Editing Rifleman (section)

==Overview==
One of the earliest 'Mechs ever built, the Rifleman was first fielded in 2505 - and quickly established its posturing as the definitive 'Mech for taking down fliers. Of course, its hyper-specialization made it ill-suited for frontline combat, so it was intended from the start as a medium-tonnage fire support 'Mech that'd cover its compatriots from potential air assault. It'd have some other issues since its debut (most notoriously having heat problems), but its sheer reliability and efficiency with its long-range weaponry and (at the time) bleeding-edge targeting & tracking systems ensured it'd stay on the battlefield for over half a century and into the 4th millennium.

The 'Mech was originally made for the [[Terran Hegemony]]'s armed forces by Kallon Industries, but had a rocky start. The initial RFL-1N model proved to be way too much of an overheat fiend, and the RFL-2N didn't fare much better; therefore, the RFL-3N decided to remove some of the lasers for the Autocannons that are now standard on the ubiquitous RFL-3N. You could still cook yourself if you weren't careful, but now it shouldn't be possible to overheat firing at one pass of a target aircraft. Still, this isn't ideal, so Kallon would go back to the drawing board and make the [[JagerMech]] as a more reliable option - but that would end up having a different niche in fighting aircraft (and had its own problems), so the two 'Mechs would end up complementary.

After Stefan Amaris ruined everything forever and the Star League collapsed into warring Successor States, the Rifleman would be scattered across the different polities of the Inner Sphere. The [[Federated Suns]] would end up being the ones to have a majority of the 'Mech, which they'd field with success against the [[Draconis Combine]]. However, the Succession Wars' attrition would force more and more Riflemen to be put on the front lines, [[FAIL|and you can guess how they performed]].

Eventually the recovery of the Helm Memory Core and the subsequent rediscovery of [[LosTech]] would lead to a resurgence for the Riflemen as various manufacturers would use said tech to try and improve upon the aging design. Several new variants would be made as a result, and would have their trial by fire during the [[Clan Invasion]]. Still, its reputation of being an oven and a pushover in direct combat would lead to the design waning again. That is, until the Fed[[Lyran Commonwealth|Com]] Civil War caused its JagerMech cousin to have its production disrupted - mainly due to a blockade over that 'Mech's factories on Talon. Kallon Industries would be forced to push the experimental RFL-8D Rifleman into full-scale production to make up for the loss, but despite the premature finalization it'd end up enough of an improvement to see use on both the FedCom Loyalist and Lyran Alliance sides of the conflict. 

The [[Word of Blake|Wobbies]] and the [[Free Worlds League]] would also utilize improved versions of the Rifleman during the civil war era and into [[Word of Blake#The Jihad|the former's temper tantrum]].