MA5 ICWS Series

The MA5 series is a family of standard-issue assault rifles issued across most branches of the UNSC, and later adopted by the security forces of the Phoenix Initiative. Built from a proven design, each member of the series came with an extensive electronics suite that improved the soldier's capability on the battlefield.

Electronics Suite
While militaries have been incorporating electronics into infantry weapons for hundreds of years, most of these electronics are discrete modular systems. Misriah Armory chose to go with an integrated unit. The forward housing of the Individual Combat Weapon System (ICWS) incorporates a ballistic computer, electronic scope with low-light filters, a bullet counter, and a smart-link compatible with the HINT-2 Battlenet. This electronics suite is powered either by a battery or a hydrogen fuel cell, depending on the environment that it is deployed into.

The ICWS electronic suite is meant to cover all mission profiles without modification. Modifying the suite to swap out the scope for a more powerful unit, for example, requires special training and armorer's tools. Even patching the software must be performed at the armory, a feature meant to prevent the spread of malware and badly programmed hacks through UNSC kit.

The MA5K uses a stripped-down housing with a simpler electronic scope that removes the vision enhancers. This shaves off over half a kilo of weight.

Ammunition
MA5 rifles are chambered for 6.5x52mm Unified cartridges, which had long replaced the older stockpiles of 5.56mm and 7.62mm rounds in UNSC service. Although it is on paper a middle-of-the-road cartridge, it was introduced at the same time that they transitioned to new electrothermal propellant mixtures, granting it overall superior performance to legacy ammunition.

The MA5 utilized Mark VI-pattern 32-round box magazines, though it may also be used as a light squad automatic weapon with the use of 40 and 60-round magazines. The B model's magazine well was capable of accepting both wide and thin magazines, especially of the 60 round kind, though this made magazine insertion tricky and maintenance troublesome, leading to the abandonment of this feature with the C model onwards. The standard cartridge is the M118 armor-piercing full-metal jacket (AP-FMJ), although M122 hollow-point is also frequently issued to avoid over-penetrating unarmored or lightly-armored combatants. More exotic ammunition, such as Shredder rounds, may also be issued.

The lower handgrip and flashlight of MA5 rifles can be replaced with a variety of attachments, with the M301 40mm grenade launcher being standard issue for UNSC Army grenadiers. The M301 can fire high explosive dual-purpose or flashbang grenades. Due to its compact setup, only one grenade may be loaded at once.

History
The ICWS, as a concept, hails from the Interplanetary War. Koslovic ideology about improving human capability through integrated technology was applied to warfighting. More sensors and more computers were built into Koslovic gear. Their guns, their armor, their drones, their vehicles freely shared information with one another. When this technological omniscience failed to perform on the battlefield the way it did on the proving grounds, the Koslovics doubled down. Rudimentary AIs were designed, and decision-making was increasingly offloaded to the computer.

Of the many experiments that the Koslovics tried, the ICWS was one of the few that would live on to fight other wars, albeit in a reduced form. Modern individual combat weapon systems are select-fire rifles with onboard sensors and smart-links that share information directly with the user's headgear.

The MA5 would go on to leverage some of these concepts for the UNSC while also attempting to replace older rifles in service such as the MA2 and MA3. The MA5 series would go on to have two direct successors: the MA6 assault rifle which was field tested in the late stages of the Human-Covenant war and the MA7 ICWS which would see proper production a decade after the war's conclusion.

MA5A / MA37
The MA5A, designated the MA37 in the UNSC Army, is the earliest model that was adopted by the UNSC, having entered service in 2437. It is substantially different from the rifles that would follow it, as it was not originally designed as an ICWS. Instead, the Army wanted a conventional service rifle that was cheap and fast to manufacture, reliable, and chambered for the then-new 6.5mm cartridge, and these stringent requirements gave the MA5A a simplified construction. It lacks integrated electronics including the distinctive LED screen, with a rail instead present to mount a wide variety of scopes. True smart-link functionality wasn't introduced until the introduction of compatible scopes in 2467, and then the modern computer module in 2490.

The relative modularity of the MA5A in comparison to other MA5 models helped keep it in production and in service with purchasers that lacked access to smart-scope technologies required by those other models.

MA5B
The MA5B was the first of the MA5 series to be made as a proper ICWS. As such it lacks traditional sighting options in favor of full smart-scope integration. It as well introduced other hallmark designs the MA5 would become known for such as the built-in ammo display. All of these integrated elements increased the weight of the weapon significantly in comparison to the MA5A.

Introduced in the 2480s for UNSC Marine Corps use, the MA5B gradually faded from Marine use after the introduction of the MA5C, but still was still retained for use as a squad automatic weapon in lieu of heavier, high capacity weapons used generally by the UNSC Army. The MA5B was in use with the UNSC Navy as late as 2566 as a legacy weapon system.

MA5C
The MA5C was an improvement over the MA5B in many ways including but not limited to weight reduction and a shortening of the gun's profile. Much of this was in response to feedback during the Insurrection. The MA5C would gradually phaseout the MA5B in Marine Corps service starting in 2525 and would see some usage in the UNSC Navy later on.

MA5K
The MA5K was a direct attempt to replace the legacy MA2B. Built off the MA5B platform, the MA5K forgoes much of the electronics the former but maintains the smart-link tech, thus keeping weight low while also leveraging ICWS tech. The MA5K is mostly seen with UNSC Special Forces such as SPARTAN-III operators.