Equipment...

[Laxian of Earth]

...i have woundered (after seing some stuff about how recon teams in Iraq are equipped):

why are SG-Teams this scantily equipped?

they have no way of taking down deathgliders (at least normaly) - when they (at least one team member should carry MANPADs (man portable air deffense systems - like the stinger missile) and amo for that

we don't see them carry grenades (in great numbers - sometimes they have them) - sometimes the have C4 - but that's it....

they do not use things like nightvision goggles or anything as advanced or other equippment a special team of the airforce should have...

they do normally not make use of sniperrifles (also we know at least o'neill is trained in using them as he does in the episode they meet the nox) or other heavier weaponry (that the MP5 - one of my favourite guns, still - does not cut it against aliens should have been apparent at least at the end of season 1!)

the team (SG-1) is a little on the small side, too (it should have at least two more persons imho - a demolitions expert and weapons specialist (sniper, heavy weapons type of person) or even three more (if you include a field medic))

they got a hold of a lot of technology on their voyages, but we almost never (exception: Zat) see some of that being turned into regular gear - or things developped from it (like giving sam a handdevice - we know she can use it. or making your own version of the personal shield the goa'uld use (the later of course after some time - should have been possible, even more after they had the ancient shield rodney in SGA depleted. they could have cut that to pieces in order to find out how it worked)

or that they didn't use the supperior manpower they could have had (like fighting a "real" battle with the jaffa (like in the season one final storming the mothership(s) with say 500 soldiers and be done with it....)

...sorry for rambling, i am basically looking for an explanation of the ABYSMAL gear the SGC uses and the fact that they seem so "understaffed"....i hope someone has a - logical! - answer (or at least an idea) of the "HOW" this came to be!

[thekillman]

the reason why? it's a team on EXPLORATION, not a team fighting a war. besides, i'm not sure of SG1, but in SGA, whenever something called for war, the P-90's were thrown aside and bigger gear came in. in SG1 season 1 finale, they had enough C-4 to blow up a ha'tak.


they're equipped for the task of exploration. nightvision goggles were used once, but conveniently it's always day.


and, besides, how believable is it, when your heavily-equipped team comes to a planet, says "howdy we come in peace" while holding a heavy machinegun and carrying a belt full of grenades?

[Laxian of Earth]

with the galaxy (as dangerous as it is in SG-1/SGA) like it is, sorry i would run around only with:

a) the best available technology/weapons (like giving sam a hand-device)
b) with as much of it (ammo/grenades etc.) as possible

and as for coming in peace and being armed: most civilisations being primitiv anyway, a bigger gun would not have been more "frightening" - as for the more advanced ones: as long as you don't fire first you should be fine (and as the saying goes: better save then sorry!)

as for SGA: yes, they had some stuff (once they did carry a rocketlauncher with them (wasting the rocket on a TREE unfortunately)) and used weapons not pea-shooters (a G36 is a lot better then a P90 imho - and it looks cooler, too - imho a P90 should only be carried but vehicle crews, not teams out in the open) but on most missions they, too were ill equipped imho...(like having no ZAT-Guns, also they are shown in one episode to work on wraith or other goa'uld based technology)

greetings LAX

[Sealurk]

Killman's right. Since SG-1 is aimed at exploration, they need to carry the minimum of gear - they're basically scouts and need to be mobile. I don't know about you, but if I was having to spend hours and hours walking around a planet (especially one that may have lower oxygen levels or higher gravity than Earth) I wouldn't want to be lugging a Stinger, heavy duty body armour and a large assault rifle with me. Combat is actually secondary for SG-1, so the MP5s and P90s make sense in this regard. Also, actors prefer them because they're light and don't get in the way!

Since one of their primary aims is to meet civilisations and gain allies, pitching up in full combat gear is somewhat counter-productive. The basic Air Force SG uniform (not Marine) seems to be a decent compromise: non-intimidating and approachable but still militarily useful.

Dedicated combat units like SG-3 are equipped more like you suggest - proper camo, heavy body armour, helmets, assault rifles and grenade launchers.

[asdf1239]

character shields are more than ample protection in most circumstances

[thekillman]

look if this was actual war, i wouldn't even CONSIDER going offworld without full body armor made of trinium and naquahdah alloys, equipped with a Mark I naquahdah generator and having either a goauld personal shield disassembled and integrated into the suit or having a human designed one.

i wouln't want any normal human weaponry either. i'd want a custom heavy coilgun which taps into my armor's power supply, and has laser aiming an an Intar attachement set to max, as well as a Zat attachement.

two pistols along with one zat pistol, a grenade belt, a tactical vest over my armored suit filled with C-4 and nades, and two shoulder-mounted Tac's for additional support. and then i'd want 7 similarly equiped soldiers.


no visor. a metal plate goes over my face made of bullet-proof and plasma proof alloys, has two projectors inside as a HUD, but only for convenience, since my mind would be plugged into my exoskeleton body via a galaran memory device, giving me a 6th sense, namely my sensors.


and if that sounds overkill, well it is, but in war there's no such thing as overkill.

[Laxian of Earth]

to right Killman - and yes it IS WAR...stargate SG-1 was at war at all times (Systemlords, then Anubis+remaining Systemlords, then Ba'al followed by a short period without any enemy and then "bang" the ori!), just in this war they were not in battle all the time.

yes the actors prefer them...doesn't make it right - and they had missions that were combat only and even in those they had those pea shooters

as for saying "exploration unit!" - maybe, but as a soldier i would still at least have a sniperrifle with me and at least 5 grenades per person, even more so as you always need to be ready for the worst, even more so in a time were every planet out there could be a goa'uld one - in that case i would rather carry a large gun (strapped to my back) around and don't need it, then having no big gun when running into trouble (how often a .50 cal or a sniper rifle could have helped the team...well very often! (i could rewatch SG-1 and count the situations ^^))

as for your suit, killman, if it is a full exoskeleton that does "help" it's user with small servos (that enhance strength, speed and such) then lugging around heavy weapons would not be a problem - even more: heat would not be a problem either (give it independent oxygen supply + a CO2 recycling unit and outside heat is not really troublesome....

exoskelleton is a good thought imho, i know that the US - amongst others - are already working on such a thing...that's why it bothers me that with all the advanced technology they never build something like that (or at least: they could have copied the Kull-Warrior-Armor...impervious to energy weapons...the jaffa (the ones still loyal to ba'al) would have run away in fear if SG-Units ran around in those and the ori priors...well they would have been able to throw the team members around, but still they would have been harder to take out then before

[colbmista]

id rather hhave a p90 then any other gun if i were a soldier

[stargater1990]

imo, i think that the SG1 and the other sg teams are well equiped enough. i mean tbh, a bullet fired from a p90 will kill a jaffa just as surely as one fired from .50 cal or sniper rifle. the main purpose of the sg teams are to get in, look around a little, possibly blow somethng up, and then get home. going in loaded to the bone with tonnes of equipment makes it seem like your looking for a fight when in fact they want to fight as little as possbile and are likewise armed. their main strategy when they run into enemy jaffa is to just lay down suppresive fire while their running back to the gate and a p90 does that very well at 900 rounds a minute. if they were loaded down with a bunch of extra weapons it would just slow them down. the sg teams are designed and armed to be fast, light scout units.

and even when they go through the gate knowing that their going to get into a fight i still think that going in with p90's and zats is still the best method because if we try to match force with force we'll lose almost every time, at least back then, because they almost always outnumber us by a LOT and also have air cover. i mean even if we were to bring an air defence system, how many missils could we really bring, like maybe 3 or 4 if that. they easily have at least a dozen gliders and most likely alkesh so thats not reallly gonna do us a whole lot of good. the best strategy is usually to get in, hurry to your objectives and then get out quick and being loaded down with supplies just makes that a whole lot harder to do imo.

[asdf1239]

the way the bad jaffas proficiency is portrayed in the show makes armor almost unnecessary imo. in that episode the other guys when carter and oneill beat multiple jaffa in a straight up fire fight i just shook my head in disgust and closed the browser window.

[thekillman]

the fastest retcon in stargate to date is in Children of the gods.

beginning of the episode: goauld take massive amounts of bullets
end of the episode: mowdown fest

[Crazy Tom]

Actually, all i would take to make a good exo-skeleton would be the Altairan android tehcnology and power cells. (Tinman.)

I'm not talking starship troopers, more like the exo-skeletons the US military is working on right now, frames that people get into and help them lug stuff around. These would be useful for extended recon.

For war through? Drones. Anubis' probe for example, now equip that with a better engine so it can zip around and wire it into some sort of remote control station. You have a highly mobile reconnaissance and combat platform, like in Mass effect, that you ca use to flank your enemies, draw them out of cover, keep tabs on them, or whatever.