New Army "Caliber Configuration Study"

[Tony Williams]

Yes, that's my view, too. Which is why I said it appears that infantry units would still have two calibers, thereby ruling out a single GPC.

Depends on how you define GPC. At the moment the US Army has four rifle/MG cartridges used in the anti-personnel role: 5.56 x 45, 7.62 x 51, .300 Win Mag, .50 BMG. Only the first two are used in the standard rifles/MGs routinely carried by dismounted infantry; a single GPC could replace both of them in the organic squad weapons.

Not in my wildest dreams have I imagined the GPC also replacing the .300 Win Mag and the .50 BMG, even though such capabilities may occasionally be attached to squads for specific purposes.

I agree. IMO, the question then is if CLAWS ammo needs to have the same level of performance envisioned for the notional GPC, or would a lighter weight cartridge of somewhat lesser performance be a better choice for the CLAWS/LDAM concept?

Of all of the small arms western forces have faced recently, the PKM seems to have been the most problematic. The nearest western equivalent is the MK48. I can't see the US being happy to replace the MK48 with a weapon which could be outperformed by the PKM. Which implies that the GPC needs to be able to at least match the long-range hit probability of the big 7.62mm cartridges.