So I'm trying to figure out what capabilities and time sink would be required for to reverse engineer some military lostech that isn't BattleMech related.
The scenario is this: The year is 3012 and you are a weapons manufacturing firm that largely builds military hover and infantry scale support weapons, and are looking to break into the infantry laser rifle market, but can't seem to get a license. Fortuitously you are approached by a man who knows of your situation, and just happened to have found a small cache of lostech. He offers 210 fresh from the packing crate Mauser 960 Assault Systems, along with 210 similarly pristine Star League infantry armor kits (essentially Comstar kits), for the purpose of reverse engineering and development of your own rifle.
What he wants in return is reasonable, so you accept, assuming you have the engineers in your employ or at the least you can hire them, what sort of time frame are you looking at to actually creating a set of schematics for the design, and then to streamline it to be a little less bulky?
My thoughts on the rifle is that the compact grenade launcher could be replaced by buying a license to one already known, while the detachable vibro-bayonet can be done away with entirely or also sourced. The important things to keep is the pulse burst, the power pack efficiency, and if possible the range.
My thoughts on the kits is that the armor is at least comparable to other kits available throughout the Inner Sphere, so it's construction might not be so arcane that it takes a lot to recreate it. The helmet is a clear step up with the electronics crammed into it, but most of that could actually be replicated with current tech using the same layout. The ultrasonic detector is really the key difference in comparison to comparable helmets, and would be the thing that you probably have to reverse engineer.
Anyway, if anyone has some thoughts, I'm trying to keep the effort within a believable effort and time frame.