Grendel as a Universal Infantry Cartridge

[Michael]

Now that we have the politics of General Officers clear, can we put this thread back on topic? Thanks to all who contributed!

Sorry Bill, back in the box.

Re change to ANY new cartridge - as a few of us have said, it is going to take a lot more than a couple hundred more yds of range or 10% weight reduction to get a new program off the ground. If someone is serious about it, a cost/benefit analysis will need to be done that looks at the following -

1) Cost to upgrade existing training facilities/ranges to support increased range. (FYI – friend of mine is involved in the ranges for the Marine Corps – asked him how much it would cost to upgrade KD/training ranges to go from 500yds to 600 or 700. He laughed and said it would be close to a billion – many would have to be moved due to other encroachment. Think what the Army would need to spend)

2) Cost to replace existing weapons and IX block (replacement parts/tools…Current replacement cost of an M16A4/M4 is just under $600 per. There are by my guestimation at least 2 million of these in the US military inventory. As to that replacement for all the LMG/SAW/MMG)

3) Cost to replace existing stockpiled ammunition. (Billions of rounds at what, .10 apiece? I don't have that many fingers or toes)

This is the tack that the military would have to use with the politicians…and we would need to show a lot more than incremental improvements to current weapons/ammo to get it approved.