I've been seeing articles like that at least once every couple of years over the last 15 years. And yet the standard issue rifle is still some variation of the M16 chambered in 5.56 NATO.
I'll believe any of this rifle/cartridge change shit when the entire Army is carrying them. Until then....LOL
He called it. I remember when I got to Ft. Lewis in 2001 that the newspaper there had articles all about the XM8 and it looked like we were gonna adopt that motherfucker prior to Iraq. Well, you know how that turned out.
Army has been "looking" for a new rifle since Jesus was a baby. Just go to the Benning Infantry Museum. They have all the OICW's from the 60's (those are REALLY cool looking! Rotary GMG under barrel, fires saboted fragmenting darts, all sorts of shit!). Across from those they have the more modern submissions. Most were variants of the AR (the original M4 actually had huge square SAW handguards!) some never seen before like the rubber coated combat rifle (was the one used by GI Joe toys as a matter of fact) and the latest at that time, the G11 caseless rifle. I recall when we were sure THAT was coming on board.
They aren't making any changes. The 6.8 that has been floated around as the new round for the military isn't 6.8SPC.... it is a caseless 6.8 that we aren't going to see for a long time if ever. 5.56 will be the round until we move past cased small arms munitions. There just isn't enough benefit moving from 556NATO to something like 300BLK to justify re-tooling. And you know programs like that are subject to be dropped at anytime for whatever reason.
https://www.armytimes.com/news/your...mo-and-one-of-these-companies-might-build-it/
And this. If any caliber were chosen on merit, it's be 6.5G and everyone knows it. But recently, the military has been asking for a new cartridge to be designed that expands in the chamber. They were offering a prize. Anyway, it has specs, and I've seen a prototype but that's it.
And the prototype? Yeah, an M4.
What a lot of you aren't hitting on is how much it'd cost the army to replace a rifle. Do you have any idea how many PARTS alone we have? The rifle is about as common as the AK. On top of that, I'm told the main cost is actually in training. Every soldier has to be taught how to use it from scratch. Training doctrine has to be re-written. Arms rooms cleaned out and restocked. Millions of M4's would have to be shredded (yeah, they have a big ass shredder that turns rifles and SAWs and 240's into confetti; I cried when I saw it).
I'll believe it when I see it too. But I hope I never do. Because the next rifle will surely be proprietary in the sense we won't be able to own it. Perhaps bought from overseas, like HK (because we love fucking over our own firearms industry). And if it fires a new round, especially a more expensive, rare round, bet your ass we won't be seeing 'em. Or if we do, they'll be prohibitively expensive.
