New Cartridge Developments and Implications for Dismounted Infantry Soldiers

[LRRPF52]

I would say that's a fairly decent synopsis, other than the obvious fact that we've always had a healthy mix of 5.56 NATO and 7.62 NATO.

Not only has that been true in the US Army and Marines, but the UK, Australia, New Zealand, German, and other NATO partner nations.

That's one of the main things that has always stuck out to me about these discussions: The total misunderstanding that M16s/M4s are central to the Platoon and Squad small arms mix as a function of combat power. The individual rifleman is the final piece of the echelons of fire and maneuver who puts his boot on the face of the carcass in the rubble left over from the fusillade of CAS, artillery, mortars, rockets/AT weapons, machine guns, and grenade launchers.

Even at the Squad Level, the M4 is not the dominant system for firepower. The SAW is. If you have DMs like you should, then the SAWs and DMs are the most casualty-producing duty positions when trained properly.