The US Army finally picked the SIG rifle and light machine gun as the winners of the 6.8mm NGSW project.
As much as I like the 6.5 Grendel, I think that the .243 would have been a much more logical (not to mention cheaper and lighter) choice. But the decision was skewed from the start by the competition being based on using a secret 6.8mm round that DARPA invented, plus a requirement that it push 3,000 fps out of a 13.5" barrel.
I don't have much of a problem with the rifle. It's a piston operated AR-10. This will be good for standardizing the market around one common model. The light machine gun is also a wonderful idea, even if it's not the bee's knees where accuracy is concerned. (Weighing only 14 pounds makes up for a lot of sins.) Add in the request for 6.8mm barrels for the existing M240 medium machine guns, and you finally have a common ammo for all the standard infantry weapons. The one bone I have to pick is that the specs didn't call for a rifle or machine gun with "continuous push" recoil. That was a criminally stupid oversight.
Next on the table, the new .338 Norma machine guns. Now those are actually a really good idea. As a bonus, they share a common ammo (well, caliber) with the newer sniper rifles.
No comments:
Post a Comment
I reserve the right to remove egregiously profane or abusive comments, spam, and anything else that really annoys me. Feel free to agree or disagree, but let's keep this reasonably civil.