Why are weapon layouts, different?

Question

Like in the U.S Military, with the M4, why do some soldiers have scope attachments and some have a grenade launcher attachment, while others have neither? Does it differ by rank or how does it work?

Answer 1

Each platoon and company has a breakdown of who is supposed to have what and it trickles down to squad level. When I was in the army infantry, a few years ago, each rifle squad had about 8 guys. The team leaders carried 203 grenade launchers to use for signaling as well as grenades. Then we usually had 2 saw gunners and the rest were regular riflemen with m-16's. Now, as far as scopes go. we all had the aimpoint day sight on our weapon and pac4 infared for night targets so we could put the red dot on and shoot if wearing night vision goggles. I was in the heavy weapons squad as well. It consisted of 2 teams with 4 men each. A team leader, an m240b machine gunner, an ammo bearer and an Assistant gunner. The ammo bearer and assis. gunner carried extra ammo and tri pod for the 240b and both carried m-16 or m4 , and the team leader carried an m-4 with day scope etc.

Answer 2

Some attachments are "required"- eg in a specific group of soldiers you may need some attachments depending on the expected task. It may mean several grenade launchers (eg for urban combat) or scopes (eg. if you're expecting long distance fight). Usually experienced soldiers make their own choices, provided the "sum total" for their squad is OK. Usually officers like a mix of long range and area weapons, simply because you cannot foresee all circumstances in a combat zone.

Answer 3

Cost effectiveness is the underlying reason. It lets one weapon have several configurations that serve different purposes without having several different complete weapons...make sense? hope this helps you.

Answer 4

Depends on their tasking within the squad and what they're trained to use.