield

>Wouldn't bunkers also bristle with ECM and small laser weapons?
Yes, which is why the ability to move heavy mortars and automatic grenade launchers around a battlefield becomes a tactical advantage

most of the ones fighting happens in

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>It doesn't even properly need armor
Certainly not.

Dude, this whole concept plays into old school South African High Mobility warfare tactics, a few wheeled APCs for the fleshbags, and some wheeled APFSDS gun and ATGM carriers like the Rooikat, and this shit would be the long range rape parade

>However, due to international law,
Enforced by whom? If the US has effectively fucked off from the international scene there's no one that can jackshit about international laws anymore. The Chinese aren't going to pick up the paragon slack and do anything other than, probably, striking down those useless treaties.
Mechanized body armor CANNOT even fill the role of armored vehicles, most of which aren't used for direct combat anyway.

In any case, unless you handwave some 'magic' technology into the setting, you cannot have realistic power-armor. It can't be autistically realistic, because when you get to that point any autist will start picking it apart at the untouched seams. The sword-vs-shield dichotomy of science hasn't been weighted on the shield size since gunpowder became a thing. Having power-armor trudging about the battlefield is only offering HVTs to your enemies on a platter. No nation would want such mercenaries on their side, since it would be prohibitively expensive to employ. Unless, again, you can handwave super-tough-armor into the story, any fucking bloke with a big single-shot rifle will be happy to sacrifice their sorry asses to take down a single power-armor bloke (which is forced to go around with early-WWII-tier armor thickness because it's not goddamn magic).

Robots are fair game, however, since they don't have to protects all that mushy human interior. Go wild.

Is on point.

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>5.56mm M855A1 can penetrate 10mm of RHA (3/8 of an inch) at 100m. If you're looking for protection from 7.62mm AP you realistically need 20mm+ of RHA equivalent.
Just imagine if we had advanced Polyethylene materials that crapped all over RHA for strength compared to volume and mass

Oh wait we do
>Mechanized body armor CANNOT even fill the role of armored vehicles,
Dumbass
>most of which aren't used for direct combat anyway.
Double dumbass.

The point of these things is bringing crewed served weapons without bringing the platforms. It doesn't replace an IFV. Its never supposed to. All it does it bring heavy crewed served weapons along with infantry. At most, the thing will weigh as much as a car. It will likely weigh less.

If batteries aren't good enough for you, then a 50hp, yes FIFTY, will be more than enough to move 500lbs to 1200lbs at approximately 12mph. And thats enough to run a mile in 5 minutes.

unitjuggler.com/convert-speed-from-minmile-to-mph.html?val=5

And for flattish terrain, it could have Code Geass style skates, but smaller and less batshit insane

>If batteries aren't good enough for you, then a 50hp, yes FIFTY, will be more than enough to move 500lbs to 1200lbs at approximately 12mph
The sound of thundering footsteps, a screaming four cylinder two-stroke, and the thud of a beltfed 14.5x114.
My penis can only get so erect.

We don't need to defeat ATGMs or autocannons.
We just need to shake off .50BMG.

Here's a weird idea i had come up with that now i can post somewhere, although this would require articulated fingers and something a little more high tech, make one of the mech have a OG break action style 50 or 30mm cannon with APFSDS ammo and the sort and maybe give it a huge muzzlebreak just for dramatic and have it have a ammo backpack or something effect (can send picks)

Easier to build a chaingun, and if electric power is too scarce to spare, a gas engine drive would be just as effective, and twice as glorious

Yeah, but i still like the idea of a simple yet powerful break action rifle (single shot) to take down IFV's or something and just the idea of the mech breaking open this huge rifle slotting in a 2ish foot long shell in it and blowing a whole straight through another mech, and this was supposed to be the primitive ones the hardcore military ones were gonna have like GAU's and vulcans

>Your point blank ambush is the only chance

Those are called door operated IEDs, user.

If it's the future, a lot more stuff will be guided. Power armor probably can't handle a hard-kill APS, but it could have a jammer or smoke/chaff dispenser.

Attached: 40mm Pike missile.jpg (620x414, 36K)

>oh no, robots are super common on battlefields but they can't do everything so we still need human mechanics, intel analysts, commanders, and special forces on site

Well, unless they're going to stay cooped up inside a APC that even an insurgents crappy open source image captchas can target, it might be helpful to give them what armor you can so they don't die to random shrapnel...

If all else fails, just hook up a Hayabusa motor to a sufficient electric motor
Take level 4 uhmw body armor, make an eggshell shell of it about 6 inches thick and big enough for a 5'10 King of Manlets to wave his limbs around in, and that would be enough

You said you wanted the armor to weigh two tons but that sounds way to heavy to me. At that weight they wouldn't be allowed to operate in most interiors of buildings as they would fall through the ground. I think you might want something a little lighter, and for that I would recommend you checking out the manga Red Eye. Pic not related.

Also, ignore the morons droning on (pun intended) about >muh drones. In a built up urban environment drones aren't going to be nearly as useful as they imagine them to be. Plus, electronic counter measures will easily shut down all low flying drones, leaving only the high flying surveillance kind like what we have already been using. Still useful, but certainly not revolutionary.

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>make one of the mech have a OG break action style 50 or 30mm cannon with APFSDS ammo and the sort and maybe give it a huge muzzlebreak just for dramatic and have it have a ammo backpack or something effect (can send picks)
And now you are getting retarded
>Those are called door operated IEDs, user
Still more survivable in an amored shell than not

I agree, 2 tons, 4,000lbs is far too heavy and is unnecessary

How about a less retarded PTRD-41style rifle 14.5 caliber, i assume that would be a heavy weapon tier gun for the "mechs"

Why do they need to ejaculate within the suit? And where does it go? Is it used for a mechanized war penis to impregnate enemy female mech pilots, or does the pilot have sex with the suit itself and make a horrific cyborg bastard baby?

>Implying that these goatfuckers have the technology and/or the intelligence to attack drones using EMP and/or signal jamming devices.
Imagine actually believing all of this.

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I like your premise, and I can definitely see a running background story regarding the "legal loophole" of mechanized armor vs. mechanized transport.

The main issue I currently see is:

>set around 30-50 years from now
>armor suits be as primitive as possible; like not even having articulated fingers for hands, just armored shells with weapons sticking out of them. Most of them just have tank periscopes or vision slits, not fancy HUDs showing where they're aiming, etc...

While the idea of homebrew mechs is on-track for down-n-dirty mercenary groups, the issue is that the two plot devices above contradict each other.

If the story is set 30-50 years from now, it will take place from 2049-2079. The problem is, we've already achieved motorized articulated fingers/hands/limbs, along with fancy HUD's with extremely comprehensive combat intelligence software suites. Small, private civilian companies are turning out ever-improving cybernetics/bionics, and companies like DJI & GoPro have target tracking software that is bordering on Orwellian. No to even mention whatever unholy stuff FaceBook & Google have created.

My long-winded point is, in 30-50 years, that kind of combat technology will be readily available to any private military entity. I would recommend either pulling the setting backwards into current era (2020-2025), or creating an alternate timeline loosely based on our present one.

Conversely, you could create a sub-plot within your story about an EMP attack that sends all these new fancy iron-man mechs back to the stone age, and mercenaries are force to buy/make "old tech" mechs to avoid rampant EMP attacks.

Best of luck authornon. I always love a good mech book.

Starting to sound like a segway+ for power armor.

PMCs are mercenaries under the law

>I'm writing a sci-fi novel set around 30-50 years from now about powered armored mercenaries and I need your expertise.
You are writing soft sci-fi so it doesn't matter.
If you are writing hard scifi, then first and foremost become more logical and then google "Waldo (short story)" and "telerobotics" and "teleoperation".

thats what is going to be what moves power armor in the future.