US Army Considers Adopting an Interim Battle Rifle in 7.62NATO: eventually adopt 6.5

[LRRPF52]

It's as if someone never saw an Infantry Platoon and the weapons that are not only organic to it, but central to much of the planning, training, and operational use.

Then there is the reality that whoever wrote the article never worked with a dismounted infantry unit and our attachments.

They're talking about over-matching an enemy equipped with 17lb PKMs firing linked 7.62x54R for starters, which is something we've discussed for how many years now?

The rifleman does not do that, doesn't have the optics and training to do that, and no system that I am aware of can provide the necessary training for every rifleman to do that, which is why we have SAW gunners, gun teams, and snipers.

When gun teams and snipers go to the transition range, all we would do was practice engaging targets at distance.

Guess who goes out with Platoons when they leave the wire? Gun Teams are part of the Platoon, so them.

Every single Rifle Squad has 2 SAW gunners, who have also been upgraded with 7.62 NATO Mk.48s in later years.

As Snipers, we were almost always attached to line Platoons, or as line Platoons, we had Snipers attached. That was before widespread replacement of the M24 with the M110 too.

Nope. Soldier systems says we need 7.62 battle rifles. The level of ignorance about how things work never ceases to chafe my backside.