MACO Sniper Rifle
(circa 2150)

Sniper rifle carried by Earth's Military Assault Command Operations troops assigned to the starship Enterprise on her expedition into the Delphic Expanse in 2153.

This sniper-rifle, seen only in "The Xindi," could be a totally distinct prop from the MACO rifle, but is more likely a modified pulse rifle with a longer barrel and of course the pop-up scope. Questions is, do all these rifles have extendable barrels, or is the barrel a permanent fixture of this variant,? How long does a plasma-firing weapon's barrel need to be? There's also been some speculation as to the mechanism within the prop that allows the scope to pop up: hydraulic/gas-pressured? Clockwork or spring-loaded? My current assumption is some sort of electric motor.

Matthew Barlow suggests: "What value a longer barrel would be on a plasma weapon? I think this all depends on how the plasma is propelled. Plasma is ionized gas - that is, gas with an electrical charge. As such it can be affected by magnetic fields. One possible means of propulsion would be to surround the rifle barrel with ring shaped (toroidal) electro-magnets. By turning these on and off in sequence they would drag the plasma down the barrel, accelerating it to phenomenal speed. A longer barrel means more electro-magnets, hence greater acceleration. It seems reasonable to assume that the plasma has only a short time in which it is effective (otherwise we have a weapon with infinite range), and, unlike a beam weapon, may be adversely affected by climatic conditions, for example being diverted off course by strong winds. A faster plasma discharge could then be both longer-ranged and more accurate, making for an effective sniper weapon. One problem with this idea is that, as the barrel itself is full of components, it makes it very difficult for the extending barrel idea to work. In addition the barrel itself could be quite heavy. Coupled with the extra length, this could make the rifle cumbersome. As a result the MACOs may prefer the shorter version for most purposes. From what we have seen of it, its range seems adequate for most purposes. The sniper rifle could be a specially built version based on the standard model, a custom built model, or simply a standard model with the normal barrel replaced with a longer one."