.280 Enfield...Ahead of its time

[Buck2732]

I can understand all of the points on this post.

So this is my 2ps worth. I was witness to the change from the SLR (7.62) to the current L85A2 (5.56) first hand. I have seen the LMG and GPMG leave section (though not in every REGT) use to be replaced by the horrendous LSW (5.56), which has since had a role change. The wheel has gone 360 and the GPMG is back in favour as a section wpn. Below is what I believe could have saved allot of money even though the rifle was not adopted. Though in its original form it had none disintegrating link I am sure this could have been developed at far less cost than a whole lot of R&D and new GPMGs.

"The TADEN was a British experimental light machine gun firing the .280 in (7 mm) intermediate round. Alongside the bullpup EM-2 rifle design, it formed part of a proposal to reequip the British Army with new small arms which would use a round smaller than the .303 inch which was shown to be impractical for use in a modern assault rifle.

The Taden would replace the Bren gun as the light machine gun and the Vickers machine gun as the medium machine gun. The Taden used elements of the Bren. The EM-2 would replace the Lee-Enfield rifle and 9 mm submachine guns.

The TADEN and EM-2 projects were discontinued when the United States Army refused to consider the .280 cartridge for the new NATO standard on the basis that it was less powerful than their .30-06 Springfield round (and, as others have suggested,[1] the reluctance to adopt a round developed outside the USA).

It was decided that the TADEN and EM-2 could not realistically be reworked to take the new NATO round and alternatives were sought. The British Army reequipped with licence-built variants of the Belgian 7.62 mm FN MAG and FN FAL respectively. A belt fed derivative of the Bren gun had been considered for the GPMG role, but although not selected the Bren was kept on after adaptation to use the NATO round."