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Pearls of Weber

A collection of posts by David Weber containing background information for his stories, collected and generously made available Joe Buckley.

"Paintball"-style projectile weapons training

Do they play paintball, or its equivalent, in the Honorverse?

Yes. There are several variants of this, including advanced versions of both laser tag and paintball-type impact munitions. One version, which the Royal Manticoran Marine Corps uses quite a bit, is fairly expensive and involves skinsuits which are very heavily instrumented with sensors which react pretty much across the spectrum for "laser tag" type engagements, and which are also capable of absorbing the impact of projectiles traveling at very nearly the velocity produced by 21st-century handgun ammunition. This allows the use of much more realistic "firearms," and the skinsuit is designed to transmit physical sensations, ranging from the "Oh, my" to the "Jesus, that hurt!" level to the individuals protected by them. In addition, the skinsuits can be programmed to effectively shut down "wounded" limbs and otherwise simulate damage taken from combat.