Our military adopting the Grendel?

[bwaites]

Taken from scenes from "The Ultimate Sniper II" Video, by John Plaster, where he spends time on the range with a former Vietnam Vet, Peder Lund, Jim Gilliliand Airborne Ranger/Sniper vet of Iraq, Canadian Sniper Rob Furlong who was a sniper in Afghanistan, and Steve Reichert, a USMC Sniper vet of Iraq. Here's an excerpt"

Plaster: "You used a 5.56mm suppressed rifle a lot, didn't you? It almost became your favorite weapon."

"It did," Gilliland agreed. "We used a 5.56 M4 a lot. I used ACOG sights, a suppressor, two-stage trigger, and Black Hills 77gr M262 ammo. It was a very, very lethal and effective cartridge. We were taking 750-yard, first-round incapacitation shots with it. It was pretty devastating, as the terminal ballistics of that round were very impressive. It rivaled, in some cases, the .308."

"The 5.56 is very effective," Furlong agreed. "Any round is effective if you place it properly. If you put that round where you want it, it will work."

Now these are of course well-trained snipers who have a lot of trigger-time and time behind a spotting scope, whereas the Infantry rifleman does not have any training on wind-doping, spotting for his buddies, trajectories, corrections, ballistics tables, etc. He is also using the M855, which is not anywhere near as accurate as the Mk262, as mass-produced and accurate rarely go together.

I see more of a training solution to this problem, and as you identify and propose solutions to the training avenue, other areas of deficiencies in professionalism and competencies arise, presenting an institutional wall of resistance that now is not just focused on marksmanship, but the organization as a whole. A Grendel will not solve these problems, only exacerbate them, due to the increased logistical constraints the system would have to absorb, as well as the marksmanship losses that would likely occur with weapons that break positions more with their increased recoil, as the Army and Air Force saw when running range tests with entry-level servicemen with the M14 versus AR15, even though the Grendel recoils less than an M14.

The Grendel as an LMG cartridge presents none of these problems, as it mainly lightens the load, while providing the possibility of comparable downrange performance of the 7.62, if not exceeding it in certain areas.

Interesting. I would like to see those videos. They are a bit spendy, but Christmas is coming!