An Army outgunned, early article pushing the Grendel

[rickt300]

I think I remember that one.

Lots of flaws in his premises, but I agree with some of the spirit of the arguments.

M4 is very reliable. Not many modern carbines can hang with it in high-volume training shoots schedules.

6.5 Grendel is a great replacement for 7.62 NATO.

5.56 would be best replaced with a smaller overall cartridge that demonstrates the same or better performance, so most soldiers could have an even more compact weapon.

There isn’t a one-sized universal cartridge solution since the needs of a Mortarman, Automatic Rifleman, RTO, Drone Operator, Sniper, and Key Leaders are quite different.

Most combat arms soldiers would be better-served with PDW-sized Micro Assault Carbines that don’t weigh much, but will effectively engage enemy within 200-300m.

DMs and LMG gunners would be better-served with something like 6.5 Grendel.

Main thing is that 7.62 NATO needs to go away. It requires weapons that are too heavy, ammo is too heavy, recoil and muzzle blast are a bit excessive, with marginal downrange performance.

I don’t think there is a place for a 7.62 NATO-ized cartridge in the line, when you can have better performance from a smaller, lighter case, with far less recoil.

If you look at Machinegunners with the M240, you really need to carry your own ammo and a heck of a lot more than a stupid 50rd starter belt.

It’s insane that we still don’t have an on-gun standardized carry method after 64 years of portable medium machinegunnery.

Well heck the new rifle and SAW the M5 and M250 are both shooting ammo that fits in a M14 magazine, in fact it seems we are going right back into the 308 rabbit hole, fewer rounds, heavier ammo. The new SAW is expected to only have 50 rounds ready to go unlike the old M249 which had 200. In my opinion 50 rounds is not enough and more would require the weapon to be crew served like the 240, M60. The M5 goes back to a 20 round mag.



https://www.military.com/daily-news/2023...rifle.html

The new weapons use 6.8mm rounds as the Army looked for heftier ammo than the current 5.56mm used in the M4 and SAW to better defeat body armor, protective equipment that adversaries are expected to have in future conflicts and gear that is already becoming more commonplace for terror groups. The 6.8mm was seen as a compromise between the light ammo currently used and the 7.62mm ammo used in the M240B machine gun that would be very heavy for a standard rifleman.

Army planners are already bracing for that heavier load from the new ammo and expect soldiers to carry less in the next fight. The M7 weighs 9.84 pounds, much heavier than the 6.34-pound M4. Soldiers will also use 20-round magazines, a 10-round decrease from the magazines the Army has been using for decades. A standard combat load for the new rifle is expected to be 140 rounds, a sharp drop from the 210-round loadout for the M4.

Soldiers carrying the new light machine gun will have a break, with the M250 weighing 14.5 pounds, compared to the 19.2-pound SAW. But troops are expected to carry only 400 rounds of the heavier ammo, a steep decrease from the standard 600-round load for SAW gunners.