Textron Systems NGSW Rifle and LMG

[grayfox]

I agree. The 6.8 NGSW train seems to have already left the station....

And, like the push in the 1950s for 7.62 NATO as the standard infantry cartridge, someone — years down the road — will question what they're really getting from a such cartridge with all this bulk?

Extra bulk should be taken up humping bullet-shaped 40mm laser-ranged airbust munitions fired from something like a scaled-down Carl Gustaf recoilless rifle. The real problem in infantry combat is neutralizing guys behind cover.

My thought on the '50's was an attempt to scale down slightly from WWI to something that could still be used in European theater as well as on a "truce" line in Korea, which is mostly a stagnant - don't have to carry your rifle far - type of encounter.
Once jungle warfare hit and you had to carry everything through that environment, lighter was better. And downrange fire intensity counted for something.
I don't know if it should be totally written off as "fighting the last war", since as a defensive-style armed force (ie, we don't invade to expand an empire like the Commie's did/do, aggressors can pick their war spot and develop for that), you can't always predict where and what the next war will be, so can't exactly develop a weapon for it with complete foresight.