I dont think you realise what elite armor can do for grens ick, they can survive tank shots already.
I waved ammo costs because they are irrelivant for the sake of the argument 3xmp44 110mu vs 2xmp44/4xmp44 60-120mu
i am fully aware what Elite Armor does. ALL other t4s are competetive to it (the grenade modifiers of mid t4 are very questionable).
Ammo cost for STG44 do matter!!! They are close Combat units. Elite Armor on Units with LONG RANGE Weapons is very POWERFUL, thats why GRENS with it are so strong.
Anyway 280 Manpower for a unit with long Range weapons with Elite Amor is just far too strong Just few ideas what they could get instead:
1. On enemy Territory based DPS buff, sth like 10% more Accuracy
2. Moving accuracy of 1. They could charge without receiving combat penalties - very good to overhwelm an enemy Position
3. Standard Gren Stats, but with 1 smoke nade (NOT MORE)
4. Cloak with a higher detection range (YES its codeable) but i think that doesnt suit Blitzkrieg, it fits more to an infiltration doc
EDIT: KCH with k98 would cause bloody tears