10-13-2011, 07:59 PM
I knew the BAR would come up. It's a perfect example of both a maneuverability and firepower problem, and is one heavy, long sun of a gun! Endless scores of air sorties and indirect fire is what caused the most casualties in WWII. Because the BAR was there does not support the claim that it was somehow an influential force in allied victory.
On the other hand, the Suomi Kp31 9mm Submachinegun was an influential instrument in the Winter War of 1939-1940, even though it lacks effective range, but thousands upon thousands of Russians didn't know the difference. The Kp31 represented both firepower with its 72rd drums, reliability, and compactness for both trench-clearing and suppressive firepower.
There was an issue in the past with licensing from Singapore for the Ultimax, even though it is James Sullivan's design, but I doubt Singapore is well-versed in the politics of dealing with the Pentagon and US T&E/contract system...definitely not as well-versed as FN and HK or Colt. I suspect these determining factors have more to do with what was selected, despite the inconvenience of a bunch of actual Marine SAW gunners preferring the Ultimax over what was probably already pre-determined before the "tests" even began. Call me cynical, but you can't run a constant-recoil LMG against traditional impacting operating system guns and say they're somehow better. There are some Latin American Special Ops units that use the Ultimax as their go-to LMG's, since they could choose what they wanted based on professional soldier input, not Pentagon politics.
On the other hand, the Suomi Kp31 9mm Submachinegun was an influential instrument in the Winter War of 1939-1940, even though it lacks effective range, but thousands upon thousands of Russians didn't know the difference. The Kp31 represented both firepower with its 72rd drums, reliability, and compactness for both trench-clearing and suppressive firepower.
There was an issue in the past with licensing from Singapore for the Ultimax, even though it is James Sullivan's design, but I doubt Singapore is well-versed in the politics of dealing with the Pentagon and US T&E/contract system...definitely not as well-versed as FN and HK or Colt. I suspect these determining factors have more to do with what was selected, despite the inconvenience of a bunch of actual Marine SAW gunners preferring the Ultimax over what was probably already pre-determined before the "tests" even began. Call me cynical, but you can't run a constant-recoil LMG against traditional impacting operating system guns and say they're somehow better. There are some Latin American Special Ops units that use the Ultimax as their go-to LMG's, since they could choose what they wanted based on professional soldier input, not Pentagon politics.