[snip]
Dirty Dozen not Guns of Navarone.
MAYBE the Eagle Has Landed.
see, I tend to think of that as a more conventional light/medium infantry mission, rather than a true Commando operation. To MY thinking (warped as it is)
If using Powered Armor I'd go with at most an exoskeleton with some sort of stealth armor. Anything heavier would leave a bigger trace, plus each kg not used for the Spec Ops suits is another kg of mission gear (rechargers, explosives, surveillance equipment, maintenance equipment, food, etc).
So whatever sort of exoskeleton is used, it needs to be sneaky, fast (likely ground MP only), and preferably energy-armed to avoid the need for extra ammo.
The key problem is the battery life for Inner Sphere BA, 24 hrs IIRC. So they would need a recharge point within 12 hours of the target, and preferably closer than that. Or part of the mission gear could be an additional Power Pack, giving each Exoskeleton trooper another 10 hours of endurance.
The advantage of an exoskeleton trooper is that if they need to carry someone or something, it is much easier to carry using a 400 kg exoskeleton than by hand.
Of course, this has to be measured if a single 400 kg Exo-trooper carrying their own mission gear is a better idea than 2 normal troopers and their mission gear massing a total of 400 kg.
is probably closer to what you'd kit Commando units with, though I'd say the energy weapon thing...
I know someone said energy weapon so they did not have to carry ammo, but a energy weapon on BA still has to deal with 'ammo' since they do not have a means of generating power. I would, as a tactical constraint for the design, RATHER have non-energy ammo because then I have a hard read on my suit's power use rather than having to decided whether I am shooting or going to run the suit. Going '5 hours of suit power left' . . . then get into a heavy firefight and discover you have '2 hours of suit power left,' losing 2 hours to weapons use would mess with your plans.
fails to account for the fact there's no inbuilt power generation and the battery life really kinda stinks.
That said, to ME, a "Commando" operation is the one where the enemy realizes they're under attack because half the motor pool is on fire, the ready squad/CQ discovers half of Alpha Company are lying in bed with their throats cut, Bravo company discovers the armed claymores when they meet them coming out of the barracks, The battalion CP is also on fire, and the commander's jeep is missing along with all the pogie bait, but nobody's got time to look for it because whatever's not on fire has been rigged with explosives and more of your reaction team are bleeding out in the bathroom, than ready to respond.
You know, knife, silenced pistol, and timed explosives work, not rambo-with-an-M-60 work. So maybe a modular battery system or hotswappable powerpacks that don't weigh the earth, on a PAL suit with excellent camouflage, ecm, and steathing systems.
With HANDS so you can steal the commander's jeep for your getaway. Commando work is more inflicting psychological trauma on the enemy than practical destruction of assets-you want them stunned, shocked, alarmed and panicked because you hit them where they were 'safe' and did more damage than your weight would indicate, because the core of Commando ops, is that you're being a disgraceful, dishonorable, nasty dirty cheater. Things like having the HQ's latrines go
Kaboooooom and suchlike.
