Posted on 04/05/2011 8:02:14 AM PDT by re_tail20
The Army has outlined the competition that will select the best new carbine and one that ultimately will face off against the improved M4A1 in a battle to become your next weapon.
The overall schedule of competition, testing, production and fielding is approximately three years to first unit equipped.
A draft solicitation to industry released Monday morning said the down-select will occur in three phases covering two years. The Army will host an industry day in March or April to solicit feedback and answer specific industry questions. The final solicitation will go out in May, and competitors typically have a couple of months to present their submissions.
The weapons will then square off in what officials have described as extreme and extensive tests expected to last 12 to 18 months. The Army will fire more than 2 million rounds to produce piles of data. Weapons will be tested to their destruction point and to determine whether they maintain accuracy throughout their life cycle something the military has not tested before. A weapon typically loses accuracy as it ages.
No caliber restriction has been placed on a new design. It will be at least a 500-meter weapon and have a higher incapacitation percentage. It can have a gas or piston system. Interchangeable barrel sizes and calibers are not required, but many early contenders such as the FNH SCAR and Colt CM901 already incorporate this capability.
(Excerpt) Read more at black-rifle.net ...
6.8mm SPC all the way baby!
I wanna introduce you to a personal friend of mine. This is an M41A pulse rifle. Ten millimeter with over-and-under thirty millimeter pump action grenade launcher.
I love the smell of enemy/terrorists’ destruction in the morning :-)
“It will be at least a 500-meter weapon and have a higher incapacitation percentage’
Which rules out the standard 5.56 caliber.
I hope they go back to .308 rather than the .223 poodle-shooter round. The “more rounds for less weight” argument made sense before battle robots. Let Big Dog or his descendants carry the ammo, and let the infantryman or soldier do the shooting.
6.5 Grendel is superior in every way.
Rock River LAR-8 Elite Operator in 7.62 x 51 NATO. One bad mother soon to join the arsenal of Darth Vader!
Add lard lube and I am soooooo there!
Well, according to the article “No caliber restriction has been placed on a new design. It will be at least a 500-meter weapon and have a higher incapacitation percentage”
That rules out 5.56 and the brass still thinks that 7.62 is too heavy ... so something in the 6 - 7 range is likely to be the choice.
I personally favor 7 x 51 (7-08 Remington) but the 6.8 SPC would do just fine.
An excellent weapon. Well made, reliable and powerful. No suprise to me.
I’ll believe it when I see it. The military keeps studying alternatives to the M-4 and then cancels the programs after spending millions.
I know the 6.5 projectile works better than paper ballistics would suggest in the 6.5X55 rifle. The Grendel should be an excellent round.
Not only would this option be financially prudent it would also be the best battle rifle fielded by anyone anywhere. Which I think should be the point.
I heard the democrat leadership organized a committee to compete for the Army contract. The design committee, it was said, was given UNprecedented freedom to think. They received only one directive from party bosses that cannot be ignored: The barrel must be U-shaped.
Ehhh,, at one time when the army was interested in killing the enemy the standard was 30-06 and .45acp. I imagine a carbine design with 30-06 as a round could be effective at the specified ranges and strangely enough they have a crap load of it in surplus inventory.
Yuo can’t go wrong with any of the Holy Trinity:
FN-FAL
M14
HK93
Honorable mention - M1 Garand.
I’m a FAL and Garand rifleman. Even at my age and condition, I can still shoot in the low to nid 240s on the AQT. Good enough to knock a blue helmet or a turban off an enemy head at 500 yards.
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