U.S Army switching to 6.8mm

[Moshjath]

If I believed every Army Times article I’ve seen over the last twelve years about getting a new rifle, I should have had an M8, something out of the ICR project, and an M4A1+. To me the M4A1+ made the most sense, and is in spirit being accomplished by other communities as the M4A1 URGI replacement for Block II SOPMOD uppers. So much great off the shelf tech that we can go for available right now. If I was King of the Army for a day, an INF Platoon would have a mix of free floated uppers like the LMT MRP, the KAC Light Assault Machine Gun for the same role the SAW fills in a fire team to generate overwhelming (yet actually highly portable) fires as you assault the objective, and the GD Lightweight Medium Machine Gun in .338 NM in the Weapon Squad. You could achieve excellent echelonment of fires with that forming the core of a Platoon.

[the Schwartz]

???

Taking a small portion of my original statement out of context is likely the source of your confusion. I was simply alluding to the fact that many folks, many of them professional military, are drawn to larger (.30-caliber and higher) projectiles for their greater terminal effect in human tissue. Since the military appears to be considering moving upward in caliber from .223 to something in the realm of .265 to .277, the trend is certainly an upward one.

[the Schwartz]

We should go the other way, 4.5 mm at 6,000 FPS.

That'd be one helluva BB gun.

[Shoresy]

We should go the other way, 4.5 mm at 6,000 FPS.

Wasn't that the general concept of PO Ackley's Eargesplitten Loudenboomer? (IIRC, 22 caliber, but still...)

[DocGKR]

"We should go the other way, 4.5 mm at 6,000 FPS."

Why? This has been tested at LAIR in the 1980's--wounds were not particularly impressive.....

[Bucky]

Why? This has been tested at LAIR in the 1980's--wounds were not particularly impressive.....

Sarcasm.

[Hambo]

I don't believe sea stories, fairy tales, or stories about infantry fielding exotic calibers in the not so near future.

[Mjolnir]

What kind of costs are we looking at if we were to change?

The cost of one F-22? One F-35?

The EFFORT would be huge as would logistics but I’ve no clue on the costs associated with this.

Edit:

Rifle barrels
Perhaps bolts
PM schedule changes
Pick up or expend the existing 5.56 NATO
WHAT OF OUR ALLIES??

(This assumes no other changes would be required for the existing rifle platform)

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[Mjolnir]

I’m going to buck the trend and say this will happen. SAW first. Rifles only to Infantry. The .223 isn’t going away.

I think as you do.


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[JSGlock34]

I'd rather see the Army take a page from SOCOM and introduce the URG-I across the force, starting with Infantry units. It's a low cost, incremental update, that will work better with the new standard M855A1 round than current uppers. Free-float tube improves accuracy and mid-length gas system will handle the new round better. Win-win.

Why we're still buying M4A1s with the KAC RAS in 2018 is beyond me.