Open Combat Missions in the Modern Warfare 3 campaign bring the opportunity to change your loadouts on the ground, but you need to unlock weapons first. I will explain how you can get more weapon options and how they work in this guide.
How to Unlock Campaign Weapons in MW3
To unlock weapons for your loadouts in the Modern Warfare 3 campaign, you need to loot new guns and equipment around the map. This only works in Open Combat Missions where loadout changes are possible. Standard missions will have weapons around the map, but they won’t count toward any unlock and you won’t find them in crates.