RA-2D Heavy Barrel Combat Rifle
RA-2D HBCR
The RA-2D is the 4th iteration of the RA-2 Combat Rifle family of weapons, a thus-far privately-developed series of high-caliber bullpups produced by the New Carthage Armory (NCA) corporation, located on the Mechani Duna colony of New Carthage.
While the RA-2's base A model didn't sell well at all, the RA-2B and C models have seen popularity with private security forces and law enforcement groups, leading to them to approach the Mechani Ministry of Defense after the MoD put out a tender for a dedicated rifle to field to the nation's Space Marine corps personnel during offworld deployments- one with a higher emphasis on armor penetration and long-distance combat offworld over the existing R-XXX Series Rifles in service with most of the military and allied partners.
Thus, the 'D' variant was submitted for testing, and following MoD feedback was upgraded with a heavier barrel and reinforced receiver components prior to being adopted in 2089 as the RA-2D Heavy Barrel Combat Rifle, or HBCR.
Design
The RA-2D is a bullpup, select-fire firearm with a 19-inch barrel (standard) that feeds from box magazines fed into the weapon through its buttstock's magazine well.
The standard-issue model comes with safe, semi, and full-auto firing positions on the selector, but the Mechani Marines' produced rifles feature a high-cyclic-rate 3-round burst mode in place of auto, firing at an impressive 1100 RPM per burst in comparison to the standard auto mode's more subdued 750 RPM. This enables tight, precise shot groupings at long distance and rapid stopping power against single targets.
A robust internal recoil mitigation system is in place to help reduce per-shot recoil, and the weapon's size helps balance it out as a bullpup firearm.
The standard issue variant comes with an attached carrying handle scope that features a digital ammo counter as well as a 1.5-4x zoom optical sight that enables longer-distance shooting. This can be removed to access a monolithic upper attachment rail on the gun's receiver.
The rifle's core strength, however, is an advanced round it fires- much like the RAC Personal Defense Weapon before it, the RA-2D fires a special high-velocity penetrator round- the 9.4x39mm XR-HVP (eXperimental Round - High Velocity Penetrator) cartridge. This provides significant stopping power to the rifle while also maintaining favorable armor penetration and ballistics out to long range, even over more common full-power rifle rounds in service with Kerbin's militaries. However, it does have a high propellant load, so a sturdy rifle is needed to fire it- the RA-2D is one such rifle.
Service
The rifle is currently in service with Mechani Marines (primarily in offworld duties) as of 2089.