The Four Main Armaments of the Mobile Infantry:

The fully automatic tactical Morita rifle, consisting of a moderate range rapid fire machine gun and a high power under-slung shotgun for close quarter fighting.  This is the standard weapon of the Mobile Infantry issued to all Cap Troopers.

The Morita Carbine is a smaller version of the common Morita Rifle.  It is a half-size version of the Morita and is only an assault machine gun since it does not contain the additional shotgun.  The Carbine is used by Fleet Troopers, Special Forces and Mobile Infantry Officers.

Some Troopers, who show talent for ranged sniping and marksmanship, are given a Morita Rifle equipped with an enhanced optical Sniper scope.  The rifle itself is a standard Morita with the standard machine gun and shotgun, but it can be fired in conjunction with the scope to pick off targets at range with great accuracy in single-shot fire.

When facing enemies such as the Tanker Bug or the enormous Plasma Bug, standard infantry fire is totally ineffective and only places Troopers in a futile hostile situation.  In such circumstances, the MI Rocket Launcher is used.  Firing standard high-explosive impact rounds large targets can be neutralised quickly from a safe distance.

The Rocker Launcher can also fire Tactical Nuclear Missiles, which are laser-guided low-yield nuclear warheads, which steer themselves to their targets with pinpoint A.I accuracy.  This feature makes the 'mini nuke' excellent for cleaning out Bug holes as the warhead can guide itself deep inside the tunnels before detonating.

The Morita rifle is actually a fiberglass futuristic casing containing live modern firearms.  Inside the Morita Rifle is a Ruger Mini-14 machine gun and an underslung Ithaca 37 pump-action shotgun.  The live firearms were not just placed into the fiberglass casings.  The actual weapons were removed from their casings and fitted into the fiberglass Morita casings into special positioning blocks and a metal 'A' clamp.  A lot of further fine tuning was carried out to secure and ensure the safety of each individual weapon.  The trigger of the Mini-14 were moved forward in the casing to be positioned in front of the magazine with a 'Bull-pup' style sliding trigger mechanism, which hooked over the actual trigger in the rear of the casing and attached via a rod to the primary trigger in the pistol-grip of the casing.

The live firing Morita Carbine only contained a Mini-14 rifle, and no shotgun.  The casing is shorter and modified to only incorporate the single weapon.  It also uses a bull-pup trigger design to relocate the trigger from behind the magazine to forward in the pistol grip.

When live fire Moritas were not required, Fiberglass casings were used as they had the same close-up appearance and detail as the live fire versions, but they did not contain the live firearms.  Instead, the casings contained resin casts of Ruger Mini-14s to give the impression that they were  live weapons.

As with the empty Fiberglass Morita cases, Morita Carbines were produced as simple shells with resin inserts and no live firearms.  Again these were used when close-ups were needed but using live firearms was deemed unsuitable or unnecessary.

Because it would have been too cost inefficient to produce a Fiberglass Morita for every one of the hundreds of extras, simple but effective full-size rubber Moritas were produced in great numbers.  The Moritas were made of cast rubber and were finished with a hardened rubber skin.  Three metal rods were inserted to maintain the rifle's integrity and a strap was also attached.  The rubber Moritas were used by all background performers and were also used for stunts and scenes when a fiberglass casing may be damaged if used, such as the lazertag game.

The rubber Carbines were produced in the same way as the main Morita Rifles, although these were produced in far fewer numbers as they were only used by select characters.  These were similarly used for stunt purposes or action sequences, such as the tunnel run in the final moments of the movie.

The Ruger AC556 military spec. automatic machine gun.  70 of these were used.

The AC556 is the military model Mini-14, and therefore differs from the standard model.  Not only does it have a different stock, it has a fire selector switch, located behind the bolt slide on the action, that the standard mini-14 does not have.

In order to fit the firearm into the specially designed fiberglass Morita casing, the stock was first removed, as was the standard flash suppressor and the bolt cover/guard.  Then, the mini-14 was placed into the top section of the fiberglass case, secured by a metal 'A' clamp.  An additional 22 inch barrel extension was attached, so that the barrel would run the whole length of the fiberglass casing.  Finally, a flash suppressor was added to the exterior barrel thread for the finished look.

Length:  38.75in (984mm). 
Weight unloaded: 6lbs 6oz (2.89kg).
Barrel: 18.50in (470mm), 6 grooves, right-hand twist. 
Magazine: 20 - or 30-round box.  
Cyclic rate: 750 rounds/min.  
Muzzel Velocity: 3394 ft/sec (1058 m/sec)

The Ruger Mini-14 semi-automatic machine gun.  50 of these were used.  

In order to fit the firearm into the specially designed fiberglass Morita casing, the stock was first removed, as was the forward sight and the lever guard.  Then, the mini-14 was placed into the top section of the fiberglass case, secured by a metal 'A' clamp.  An additional 22 inch barrel extension was attached, so that the barrel would run the whole length of the fiberglass casing.  Finally, a flash suppressor was added to the exterior barrel thread for the finished look.

The Ithaca 37 12 gauge 'Stakeout' shotgun.  25 of these were used.

This was the chosen shotgun for the underslung close range 'blaster' for the Morita.  Like the AC Mini-14, the Ithaca 37 is a Military issue firearm, and therefore differs from the standard available model.  Firstly, the pump handle grip was replaced by a longer more rounded grip with no strap as on the original firearm.  Secondly, the pistol grip is removed and the trigger relocated to conform to the secondary trigger on the fiberglass Morita casing, below the primary trigger for the mini-14.  The shotgun drops into the Morita casing below the mini-14 in the bottom half of the casing.  It is held in place by various blocks and the exterior black metal 'A' clamp, which clamps the shotgun barrel to the machine gun barrel.

Computer Aided Design (CAD) images of the Morita and Carbine