Weapon proficiency and vehicle mounted weapons

[Kvetchus]

Basic question here: Do passengers (or pilots I guess) need to have weapon proficiency in the weapons mounted on a vehicle? Or, do gunners using vehicle mounted weapons take the normal -4 penalty if they're not proficient?

Thinking, for example, of say a typical Operator acting as a gunner on the back of some sort of car that has a light machine gun (heavy weapon) mounted on it. Does the fact that it's mounted allow the gunner to avoid the typical penalty?

I was unable to find any definitive rules, if I just missed them I'd appreciate a citation. Thanks!

[HammerJack]

There's no rule that would negate the nonproficiency penalty, so it applies.

[Kvetchus]

Yes, that makes perfect sense actually. Same logic applies to why Explode weapons can crit in Starfinder. I guess that's how I'll rule it until/unless there's some official source specifying otherwise.

[Metaphysician]

Note that the typical military vehicle ( ie, anything with a turret on it ) is almost certainly designed with the assumption that it will be used by professional soldiers ( ie, Soldiers *ahem* ). Yes, this is inconvenient should someone else end up manning a turret, but that is them filling in for someone else's job.

If you plan on building your own custom turreted vehicle and having a non-soldier man the turret? I recommend loading it with an area weapon of some kind, so that accuracy is less of an issue.

[Sauce987654321]

As mentioned in the Armory, vehicle mounted weapons count as normal weapons for proficiencies.