AA-12

The AA-12 is a fully-automatic shotgun that is featured in Call of Duty: Modern Warfare 2, Call of Duty: Modern Warfare: Mobilized and Call of Duty: Modern Warfare 3.

Campaign
The AA-12 is an uncommon gun to see in singleplayer. It appears in the campaign levels "S.S.D.D", "The Only Easy Day... Was Yesterday", "The Gulag", "Contingency", "Loose Ends", and "Just Like Old Times". The only faction seen using the AA-12 are the Shadow Company members. It's also obtainable in the Special Ops missions O Cristo Redentor, Acceptable Losses, Estate Takedown, Snatch &amp; Grab and Wetwork. Its fire rate is far faster in singleplayer than multiplayer and can waste ammunition, which makes it a powerful, yet unreliable gun to use.

Multiplayer
The AA-12 is unlocked at Level 18.

The AA-12 is a unique weapon; unlike all other shotguns in Modern Warfare 2, it is fully automatic, and uses a box magazine. The AA-12 uses an 8-round magazine, which is doubled when the Extended Magazines attachment is used, which balances the weapon's power and rate of fire. The AA-12 empties its magazine far more quickly than it reloads, though this is slightly offset when Sleight of Hand or Extended Magazines are utilized.

The AA-12's main downfall is that it only has one extra magazine unless using Scavenger Pro. It has moderate recoil, but this is usually negligible due to its limited range, and shotguns are often hip-fired for wider spray. It also has lower hitting power, often requiring two or more shots even at close range, but this is also negligible because of the weapon's automatic fire capability.

Equipping a suppressor is not recommended, as this will shorten its already limited range. Using Extended Magazines will increase the capacity to 16 shells, allowing prolonged fire, but limits it to only one single magazine with no reserve ammunition, unless Scavenger is used. Using Extended Mags in conjunction with Scavenger and its Pro version can make it a highly useful weapon, and some players use it as a primary weapon. It is also notable that with the Grip attachment, the AA-12's switch time is noticeably quicker than without.

Weapon Attachments

 * Red Dot Sight
 * Heartbeat Sensor (Special Ops and singleplayer only)
 * Silencer
 * Grip
 * FMJ
 * Holographic Sight
 * Extended Magazines

Call of Duty: Modern Warfare: Mobilized
The AA-12 appears as one of the two shotguns available in Modern Warfare: Mobilized, the other being the SPAS-12. Though the AA-12 has a similar look to the AA-12 in Modern Warfare 2, there are many differences between the two. First of all, the AA-12 is a frequent starting weapon in the later levels of campaign mode; is used in the U.S. Marine missions most frequently. It also comes with a 32-round drum magazine by default, much greater damage per shell, a greater one-shot kill range, near infinite pellet range, and a much lower and controllable rate of fire than the Modern Warfare 2 version.

Singleplayer
In single player, the AA-12 is a versatile weapon, having a near infinite range, high damage, and a large 32 shell drum magazine. The extremely high range allows the player to make a kill at any distance, though the pellets will spread apart as the distance between the player and the target increases, negating the one-shot kill effect and decreasing accuracy considerably. Combined with the high damage, large shell capacity and near infinite range, one can fire multiple shells to make a kill at long range if needed. As mentioned before, the AA-12 is found in the later levels of campaign mode as a starting weapon, more specifically, in the levels Training, Closing In, To the Rig, and Oil Rig Confrontation.

Multiplayer
In multiplayer, the AA-12 is the second weapon to be unlocked for the Coalition multiplayer faction, taking 150 kills with the Coalition faction to earn. Unlike the single player counter-part, the multiplayer is much weaker, needing at least 3 hits at close range to achieve a kill. Despite this lack of power, it is a great weapon to use if the player is just getting into the game, as it is one of the easiest weapons to use in the game.

Call of Duty: Modern Warfare 3
AA-12 returns in Call of Duty: Modern Warfare 3, this time with a darker finish. It also has extra cosmetic features on it, such as an unused pump.

Singleplayer
The AA-12 is found in three missions, as shown in the E3 Demo of "Hunter Killer." The AA-12 was originally the starting secondary weapon of "Hunter Killer," but wass replaced by the USP .45. Other than that the AA-12 is found in the missions "Turbulence" and "Stronghold".

Multiplayer
The AA-12 is the fourth shotgun available to the player and is unlocked at level 26.

The AA-12 has been reduced in power from Modern Warfare 2 in several ways, with the spread being much wider and the damage per pellet being reduced from a 20 to 15. The AA-12 also has very poor range, making the Damage and Range proficiencies a good choice to aid in combat, as with all shotguns. Extended Mags are also useful, as it gives the AA-12 more pellets per shot, increasing its lethality. The extra capacity is also useful, as its high rate of fire empties its magazine very quickly.

Survival
The AA-12 is the final shotgun unlocked, at Level 44. It does a decent amount of damage with a very high rate of fire, making it lethal against large groups of enemies at all levels.

Weapon Attachments

 * Grip - Unlocked at weapon level 2.
 * Silencer - Unlocked at weapon level 5.
 * Red Dot Sight - Unlocked at weapon level 12.
 * Holographic Sight - Unlocked at weapon level 17.
 * Extended Mags - Unlocked at weapon level 26.

Proficiencies

 * Kick - Unlocked at weapon level 4.
 * Focus - Unlocked at weapon level 9.
 * Attachments - Unlocked at weapon level 14.
 * Melee - Unlocked at weapon level 19.
 * Range - Unlocked at weapon level 23.
 * Damage - Unlocked at weapon level 28.

Call of Duty: Modern Warfare 3: Defiance
Tha AA-12 returns in Call of Duty: Modern Warfare 3: Defiance. It now has recoil and has higher damage per pellet, but is otherwise unchanged from Call of Duty: Modern Warfare Mobilized.

Call of Duty: Modern Warfare 2

 * The AA-12 has a different reload when the Heartbeat Sensor is equipped; the empty magazine will actually be thrown away when reloading, instead of disappearing off-screen as is the case with other attachments.
 * In the Spec Ops missions Acceptable Losses and O Cristo Redentor, players can use the AA-12 with three different attachments, the Red Dot Sight, Silencer and a Heartbeat Sensor. In multiplayer it is impossible to equip any shotgun with a Heartbeat Sensor.
 * The AA-12 has the coding to be a primary weapon and can be equipped with camouflage through modding.
 * The pick-up icon in the campaign labels it as "AA-12 Shotgun".
 * In multiplayer the AA-12 has a slower rate of fire than in campaign, most likely for balancing reasons.
 * The AA-12 in Museum fires faster than any other AA-12.
 * AA-12 Extended Mags should have been a drum mag, but Infinity Ward dropped that idea probably for balance.
 * In the Reveal Trailer, the cutscene of the mission "Takedown", Rojas' associate's Desert Eagle sounds like the AA-12.

Modern Warfare: Mobilized

 * In Modern Warfare: Mobilized the AA-12 ejects pink shells. This happens also with the SPAS-12.
 * The AA-12 is the only detachable-magazine fed shotgun in all the Nintendo DS Call of Duty games.

Call of Duty: Modern Warfare 3

 * Like in Modern Warfare 2, it is called the "AA-12 Shotgun" in the campaign and Special Ops.
 * It has a shellholder on the side, similar to M1014, Stakeout and WA2000 in Call of Duty: Black Ops.
 * It shares its iron sights with M16A4.

AA-12