Support

The Support kit is featured in many installments in the Battlefield Series. Its main role is to resupply friendly teammates and provide heavy suppressive fire against enemy targets.

Battlefield 2
"Heavy gunner equipped to suppress enemy and resupply team-mates."

- In game description.

The Support kit is featured in Battlefield 2. The kit's primary purpose is to resupply teammates with ammunition via his Ammo Bags on the battlefield as well as lay down suppressive fire on hostiles using the kit's light-machine guns. The Support, along with the Assault and Anti-Tank, has body armor equipped, meaning damage multipliers are decreased against the player, allowing him to survive a few more hits than those without armor. However, the armor reduces the the Support's stamina, making sprinting significant distances and general mobility somewhat of a problem.

Combat Against Infantry
Support units are equipped with a belt fed light-machine gun that carries between 100-200 rounds, depending on the weapon at hand. Light machineguns can lay down a heavy volume of fire in a short period of time, but tend to have much wilder spread values when not in the prone position.

After sustained fire for a certain amount of time (this is depending on the weapon at hand (example: The PKM will overheat after 40 bullets without breaks, while the QBB-95 will stop after 77 bullets without a cease firing) an LMG will overheat and become unusable until it cools down. All LMGs share the same cooldown penalty of 1.2 seconds. The other major penalty associated with light-machine guns are their reload time—most LMGs have a reload time significantly longer than rifles and other standard firearms.

A pistol can complement the LMG in two ways—either as a more precise weapon when not laying prone, or as a backup weapon in the event of an ammo shortage or inconveniently-timed reload.

The Combat Knife is a close range or last ditch attempt if both LMG and side arm are out of ammo. Though the knife has a very short effective range, it has the capability to instantly kill enemy infantry in a single knife thrust.

Hand Grenades are lethal to infantry and light vehicles. However, while with most kits the grenades are fairly limited due to their scarceness, the support kit is capable of mortaring with grenades as a result of their ammo box, which provides essentially infinite ammunition.

Tear Gas is available to the kit as a gadget in the Special Forces expansion, present in the equipment slot. The Tear Gas is fired from a riot grenade launcher, and the gas posses the ability to blind targets that enter the deployed gas cloud. The gas will make a player's screen blurry for a short time, and thus can be used to distract or to create confusion among enemies. It is important to note that a Gas Mask directly counters the effective of the gas, so it is recommended to equip it before entering the gas while attacking.

Combat Against Vehicles
The only vehicles that can be engaged directly are light and medium vehicles since they do not have adequate armor to fully resist small arms fire or grenades. Light Vehicles such as the DPV will be easy to destroy as their armor will not be able to withstand a significant amount of small arms fire and/or lots of hand grenades in a short period, areas the Support excels at. Slightly heavier vehicles such as the Vodnik will be much harder to destroy as their armor is much more resistant to grenades and small arms fire.

Heavier vehicles, such as APCs and MBTs, are nigh-invulnerable to any of the Support's weapons and equipment. While it is possible to inflict damage against them via grenades, such damage is trivial compared to what the Anti-Tank kit can bring to bear. As a result, these vehicles should be avoided if at all possible.

Battlefield 2: Modern Combat
"The support soldier doubles as combat troop and medic. He carries a machine gun, fragmentation grenades, a pistol, and a medical auto injector, and can call in mortar strikes."

- Instruction Manual Description

The Support kit is featured in Battlefield 2: Modern Combat. Unlike many of the classes in Modern Combat, the Support kit's role is slightly altered from its Battlefield 2 counterpart, now being a mix of the Medic and the former Support class. The class retains its light machine guns from the previous title, but with the removal of Ammo Bags from the game, the class is now the Medic of the team as opposed to the resupplier, being equipped with the Auto Injector to heal himself and teammates. The class also has access to the Mortar Strike, allowing him to call in a mortar barrage on a specific target.

These additions allow the Support to lend himself well to his name: He can keep his allies in fighting condition by quickly healing them with the Auto Injector, aid in eliminating hostile vehicles or clustered enemies with a mortar strike, and his high damaging LMGs can easily pick off straggling enemies at range. Due to their inaccuracy and low rates of fire, the LMGs preform poorly up close, and the Support should avoid close quarters fighting when able, instead deferring these engagements to Spec Ops or Assaults and assisting from afar.

Battlefield 2142
The Support kit is featured in Battlefield 2142. It functions similar to its Battlefield 2 counterpart, featuring LMGs, shotguns, and a pistol that varies by faction.

Beginning with Battlefield 2142, LMGs gain accuracy the longer they are fired, though continuous fire is prevented by overheating. LMGs retain their accuracy bonus when using lower stances, favoring a prepared defender over more aggressive tactics. As an alternative, the Clark 15B Shotgun is an ideal close-quarters weapon.

Although primarily responsible for keeping teammates stocked via the, Support also provides essential defensive measures. The A12 Enforcer Sentry Gun and IPS Shield give extra protection in confined areas. The V5 EMP Grenade can temporarily disable vehicles and suppress infantry. The Clark 12-RDX Shotgun gives Support indirect firepower, and a means of clearing explosives.

Support also provides detection for teammates (normally the role of Scouts and Recon in other titles). The DysTek Pulse Meter and IDS-1 reveal nearby enemies. EMP Grenades, along with Active Camo ID, can reveal cloaked intruders.

Battlefield: Bad Company
The Support kit is featured in Battlefield: Bad Company. While it still specializes in suppressive fire, it has been combined with the Medic and Engineer kits, and is the primary healer and vehicle engineer on the battlefield, with ammo being supplied by Ammunition crates present at bases.

Battlefield 3
The Support kit is featured in Battlefield 3. The kit is more akin to the Battlefield 2 kit, as it is equipped with Ammunition Boxes, used to replenish ammunition for teammates. With the introduction of the Suppression system, the Support class takes on an additional role of being a key presence by effectively shaping the battlefield by diverting and dispatching opposing forces.

This allows the player to cover an area by fire whilst maintaining accuracy. In conjunction with gadgets such as the M18A1 Claymore and M224 Mortar, the Support class is able to adapt to urban and open combat. Support players are also able take on an anti-armor role with C4, a feature absent from previous Battlefield titles.

Battlefield 4
The Support kit is featured in Battlefield 4, functioning similarly to its Battlefield 3 counterpart. However, the Support class can now be used as a more versatile role, as it has access to its characteristic Light Machine Guns, along with Shotguns, Carbines, and Designated Marksman Rifles, allowing it to fill a number of different roles such as close quarters assault and sniping. The kit also has gained several different gadgets and can now utilize a new grenade launcher, the XM25, allowing neutralization of targets behind cover.

It is also worthwhile to note that the XM25 also has Smoke and Dart configurations, much like the M320. The Support still retains use of both C4, Claymores and the redesigned M224 Mortar, allowing it to be remotely operated, and its signature Ammo Boxes. The class also has access to the new Ammo Packs, which are similar to Ammo Boxes, but instead only supply two magazines of ammo (for both primary and secondary) per use, but two can be thrown down at once and can be tossed significantly further than Ammo Boxes.

The MP-APS is also a new gadget taking the form of a countermeasure allowing for 180-degree defense of an area from grenades and rockets. It can be rotated via a control device instead of having to manually reposition it, much like the mortar.

Battlefield 1
The Support class makes an appearance in Battlefield 1.

Much like in previous titles, support has access to light-machine guns and has a primary role of suppressing enemies and supporting teammates.

The Support class has access to Ammo Pouch and Ammo Crate, with ammo pouches resupplying a fixed amount for individual soldiers on the move, and the ammo crate which replenishes more ammo over time and can supply whole groups at a time.

Many of the Support's offensive gadgets provide indirect fire, much like its role in Battlefield 4. Support now carries the Repair Tool, to supplement a team vehicle, or to maintain emplacements.

Supports can be visually distinguished by their non-standard headgear and large backpacks.

Specializations
The Support kit has access to three class-specific specializations meant to help or boost their resistance against Suppression, suppressing enemies in a more effective manner and increase walking speed and explosive resistance when using Repair Tool.


 * Unbreakable
 * Pin Down
 * Perseverance

Battlefield: Bad Company

 * The Battlefield: Bad Company US Support shares the same appearance as the US Medic in Battlefield: Bad Company 2.

Battlefield 3

 * The Support model carries an array of explosives most similar to the Battlefield Vietnam Engineer.


 * Even when the US support is using a weapon that doesn't load using a bullet belt he will still have a belt wrapped around his neck.


 * The US Support appears to wear a USMC Lightweight Helmet.


 * The Russian Support wears a blue telnyashka (Russian: тельняшка) signifying him being VDV or GRU Spetsnaz.


 * The Russian support carries a Cold Steel Shovel that some Spetsnaz use as a CQ and throwing weapon.


 * The Russian support wears a K6-3 Titanium bulletproof helmet worn by Russian special operation teams like the MVDs, SOBR, and OMON police units.


 * Even though the Russian Support wears short sleeves and full finger gloves, from a first-person perspective, it looks rather more like long sleeves and fingerless gloves. The same goes for the Assault class in the USMC side except the other way around.


 * The class poster before the alpha shows the medic cross for the support and the bullet for assault, referencing the classes' roles in Battlefield: Bad Company 2.


 * In the Battlefield 3 expansion Aftermath, the US support class is one of the two classes that wears sunglasses (The other being the Recon class). However this as no effect on gameplay, as the sun glare still exists if playing as the Support Class.


 * The Russian Support wears a helmet very similar to the Russian Demolition of Battlefield: Bad Company.


 * The US support resembles Montes from singleplayer.

Battlefield 4

 * A persistent bug may occur whereas the player cannot spawn as Support. If attempted, the game will crash upon spawn. Prolonged inactivity from the class seems to solve this bug.


 * USMC Support has a unusable wire cutter strapped to his back.


 * In Battlefield 4's singleplayer, the Russian support soldiers have actual/functioning bulletproof helmets that will prevent the player from obtaining headshots. A distinctive "ping" sound will be heard when their helmet is shot. This does however not apply to the support-soldiers in multiplayer.
 * The PLA Support and the RGF Engineer are the only characters that lack any facial coverings.

Battlefield 1

 * The Support kit in Battlefield 1 often wear unusual but authentic helmets or visors:
 * The British Support wears the Wilmer model eye defense.
 * The American Support wears the Model 8 full-face helmet.
 * The Italian Support wears the Dunand visor.
 * The German Support wears the Gaede Helmet.
 * The Austro-Hungarian Support wears a modified Model 9 sentinel's helmet.
 * The French Support wears the Polack visor.