Another small issue which might apply is that in this timeline the EU is effectively defunct and national borders and customs reinstituted in some countries. Firearms such as pistols, hunting rifles and shotguns shouldn't be too much of a problem IF you run into one of these checks, but automatic weapons probably would be if you didn't have the necessary paperwork, etc.
Of course borders are somewhat porous, but finding a gap can take a little more time and effort, and there's no guarantee you'd run into a checkpoint anyway, or how effective the search/inspection would be....

So, I just need a word from somebody currently in the US on where they want to go in Europe, and I'll make it happen.

Best to go direct to Sweden and get what weapons we can there. Time is important here.

How long will it take to obtain weapons in Sweden though? Anyone got any contacts there?
I've got a few Norwegian contacts which may help, but they take time and are at least a four hour drive from Stockholm (plus any time they need to actually find what we need).
I have a pistol and SMG in Bergen, but that's only two weapons and about 8 hours away.

Obtaining them legally (apparently you can own even automatic weapons in Sweden) requires either 6 months prior membership of a gun club, or passing a test (which most ex-military should be able to pass easily). The problem is the scheduling of that test - we'll be arriving on a Saturday and I don't know it you have to book ahead, or just show up and do the test.

The other issue with locally sourced "legal" weapons is they are traceable. Legally they can only be used on a range or for hunting. If they're used a few hours after purchase for a hostage rescue, well.....

One more point we should probably start thinking about is what do we do once we rescue the girl? Do we have to take her back to Boston, or just hand her over to the local authorities? I believe she's based in Berlin, so that could also be a possibility.

I can't think of any way unless someone has a 'criminal' contact.
I have, but it's for Spain

Any input re first European stop/weapons acquisition from Robert and Michael?

Michael is a medic not a shooter.  I don't have any contacts that will help in this case.

Wow, we have a lot of medical personnel, it seems. Michael is a medic, it appears that Robert is a doctor of some sort (maybe more mad scientist, I suppose), and Ivan appears to be a doc as well.

Still, seems like you guys'll still have to utilize one of the Ph.Ds to do the "doctor, doctor, doctor, doctor" gag, since Michael doesn't appear to be an M.D. ;)

Sorry about the delay...aside from Palmer, I have 3 generic military contacts.  Most likely, they would be support staff or something of that sort working in research.  Not sure how much they'd be able to help.

Given it appears nobody has useful contacts in Sweden to obtain the necessary supplies, is a direct flight there a good idea, or is there another option you haven't yet seriously considered?

Seems like if they can get weapons and gear in Norway and travel time from there to the target is roughly the same as any other option, that long border looks awful tempting as a way to get stuff into Sweden.
Especially since it does not involve the company.
If they had the 3 new people, there may be something they could do with the boat or rounding stuff up while they were on the flight. Perhaps one of my British or American contacts could know (or be) one of the current party (or their parent or grandparent... I am old).

Norway has enough weapons to equip ONE person with any certainty. Yes, Karl has contacts, but they could take up to several days to come through with what's needed.

Lets all pile in and make an OOC list shall we, even those in Europe (pretty sure you'll be coming along anyway).

I'm thinking scuba gear, a pistol plus SMG or Shotgun per person, perhaps a sniper rifle or two for those who think they're better off staying out of close combat?
Radios of course.
Camouflage clothing suitable for both day and night.
Night vision gear/sights.
Life jackets, preferably NOT in bright orange or any other highly visible colour (just in case).
Radios.
Body armour and helmets.
And radios.
Did I mention radios?

I'll put my hand up now and say for an SMG the HK UMP is awesome: easily suppressed, big bullet.

Flash-bangs would be good but they do leave a distinctive mark for forensics to say 'hmm, not everyone is trained to use these'.

In reply to Roberto Guardez (msg # 915):

I have 2 weapons, IR Goggles, a boat radio and a portable one, and various tools and medical equipment. But only snorkel gear...and  Kevlar vest. Who swims in body armour?

How we for first aid kits?

@Ivan Checkov: It's doable, but not really recommended:

https://www.policemag.com/3401...now-about-body-armor

See, that's what underwater carriers are for. http://www.pmulcahy.com/equipment/other_equipment.html

Some versatile explosives could be useful, like some C-4, det cord, detonators, maybe some small shaped charges for breeching.

Did anyone mention radios? Preferably frequency hopping encrypted radios.

Each of us should have an IFAK, along with outfitting the medicals with more extensive medic gear.

I dunno if there are mechanics for it, but ideally, since this seems to be an assault we'd have modular NIJ IV armor so the swimmers could just wear the plate carrier while swimming then the rest of us could bring the arms and legs when we land.

We may also want silencers so that we can reduce our auditory signature; I'm not sure how quiet the island is or how far apart opponents are likely to be, but if they are far enough apart that they won't hear silenced shots, we could, potentially, keep the element of surprise for a while. In fact, if we have a sniper, a rifle that you can use subsonic rounds in would pair nicely with a silencer, even though you have to get closer to be accurate.

If Guy has to carry a gun (and he probably should if everyone else is), probably a bullpup long gun would be best; maybe a Tavor or L85, or, perhaps, a KSG (if they exist in this timeline).

A basic electronics toolkit (multi-meter, butane soldering iron/tools, a few wires, resistors, capacitors, solder, stuff like that; basically a pouch full) would be good. If we're expecting to need to interface with computers a ruggedized tablet computer would be a good idea as well.

Another though is, depending on the size of the island, some sort of motorized vehicles (dirt bikes or maybe like ATVs or something) might be almost mandatory. Another that depends on the size of the island is a GPS; if the island is small we don't really need that, but if it is big it could be a huge time saver to not get lost.

And, of course, we should always have a liter or two of water and a couple MREs each, just in case things go sideways and we need to go to survival mode.
This message was last edited by the player at 21:25, Mon 17 June 2019.

I have very little in the way of gear other then the basic dark and/or camo clothing.  I will, however, go in for a shotgun.

So we're not going in for a unified kit? It would be nice if all the ammo and mags were interchangeable

How about the company, are they helping us out at all or are we going to have to go to the pawn brokers?

In reply to Guy Randall (msg # 919):

Ok, just to stop over worry about details, the boat has

Electronics: 25 km Vehicular Radio, Autopilot, GPS, 1.5 kW Generator

Approximate 6 kts under power (2 L/hr), up to 10 kts under sail.

Tanks
Diesel : 50 l       Fresh Water : 100 l

In Engineroom
Arc welder                   75 kg    $850
Basic Tool Kit                5 kg    $250
Power Hand Tools             35 kg    $1200
Air Compressor               45 kg    $280

Near Wheel...
Binoculars                      kg    $75
White Light Spotlight         5 kg    $225
Snorkel Gear                  2 kg    $120
20 litre Jerrycan, with fuel 1+16 kg  $25+$30 assume $1.50/l diesel fuel.
20 litre Jerrycan, with fuel 1+16 kg  $25+$30 assume $1.50/l petrol fuel, for tender

Underwater Carrier            6 kg    $85
Extreme Cold weather Gear    10 kg    $200 normal clothes in Russia!
Gas Mask                      1 kg    $110
Sleeping Bag                  4 kg    $85

Underwater Carrier            6 kg    $85
Basic Tool Kit                5 kg    $250
Electrical repair Tools       3 kg    $275
Electronic Repair Tools       3 kg    $350
Wheeled Vehicle Tools        10 kg    $800
Small Arms Tool Kit           5 kg    $750
Supplies/Spares              29 kg    $500 General spares for the yacht

Underwater Carrier            6 kg    $85
Food, Dehydrated/dry         40 kg    $200
5 ltr reserve Canteen x2     10 kg    $60 Water

Underwater Carrier            6 kg    $85
Anesthetic, 100 units         0.1 kg  $45
Anesthetic (Local), 100 units 0.5 kg  $75
Antibiotics (Oral) x 100      0.2 kg  $30 Refrigerated, so in fridge
Antifever x100                    kg  $10
Sedative (Strong) x 100       0.5 kg  $45
Surgical Instruments            5 kg  $350
Personal First Aid Kit        0.2 kg  $25
Geiger Counter                0.5 kg  $500

Antibiotics (Liquid) x 100    0.2 kg  $25 Refrigerated, so in fridge

Feel free to bring backups. Weapons are hidden and therefore not shown...
This message was last edited by the player at 09:40, Tue 18 June 2019.

Same mags is a good idea, though kind of hard to implement unless we're all either using pistols or rifles. However, we could standardize on glock mags/9mm for pistol caliber guns and stanag mags/5.56 NATO for rifles. Those would leave a wide variety of choices for actual weapons, including pistols, submachineguns, and assault rifles. However it's not really very suitable for sniping or breeching guns.

I get the feeling we're not going assault rifles on this job.

Hmm, not much reason not to, unless we're expecting to have to crawl through tunnels or something. An M4 (or any of the other similar rifles) isn't too bad for room-to-room work. If that's still too long, then go with one of the many bullpups (Tavor and L85/SA80 that I mentioned earlier both take STANAG mags) and it is basically the same trigger hand to muzzle length as a typical PDW/submachinegun. So unless we're going only machine pistol & pistol length, assault rifles can work quite well.

Still, I'm pretty agnostic with regards to that. While Guy is ever so slightly better with a rifle than a handgun, he is unlikely to attempt to fire a gun unless it is just to give covering fire or make a distraction. If he is trying to seriously fight he'll want to be in hand-to-hand, so he'll mostly be leaving the fighting to other, younger, people.

I guess if we think we're going to be able to make a pretense of being there for peaceful reasons then concealed carry would be better, but I didn't get that impression at all.

I think it's well worth thoroughly checking this out while we plan. Given the island is only about 300 metres across at it's longest dimension, and covered with LOADS of cover in the form of both boulders and trees, I think we should be able to get away with shorter ranged weapons such as SMGs and shotguns. Certainly doesn't appear to be a need for belt fed support weapons and grenade launchers? I'm thinking overkill.

Worth remembering too that there is no such thing as "silencers". At best you can get a suppressor (except for a very few, very specialised weapons, or very small calibre which are unsuited to military use) which really only reduce the sound to bearable without hearing protection.

Very true.  I'm glad someone else doesn't subscribe to the movie version of the suppressor.