06-19-2013, 03:52 PM
Quote:Understand that most of the DMR platforms are using a 20" barrel, not a 16" barrel, with the 7.62x51 cartridge. Thus to be compared to the .308, the 6.5 Grendel would have to be tested in a DMR, not an infantry carbine (16" M4). The M110 (AR10) or the M14 are longer barreled weapons.
The trend now is going away from 20" 7.62 platforms to 16" for SASS-K and DM systems with telescoping stocks. That 20" barrel doesn't provide the performance worth the weight/bulk, especially when suppressed.
One reason why a new LMG makes sense is that it would benefit even the current "bankruptcy of leadership" climate, since a poor leadership posture with standardized incompetence and lack of relevant training initiative doesn't affect whether a machine gunner will be better-served with a lighter weapon, that recoils half of what a 7.62 does, but delivers significantly more retained energy and penetration at distance when compared to the SAW.
Introducing a new service carbine won't help anyone, especially window-lickers who can't manage the current system, despite so many things being spoon-fed to them. If NCO's aren't being trained in wind-reading skills and how to compensate for wind, a Grendel is only going to introduce more recoil to entry-level soldiers who have a hard enough time right now managing the mouse gun under the current Basic Rifle Marksmanship training, which doesn't receive anywhere near enough emphasis in both entry-level and unit training, let alone advanced marksmanship and leadership training schools.
Basically, if you give an Armani sharkskin suit to a drunken derelict bum lying in his own feces and urine, you won't be able to tell the difference in a day, and you'll just have wasted a pile of cash. Until he can be rehabilitated, you would never waste a dime on him unless you're so altruistic, that feeding into negativity is seen as a hand-up, rather than supporting his self-destructive habit. In this case, the drunken bum still has enough sense to recognize that he has no use for such a suit, being that he's quite content in his current state, which in his inebriated lunacy appears to him like he's on top of the world.