Our guys are issued 5.56mm NATO green tip ammo, not hollow point.
I think those have the steel core in them, but even so 5.56mm isn’t enough knock down power. A steel core might penetrate well but will have a tendency to over penetrate. If that steel core could be have a hollow point that ammo would rock.
7.62mm/.308 cal. is the best. I’ve read way too many war stories about the 5.56mm not getting the job done and the enemy shakes off the hits and just keeps on coming. It’s kinda like the 9mm and the .45 cal. rounds. Again the 9mm just doesn’t have the knock down power like that of the .45. Cops have had many run-ins with drug-crazed criminals who take five or six 9mm rounds and they just keep on going. Why do you think the .40 and .45 caliber pistols have become popular again with law enforcement?
When you have a drug-crazed criminal on the street or in the high mountains with drug-crazed Muzzies in another country you have to have confidence that your gun and ammo are going to do the job intended.
I know a former Army Ranger who was in Vietnam who would go out on patrol and exchange his M16 for an AK-47 he took off of a dead NVA or Vietcong he had stashed away simply because it had a longer effective range and had better knock down power. Not as accurate as an M16 but the gun proved itself in jungle warfare.