Grendel as a Universal Infantry Cartridge

[Tony Williams]

A 6.5 or 7mm DMR/Sniper SASS with significantly less weight than an M110 would be great, but in the end...what performance advantages will we gain over a 5.56 SPR with 18" pipe pushing 77gr SMK's? It would have to be significant enough to overcome the benefits the SPR currently has with ammo compatibility, lightweight, and mag capacity-per-volume.

But the big army will never adopt anything like the SMKs, which have a plain lead core (and are far too expensive anyway). What they want is shown by the M855A1 EPR - a combination of a steel and copper core: they're working on an M80A1 along similar lines. These will be much longer than lead-cored bullets, and tracer versions will be longer still. They will also need a cannelure for belted MG use, further affecting the BC. Since a long effective range will be required to replace 7.62mm (800-1000m), this pushes the optimum calibre and case size upwards.