This page is about playing a video game. It is not medical, tactical, or safety advice for real life, and nothing here should be used as such.
In one line: the automatic rifleman carries the fire team's light machine gun. Your sustained fire keeps the enemy's heads down so that everyone else can move.
What you do
- Suppress enemy infantry and positions so the rest of the team can close with them.
- Go after the enemy's own automatic weapons and anti-armor teams.
- Engage groups of enemy, light vehicles, doorways and firing ports, and places the enemy is likely to be.
- Fire from the prone, kneeling, and standing, by day and by night.
- Be able to do everything the rifleman and the grenadier do.
What good looks like
- Fire you can keep up, not one long pull on the trigger.
- Your team leader always knows how much ammunition you have left.
- You shift or stop your fire the moment you are told to.
- You are normally the senior soldier in the team, and you are ready to take the team, or the squad.
- You understand the plan two levels up: squad and platoon.
What you carry
Kit
The team's light machine gun and its ammunition. Others in the team often carry extra for you: tell them when you need it.
Who you work with
You answer to your team leader. Next step up: team leader, then squad leader.
By the book
From ATP 3-21.8, paragraph 1-30. The manual describes the job as a high volume of sustained suppressive fire on area targets.
Sources
This page is adapted for a game. Where it differs from the source, it says so. Read the current edition at the source for the real thing.
Version 1, updated .