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

[LRRPF52]

The Marines are replacing the M249 with the Infantry Automatic Rifle (IAR). It is basically a M16 that is set up to be an automatic rifle.

That was my thought if they go to the 7.62x51, even temporarily. The M240 is just too heavy to carry as a squad rifle.

We've been tracking the Marines IAR program for many years. These threads run better if you go through the history and see what has been discussed. Among the many duty positions I held, M60 gunner, AG, Ammo bearer, M240 gunner, SAW Gunner, and Weapons Squad Leader were included. A lot of guys with this background will let loose a litany of colorful expletives when non combat arms or civilians try to tell them about their job, but I will approach it differently.

For those that aren't familiar with the Infantry MTO&E, understand that M4s are not the main focus for firepower or actions on the objective for most missions that a dismounted infantry unit conducts.

Within a Fire Team, you have:

Team Leader M4A1
Automatic Rifleman SAW
Grenadier M4A1/M230 (used to be M203)
Rifleman M4A1

You have 2 of these Fire Teams in a Rifle Squad in the Army led by a Squad Leader with an M4A1 (bad MTO&E because there aren't enough people based on After Action Reviews covering multiple conflicts over the last century, need 11 bare minimum in a Squad-we have 9 based on the Bradley Fighting Vehicle).

The full Platoon looks like this:



One of the main contributing factors to longevity or the ability to sustain the fight, make chance contact and still have enough ammo to continue mission, or conduct follow-on missions after expending the ammo required to take an objective, is 5.56 NATO and linked 7.62 NATO distributed throughout the Platoon.

Once you go to 7.62 NATO rifles or carbines, you erase all of that and become a major liability on the entire system, because now you need resupply and badly. You went from a capable force, able to deliver combat power, to a liability with dozens of soldiers' lives on the line if they don't get resupplied immediately. Things are already stretched thin with reduced basic loads due to SAAPI plates, IOTVs, and the added constraints armor brings to your maneuverability, water consumption, and limited endurance.

By increasing the weight of the soldier's load, while decreasing his hit probability and number of rounds carried, you shoot yourself in the foot. There have been multiple incidents already where units went near black or black on ammo, and barely escaped by the skin of their teeth, and these were units that had dedicated aviation support from the best rotary wing pilots in the world, not even in the conventional Army.

There are so many more factors that are never taken into consideration when I see people looking in from the outside.