AS50

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The AS50 is a .50 BMG sniper/anti-materiel rifle. It enables operators to engage targets at very long range (up to 1500 m) with high accuracy. This weapon is prized highly for being transportable, ergonomic and lightweight. It can be disassembled in less than three minutes and serviced without tools. Armoury Description

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AS50 12.7 mm
Faction	British Army ION
Type	Anti-Materiel Sniper Rifle
Calibre	12.7×99 mm NATO
Magazine capacity	5 / 10
Dispersion	0.00018 rad
Occupies backpack slot	No
Variants	None
Games

The AS50 is a 12.7 mm anti-materiel sniper rifle used by both British Army snipers and ION PMCs in ArmA 2. It was added with the release of the British Armed Forces DLC.

Overview

This is a premium asset that requires ownership of the British Armed Forces DLC.

The AS50 is a semi-automatic, gas operated anti-materiel rifle chambered to fire the 12.7×99 mm NATO round.

It primarily feeds from 5-round box magazines designed specifically for the AS50, but can also be loaded with the same 10-rounders used by the American M107.

It can attain a fire rate of up to 240 rounds per minute and has a muzzle velocity of 936 m/s. The AS50 has an integrated (non-functional) bipod attached just beneath the barrel and is fitted with either a regular magnified riflescope (that has a magnification strength range of 3x-12x) or a thermal scope. It can be zeroed up to a distance of 1,600 metres.

The AS50 is essentially the British Army's counterpart to the M107 sniper rifle used by U.S. forces. Compared to the M107, the AS50 has a higher muzzle velocity that lets its 12.7 mm rounds retain their energy better over long distances. In addition, the AS50 does not block the user's backpack/launcher slot, allowing them to carry a bag or shoulder-fired weapon simultaneously.

As with the M107, the AS50's 12.7 mm round is extremely powerful and allows the operator to kill any infantry target in one shot regardless of where the round impacts. Likewise, unarmoured and light vehicles can be quickly disabled with a few rounds to the engine.

Its only drawback is that it uses 5-round magazines as opposed to the M107's 10-round boxes. However, the AS50 is capable of loading both types of magazines, which can negate the issue with it having a smaller magazine size (assuming that M107 magazines can be readily obtained).

Optics

• Sniper Scope (AS50)
• Thermal Scope (AS50 TWS)

The AS50's sniper scope can be zeroed from a minimum of 100 metres up to a maximum of 1,600 metres (100, 200, 300, 400, 500, 600, 700, 800, 1000, 1200, 1400, 1600). By default, it is set to a zeroing of 300 metres. It should be noted that adjustments beyond 800 metres are made with increments of 200 metres rather than 100 metres.

The scope itself uses a mil-dot reticle which can be used to estimate a target's range. Once the target's distance has been ascertained, adjust the AS50's zeroing to the required range setting and then point the centre of the crosshairs onto the target.

The AS50's thermal scope can be zeroed from a minimum of 100 metres up to a maximum of 1,600 metres (100, 200, 300, 400, 500, 600, 700, 800, 1000, 1200, 1400, 1600). By default, it is set to a zeroing of 300 metres.

It should be noted that adjustments beyond 800 metres are made with increments of 200 metres rather than 100 metres.

Camouflage

• Scope
• TWS

1/2

• Black: Standard black finish. Used by both British Army snipers and ION mercenaries.

Ammunition

Round name	Base damage value	Aerodynamic friction	Initial velocity (m/s)
12.7×99 mm NATO	56	-0.00068	936
.50 BMG	26	-0.00068	850

The AS50 can be fed with two types of magazines. It only requires one free inventory slot to carry:

5Rnd. 12.7x99 mm NATO

Standard box magazine with five 12.7 mm rounds.

Does not contain any visible tracers.

10Rnd. M107

Alternate magazine shared with the M107. It is loaded with .50 BMG rounds which are fired with a lesser velocity of 850 m/s instead.

Trivia

In reality, the British military does not utilise the AS50 and uses the "AW50" and "M82A1" sniper rifles instead (designated as the "L121A1" and "L135A1 LRPAS" respectively). The AS50 was initially included as part of the BAF DLC, but was also added later on as part of the Private Military Company DLC as well. The BAF DLC is not required (nor vice versa) as each DLC's campaign and scenarios use their own standalone versions of the AS50. At BAF's launch, AI units armed with the AS50 were unable to utilise the weapon at their maximum range properly. This is because the AS50's engagement ranges restricted the AI to only firing the weapon if targets were within 600 metres or less range of the sniper. AI snipers would also fire all five rounds of their magazine in quick succession due to the weapon having a hidden fully automatic firemode (accessible only to the AI). Both issues effectively made AS50-armed AI units completely useless in regular gameplay. The former range issue was fixed after Patch 1.02 while the latter would be corrected after Patch 1.03's release. The AS50 is unique for being one of the few "large" weapons that do not obstruct the user's backpack/launcher slot. Following the release of the latest Steam version patches (as part of the Community Configuration Project), four "large" variants of both the BAF and PMC AS50s were added into the game that do block the slot. These variants are hidden by default, but they can be spawned in using scripting commands or added to crates with a custom addon. For unknown reasons, the AS50's dedicated 5-round magazine fires 12.7 mm ammunition that specifically deals slightly more than double the damage of the M107's .50 BMG rounds (56 versus the latter's 26). This absurdly high damage output can be observed if the player fires several rounds into the control tower at any airport. A single magazines' worth of rounds is sufficient to damage the building to half "health". Emptying a second magazine into the building will completely level any destructible parts of the structure. To address this discrepancy, CorePatch added a new magazine that specifically loads the same tracerless .50 BMG ammunition used by the M107's 10-rounder magazines (Classname: 5Rnd_127x99_as50_CP). However, this magazine isn't actually available in any British or PMC supply crates by default, making it unusable without scripting commands or a custom addon. Likewise, none of the official campaign missions that feature the AS50 in either Operation Crimson Lance or Operation Black Gauntlet have the magazine available.

Gallery

Brian Frost with the AS50.

External links

• Wikipedia: Accuracy International AS50

See also

Weapons of comparable role and configuration

• M107 (USMC/U.S. Army counterpart)
• KSVK (Russian Armed Forces/Takistani Army counterpart)
• GM6 Lynx (CSAT/AAF counterpart, ArmA 3 only)

British Army - Armoury (ArmA 2)
Handguns	M1911 .45
Assault rifles	L85A2 5.56 mm (L85A2 UGL)
Designated marksman rifles	L86A2 LSW 5.56 mm
Sniper rifles	AS50 12.7 mm • LRR .338
Squad automatic weapons	L110A1 5.56 mm
Machineguns	L7A2 GPMG 7.62 mm
Launchers	FGM-148 Javelin • FIM-92F Stinger • NLAW
Static	L111A1 • L134A1
(Parenthesis) denote variants. British Armed Forces

ION Services - Armoury (ArmA 2)
Handguns	G17 9 mm • M9 9 mm
Shotguns	AA-12
Carbines	M4A1 5.56 mm (M4A3) • XM8 Compact 5.56 mm
Assault rifles	FN FAL 7.62 mm • M16A2 M203 5.56 mm • XM8 series (XM8, XM8 M320)
Designated marksmen rifles	XM8 Sharpshooter 5.56 mm
Sniper rifles	AS50 12.7 mm • KSVK 12.7 mm
Squad automatic weapons	XM8 Automatic Rifle 5.56 mm
Machineguns	PKM 7.62 mm
Launchers	FIM-92F Stinger • RPG-18
(Parenthesis) denote variants. Operation Arrowhead | Private Military Company