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

[LRRPF52]

This popped up on my facebook feed just now:

https://www.wearethemighty.com/articles/...e-numbered

“A Capability Gap exists for 80 percent of US and NATO riflemen who are armed with 5.56mm weapons,” weapons expert and former Heckler & Koch official Jim Schatz stated in a recent small arms briefing. “The threat engages friendly forces with 7.62mmR weapons 300 meters beyond the effective range of 5.56mm NATO ammo.”
“These 5.56mm riflemen have no effective means to engage the enemy.”

At least 50% of a Rifle Squad's firepower comes from weapons that aren't M4s, and they are belt-fed. 75% of a Platoon's firepower comes from the Weapons Squad, where the M240s are manned in the gun teams.

These guys making these imbecilic comments need some counter-arguements to their BS, because a lot of people, including those in the military, seem to think that Infantry Squads and Platoons walk around with everyone carrying M4s with no ability to reach out to 1800m (Max effective range of the M240 with plunging fire).

Any time you insert a dismounted unit, they will often have at least one attached sniper team, who can take anything from M110 SASS, to M2010 .300 Win Mag, and often both.

You will often cover any movement of the lead squads with the M240s in the tripods, and Snipers set up looking for any ideal enemy far ambush points, so that when someone pops up, they get 7.62 and .300 Win Mag coming their way pretty quickly.

We also did this a lot with 60mm mortars. You're going to get your bowels shoved in hard if you try to play silly games with a well-run unit that uses what the Army or USMC has provided it.

A Marine Infantry Platoon looks like a light Company in the Army, because their Rifle Squads are properly sized with 3 Fire Teams, and they task Scout Snipers to support the line all the time.

But I guess because a few riflemen per fire team are equipped with M4s makes us out-gunned against PKM and SVD. Just ignore all those guys humping 7.62 NATO weapons. That's just your eyes playing tricks on you.