New Army "Caliber Configuration Study"

[Tony Williams]

How do you expect it to be brought into action "when really needed" if it isn't with the patrolling unit???

You could use the same argument for any support weapons: Carl Gustav, ATGW, 60mm mortar, .50 cal Barrett, even MANPADS.....you never know when they might be needed (well, OK, you probably won't need MANPADS in most scenarios) but I presume that you can't carry all of them unless you're patrolling in something like company strength, which seems unlikely.

In the case of the MMG, I suspect that it might be a matter of "we're expecting to be attacked and recent attacks in this terrain have been from very long range, so we'd better assign an MMG to that patrol" but I defer to those of you with combat experience about how this works.