Fighting Men. Rather, it is an evaluation of how important it is to keep operational difficulty down so the largest number of military men can use the weapon. Plus, the military tends to have the more intelligent and educated recruits be assigned to non-combat roles, where their high intelligence can be better applied, or else have them undergo Officer Training instead. So, the average gunner will tend to be... not significantly above average mentally, shall we say...
A. Every soldier has passed the ASVAB, or whatever test they are using now, so they are all midline to the high school grads, minimum.
B. You are seriously overestimating the importance of GI Joe/Jane needing to repair their weapon. Hell, if the trigger spring on an M-16/4 breaks, the operator is supposed to turn it in to the armorer. With a rail/coil gun, they may not even be allowed to do any maintenance.
Oh don't remind me of another plot hole which is bonesaw, that's just so ridiculous it's no even funny. Release diseases my ass, by what means, lol.
I would create the plagues, and put them just under my skin, in small bio bags designed to rot away in seconds if I died.
All of which is readily done by Bonesaw.
*Somewhere far, far away.*
"Hey, Bob. Remember that project, the Uplift program?"
"Of course, did you get a hit?"
"Yes, yes we did. Some very primitive species out on the rim. A juvenile of theirs broke the subspace coding and is beginning to improve their world."
"Remarkable. How long before we can make open contact?"
"Not soon, I'm afraid. Like I said, they're very primitive, and incredibly violent, even fighting among themselves."
"Really. That sounds bad."
"Yes. The council is insisting we only watch and monitor for now. I'm only telling you because there are some very strange subspace readings around the planet, and I need your expertise."
"Fascinating. Tell me more."
(The last bit of drivel is the fault of whomever mentioned subspace public TV being the first POC for an alien race.)
