The Army has selected 6.8mm as the new common round for both its SAW and M4 replacement

[mkwerx]

Perhaps a new old cartidge, a .260 Remington loaded a bit hotter. 3000fps is a bit of a stretch, but out of an assault rifle 25-2700 seems doable with a 125 grain bullet and the right powder.

Sig is on the short list - they really have some friends in high places of late...

As for the gun, unless we take a bullpup approach, the next gun will be another variant of the AR style rifle, if not indeed an AR15 / AR10 with a new upper.

As for full auto... it seems infantry would be better served by a good semi auto, and given another week or two of rifle quals instead of a lighter round with a bunch of ammo to spray without precision. But I am not a soldier, so these are just my thoughts.

Full auto is fun, but everything after your 2nd or 3rd round is just suppressive, or just for fun. Maybe bring back a burst mode - 2 or 3 rounds.

I also am wondering about the next gen SAW - can we not design a high capacity box magazine capable of being reliable enough to replace belts? Reloads would be theoretically faster popping in a new 60 or 80 or 100 round box or drum, vs a belt.

Eh, chances are slim of them going thru with the purchase of new stuff. They just got new pistols They can continue using 60 year old designs, with varminter rounds for another 30 years...

 

[Boboclown]

it seems infantry would be better served by a good semi auto, and given another week or two of rifle quals instead of a lighter round with a bunch of ammo to spray without precision. But I am not a soldier, so these are just my thoughts

Whole purpose of full auto was suppressive fire in addition to suppressive fire from a LMG. Not the best tool for it, but its better than nothing.

I also am wondering about the next gen SAW - can we not design a high capacity box magazine capable of being reliable enough to replace belts? Reloads would be theoretically faster popping in a new 60 or 80 or 100 round box or drum, vs a belt.

Russkies did it with their RPKs so why not us?

Only thing is belts can be up to 200 rounds.

 

[No_Regerts]

I know when the AR10/ar15/m16 were designed. N0_regerts made the statement "snowflakes these days can't deal with recoil" I find that to be a odd statement when that's one of the reasons they made the change in the 60s.

Jokes.....

 

[mkwerx]

Whole purpose of full auto was suppressive fire in addition to suppressive fire from a LMG. Not the best tool for it, but its better than nothing.

Russkies did it with their RPKs so why not us?

Only thing is belts can be up to 200 rounds.

Yeah, but you can do suppressing fire in semi auto as well, maybe not expending as many rounds to do it. Maybe I'm just kind of a curmudgeon, but it seems historically our soldiers performed better, and were better served by a larger caliber, harder hitting semi auto rifle than they were by the faster shooting, higher capacity intermediate/varminter round packing automatics. Maybe a doctrine shift back to more precision shooting would be good for everyone, including the taxpayers who have to foot the bill for new guns, ammo, and toys while making soldiers more effective on teh battle field.

Or F it all - and send in robots and drones, and stop sending meaty grunts into harms way. Johnny Three point Five - Johnny Five's grand daddy can roll in with twin .30 cal miniguns, whilest a fat kid in Utah or Nevada plays real life Battlefield controlling a Predator drone and killing haji's from 10,000 miles away. Grunts with M16's, M4's, and maybe some P90's (or P90X dvd's, whatever) can come in and do cleanup duty. And after reading the TMI thread, they can clean up doody on cleanup duty.

I honestly don't see the latest solicitation gaining traction and doing anything to give our boys and girls and trannies in green a superior weapon to what they have now. It'll waste money, some skids will get greased, and nothing will get done.

 

[Stomper]

Its got joules, man!

Phhppttt... kilo-pascals (kPa) is where it's at, c'mon man!!

 

[Boboclown]

Yeah, but you can do suppressing fire in semi auto as well, maybe not expending as many rounds to do it. Maybe I'm just kind of a curmudgeon, but it seems historically our soldiers performed better, and were better served by a larger caliber, harder hitting semi auto rifle than they were by the faster shooting, higher capacity intermediate/varminter round packing automatics. Maybe a doctrine shift back to more precision shooting would be good for everyone, including the taxpayers who have to foot the bill for new guns, ammo, and toys while making soldiers more effective on teh battle field.

Sort of, would pretty much use the same amount of ammo. As for soldiers doing better, the only difference is more rounds sent downrange as suppressive fire. In WWII most nations already learned most soldiers don't benefit from a full power rifle cartridge, as only a few were even capable of taking advantage of them. The average soldier just isn't cut out to make the shots where that round would be useful.

The big issue is the U.S just decided to go with 5.56 when the other countries were wanting a better intermediate cartridge.

 

[Tony617]

Yeah, but you can do suppressing fire in semi auto as well, maybe not expending as many rounds to do it. Maybe I'm just kind of a curmudgeon, but it seems historically our soldiers performed better, and were better served by a larger caliber, harder hitting semi auto rifle than they were by the faster shooting, higher capacity intermediate/varminter round packing automatics. Maybe a doctrine shift back to more precision shooting would be good for everyone, including the taxpayers who have to foot the bill for new guns, ammo, and toys while making soldiers more effective on teh battle field.

Or F it all - and send in robots and drones, and stop sending meaty grunts into harms way. Johnny Three point Five - Johnny Five's grand daddy can roll in with twin .30 cal miniguns, whilest a fat kid in Utah or Nevada plays real life Battlefield controlling a Predator drone and killing haji's from 10,000 miles away. Grunts with M16's, M4's, and maybe some P90's (or P90X dvd's, whatever) can come in and do cleanup duty. And after reading the TMI thread, they can clean up doody on cleanup duty.

I honestly don't see the latest solicitation gaining traction and doing anything to give our boys and girls and trannies in green a superior weapon to what they have now. It'll waste money, some skids will get greased, and nothing will get done.

Isn't "Johnny Five" Skynet in disguise?