Okay, so... I missed reading the 「機」 in 「狙撃機銃」. Which means it should roughly translate as "Sniper Machine Gun" instead of just "Sniper Rifle".
Problem with this is, well, Hawkeye doesn't look like a machine gun. Not even LMGs and SAWs look like that. The magazine is too small. And while 「狙撃機銃」sounds absolutely awesome in Japanese, the translated phrase "sniper machine gun" sounds off, almost like an oxymoron.
Of course,「狙撃機銃」is a nonce word, pretty much coined anew by Ishiyumi (though some game forums do use the same wording when talking about sci-fi-ish guns). This wouldn't be the first time Ishiyumi came up with a 'deceptive'-sounding term that would seem to mean one thing based on real-life tech but wound up being something subtly different.
Like 「機動戦車」. This sounds like "mobile tank" (the same term for Gundam's Hildolfr, and the real life JSGSDF Type 16 wheeled 'tank') but in Mechanical Buddy Universe is used to describe walkers and mechs. But if one reinterprets the component kanji into something like "mobile combat vehicle" or "machine-movement-combat-vehicle, then the term makes perfect sense to describe the walker mechs.
So, therefore, I think the best solution is to come up with a new equivalent term that can convey a similar meaning. For「機動戦車」I'm considering coining the term Mechan[o]ambulant/Mechan[o]ambulatory Combat Vehicle, since it lets me use "mech" as a shorthand term (like how「機動戦車」is shortened to 「戦車」elsewhere in this setting) while literally meaning "Machine-Walking Combat Vehicle", which perfectly describes the vehicles.
Going back to「狙撃機銃」, the component kanji means "sniper-machine-gun" or "aimed-hit-machine-gun". The most obvious thing that comes to mind is "automatic sniper rifle", which also happens to be a real life term. Problem is while "automatic sniper rifle" works by itself, Autonomous Automatic Sniper Rifle (Adjunct AI) sounds incredibly awkward in English because of the two "auto-" words with very similar meanings occurring right next to each other.
I could go with Autonomous Sniper Autorifle, which sounds slightly better. Or maybe Autonomous Marksman Machine Gun? Autonomous Mechanized Sniper Rifle? Autonomous Sniper Mecharifle?
Or just stick with plain Autonomous Sniper Rifle? (with a TL note explaining why 機 is omitted). I mean, if an English speaking military were to, say, plug an AI into an "automatic sniper rifle" and make it autonomous, I think they'll probably call it an "autonomous sniper rifle" by that point because the distinction "automatic" no longer matters by then. Or words like "bolt-action", and "semi-auto" too, for that matter.
Still... any suggestions, guys?
TL;DR: I need an alternative way of saying (TGP11S "Hawkeye" )Autonomous Sniper Machine Gun( Adjunct AI) that sounds less awkward and intuitive.
Okay, so... I missed reading the 「機」 in 「狙撃機銃」. Which means it should roughly translate as "Sniper Machine Gun" instead of just "Sniper Rifle".
Problem with this is, well, Hawkeye doesn't look like a machine gun. Not even LMGs and SAWs look like that. The magazine is too small. And while 「狙撃機銃」sounds absolutely awesome in Japanese, the translated phrase "sniper machine gun" sounds off, almost like an oxymoron.
As long as the actual gun wasn't drawn separated, it did look like a machine gun, very much so.
I guess typically these types of autonomous weapons have been called sentry guns.
