While the self-loading rifles were getting ready for initial field testing, the sideline project to bang out some Balzac Portative MgA857mk3* and Holl Medium Machine Gun MgA861mk2** conversions had some issues. Namely, that the Balzac Portative just does not like 6mm r/71. Meanwhile, the Holl adapted wonderfully and so the Marine Battalion that was going to be getting some eight hundred new rifles is just going to have to wait while the LMG crisis is solved. Because while the 500 Fung, 250 Rivkes and 250 Holl rifles are ready (with a total operational cost of just about ₢700 000 now just sitting in a warehouse) the brass are extremely reluctant to send a unit into the field that is running two different kinds of rifle ammunition alongside 12.7mm and specialty ammunition, especially when it involves machine guns.
So with the arsenal now panicking, the job to fix it has fallen to you and your team. The mission is simple, replace the Balzac Portative for the field tests, and quickly. Good thing you only need ninety of them (eighty one and some spares really.)
Gott's proposal is simple, an open bolt gun that has a quick-change barrel, and literally just runs, fires on full auto and is safe. Maybe it can support a Holl or Holborn tripod, and weighs like under 20kg with it's ammo load. He wonders if we could just shove a bipod and stock on a Holl MMG and call it a day, since that'd maybe be the cheapest option now.
Caine thinks this is all stupid, but is willing to jump at the chance to get something with more commonality with the Holl MMG or that can replace it, and so he wants a gun that'll feed from Holl belts, fit on Holl tripods, and is otherwise capable of acting as a light machine gun. Obviously open bolt and a quick change barrel mechanism is a necessity, and if we could get the bare gun under 12.5kg empty, that'd be great.
Wekiva doesn't even get what all the fuss is about and gripes while juggling a baby. A heavy barrel and quick change conversion of one of the guns in the competition would work just fine if it didn't shoot its own rifling out. It's not like feeding from belts or strips is particularly important anyway, since the rest of the world does just fine with magazine fed guns. She wonders if we couldn't just get some Frankengatsches or Montels in 6mm r/71 as an interim measure and call it a day?
Cayetano, while frustrated, sees an opportunity. He wants a lighter weapon, maybe all of ten kilograms dry, with a twenty or thirty round box magazine mounted up top like the Montel to make crew operations easier, but otherwise just a big dumb open bolt quick change barrel weapon. Commercial off the shelf is entirely acceptable, and like the Lázně-Brně vz.70 would be perfect.
The next thing to do is settle on what you want in a proposal from manufacturers, or a set of prototypes, and how quickly you want it. This will be vote by plan as it was in SACQ I.
