Weapon Type: General Purpose Rifle Manufacturer: Thomas Arms, Ltd. Operation: Single shot or burst Weight (w/o magazine): 3.0 kg Weight (11 0-round magazine): .5 kg Weight (20-round magazine): .8 kg Weight (30-round magazine): 1 kg Length: 98 cm Caliber: 5.5 mm Type of Fire: Selective: single shot or burst Rate of Fire: (cyclic) 500 rpm Magazine: 10-, 20-, or 30-round magazine Reload Time: 10 seconds Effective Ranges Full auto/single shot or burst: Short: 30/40 m Medium: 70/90 m Long: 140/165 m Weapon Reliability: 97% Base Cost: Cb 180 Reload Cost: (10-round magazine): Cb 2 (20-round magazine): Cb 4 (30-round magazine): Cb 6 Notes Thomas Arms has produced a general purpose rifle which is popular with civilians as home-defense and militia weapons but which has been purchased by several government agencies as a limited-distribution military weapon as well. Thomas Arms, based on Donegal in the Lyran Commonwealth, has a reputation for reliable and well-made firearms throughout the Inner Sphere. Their GPR, first released over two centuries ago in 2813, has had a hand in building and maintaining that reputation. Though a relatively small caliber (5.5 cm), the round has an extremely high muzzle velocity which gives it excellent penetration and stopping power. Numerous local planetary militias, especially in Steiner space, are armed almost exclusively with the Thomas GPR. Military units which have acquired at least small numbers of GPRs for special purposes include the Tharkad Regulars, infantry and security elements of Marik's 443rd Commando, and the Saurimat (Quick Death) Fedayeen of Shaul Kala. The GPR is reliable under adverse conditions and is easily disassembled and stored in an inconspicuous carrying case only 55 centimeters long. One interesting note about this weapon is that, while configured as a strictly semiautomatic or 4-round burst weapon, a simple modification requiring common tools and 5 minutes can convert the GPR to a fully selective, full-auto weapon. This conversion capability has made the weapon extremely popular on several planets where ownership of full-auto weapons is illegal for civilians. Assault Rifles Introduction Federated Long Rifle Federated Zeus Heavy Rifle Gallo Model 3003 "KRT AR" Bereiter Arms Model AR90 Thomas GPR Back to BattleTechnology 3 Table of Contents Back to BattleTechnology List of Issues Back to MagWeb Magazine List © Copyright 1988 by Pacific Rim Publishing. This article appears in MagWeb (Magazine Web) on the Internet World Wide Web. Other military history articles and gaming articles are available at http://www.magweb.com