02-19-2013, 01:33 AM
Trooper Wrote:The problem is logistics. We have too many systems in the mix. We need one caliber, one rifle, on machine gun. The same problem is there with the 20mm, 25mm and the 30mm. There they are planning to go to the 25mm round that is used on the Bradley's Bushmaster gun and on the F-35 and the Harrier.The 20mm cartridge is rather dated. I remember being part of discussions among us civil servants and military debating whether it made more sense to go with .50 caliber, 20mm, or to 30mm for aircraft cannon.
The argument for .50 cal was similar to that put forward by LRRPF52 -- you need lots of shots.
The argument for 30 mm was that one needs to tear up the opponent's aircraft.
20 mm won out because it was a balance and existed.
The 30mm GAU-8 was adopted because it could sneak through a few weak points in the Soviet T62 tank armor. It won because it as the smallest round that could do the job, never mind that it would take much to completely defeat it. Overlooked by most was the fact that that round makes mincemeat of everything else on the battlefield.
These arguments and the underlying assessments have been going on for an awful long time but I can draw one simple conclusion from them: The round that is adopted will be the smallest one capable of defeating the most heavily armored system in the requirements list.
The GAU-8 history suggests that the round might not be capable of defeating the best body armor, but that the number of hits more or less at random on the soldier so protected will find a spot where he will get hurt. This suggests that the conclusions drawn by LRRPF52 are reasonable with respect to the 5.56.
Similarly, the Grendel can match the 7.62X51 NATO standard round barrier defeat capability at ranges exceeding a few hundred meters. In close, both overmatch most targets of interest, so the GAU-8 lesson applies here too -- especially for dismounted infantry.
Mounted infantry enjoy a different set of constraints. One path to reducing the logistics burden might be to replace the 90+ year-old .50 caliber round with a more modern version in a smaller caliber. Newer technology would allow that round to exceed the .50 caliber performance at all ranges of significance.
The net result would be three cartridges in place of four: 5.56, Grendel in present form with suitable bullets, and the new heavy machine gun replacing mounted 7.62's and all applications where the .50 cal is used.