As widely noted by players in actual combat, within fast-paced, high-intensity engagements, the Radio Operator’s role is frequently reduced to calling in artillery or smoke. The inability to carry an ammunition pack critically undermines their operational sustainability, rendering their overall utility increasingly marginal in the current environment. Consequently, their selection rate within squads falls significantly behind that of other specialized roles, such as the Engineer or Anti-Tank soldier.
Moreover, specialized squads like the Premium Radio Operator Squad and Event Radio Operator Squad , despite their ability to call in unique artillery strikes, see virtually no practical use for the very reasons stated above.
Apparently the Dev’s think carrying an ammo pouch plus the radio and a weapon is too cumbersome. However, Carrying a radio, a weapon and a secondary weapon apparently are not. IDK, which is more cumbersome, a second weapon, or a small pouch attached to your side?
Radiomen in general did not carry two weapons, they carried their primary weapon, the radio and an ammo pouch. IDK who came up with the idea that they should carry a secondary weapon, but Radiomen as far as I can tell didn’t, and it doesn’t make any sense for them to be carrying two rifles.
My request would be for the Dev’s to correct this idiocy, let the player make the choice of secondary weapon or ammo pouch with the Radiomen class of soldiers.
First of all, most if not all troops weren’t carrying secondary long arms.
You got your long arm, and a pistol if you were the right job, most of the time just your rifle.
radio dudes with a rifle/whatever, a pistol, LBE and their radio should be fine
And the bad thing is we could spend a year or more talking about how stupid a radioman carrying a secondary weapon is before the Dev’s would even consider doing anything about it. It should realistically just be changed, to one weapon, one radio and an ammo pouch.
any may argue, “The Radiomen has been this way since launch, and you want to alter this ‘feature’?” But does tradition alone justify it? When automatic weapons were less common, the drawback of lacking an ammo pack was less apparent. Now, with automatic weapons standard, sustained fire is essential. When you deploy a Radiomen squad to call in bombing runs or artillery strikes, only to face minutes of cooldown, surviving in BR5 with a squad largely devoid of ammo resupply becomes nearly impossible — unless you camp behind the frontlines,this is what most players truly loathe.and is also a major reason why no one wants to capture points.
In conclusion,I’m truly grateful to see such a high level of discussion on this matter. Please keep sharing it widely, so the Dev’s can see the players most urgent demand.
Otherwise, yes I think that radio should get the ability to choose between a pouch and a weapon. For instance, AT gunner have a second weapon by default (their AT weapon) and yet are still able to choose a pouch nonetheless.
IDK, which is more cumbersome, a second weapon, or a small pouch attached to your side? 
