MA6 assault rifle

The MA6 assault rifle was a Misriah Armory built assault rifle designed to supplement MA5 ICWS Series rifles in service with the UNSC. The MA6 failed to progress beyond field tests in 2551.

Overall, the MA6 was an unreliable weapon that failed to even bring to fruition its envisioned innovation. All the while taking up valuable factory space.

History
Late Human-Covenant War shortages and the success of the caseless rounds for the M7 SMG would prompt Misriah Armory to reexamine its own production lines. Two conclusions were drawn: the electronics in the MA5 were taking up a large number of materials that were getting ever harder to acquire; and the shells themselves were taking up the metal that could be used for other things, such as more bullets. Believing they could scale up the caseless techniques to a 6.5mm AR round and strip out a majority of the electronics, could create a rifle that used up fewer resources and would, in turn, weigh less.

This was a promising concept for an equally resource-strapped UNSC which was now raising draftee and militia forces en masse to counter a perceived new wave of ground campaigns thanks to the deployment of super-Magnetic accelerator cannon Orbital defense platforms. Since these new forces would not be able to receive the armors needed to integrate with ICWS rifles, a rifle with a vast suite of smart-linking features wouldn't be needed. On top of that, leaving out these complex systems would make rifle training far simpler and would allow troops to train quicker.

Unfortunately, Misriah could not get the caseless ammunition to work on time, forcing the MA6 to go back to traditional 6.5mm. The quick return to cased ammo late in rifle production created reliability issues in the ejection system of the gun. As well, the switch to full MA6 production would take time that appeared to be quickly slipping away as the Covenant was getting closer to Sol. The only factory producing MA6 rifles was destroyed when Reach fell in 2552.

Misriah would eventually get caseless 6.5mm to work nearly a decade later and its claimed benefits would end up proving mostly true in the MA7 ICWS Series.