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Heckler & Koch'ish little thang with a wait'a minute vine catcher on the end and an adjustable butt for lenght of pull issues for body armor and cold weather gear adjustments. Hopefully that selector lever is ambi for right and left versus just the shown right side. Lose the carry handle and replace with just a flat top weaver rail ...... as the average troop will use optical aimpoint, ACOG, Night vision , or thermal scopes ect ect sights in the future. Getting a proper cheek weld for accurate shots is a problem with that handle and the additional height of a scope.

The lanyard /sling hole in the bottom of the butt stock should be moved to the top of the butt to facilitate a better carry /ready position and delete the torque factors applied by the twisting and pulls that current sling arraingements have on the M4's, XM-177's and older GAU5A/AA SMG versions.

Make the furniture in camo patterns to preclude the need to "improvise" with paints that can emit "odors" in some environments. Make provisions for carrying a second ammunition magazine on the weapon in addition to the primary in the mag well.

Make use of the scandium and titanium and carbon fiber materials to "start" the weapons weight off at 4.5 pounds and with the addition of full magazine/s, grenade launcher and optics and sling brings the fully operational rig to under 7 pounds.

Whatever caliber is selected (243 or 223) keep a kinetic kill capability versus the attempt to make a 800 +/- meter max effective range heavier round. Drop the ball ammo requirements and use modern bullet designs with horrific stopping properties for MOUT and CQB. We can and have used hollowpoint ammo in the "terrorism" fight vs the declared war which seems to be a thing of the past these days.

The ball ammo was considered humane and also wounded the enemy to create a logistic nightmare of wounded troops to bleed the enemy that cared about their fellow soldiers with regards to moral and materials and POL supplies. The terroristic enemies we engage in the future in LIC missions have no concern for their troops and must be delt a death blow from the moment encountered IMHO.

BAYONET LUG............Psycological effect of fixed bayonets still has a place in modern "nation building" and FUBAR possibilities of logistic resupply going to wrong address.

That's my personal opinion of the new and improved.........:o)

Stay safe !

I'm betting that most or all of your ideas will find their way to the final issue rifle, especially the materials, weight, flash supressor, and bayonet lug.

I fear, however, that we'll be stuck with the .223 round for the forseeable future, though, as it's NATO standard.

If they lose the carry handle (and I cannot for the life of me understand why it was included in the first place), I do hope it is replaced with good iron sights to back up the scope.

Time will tell, I suppose. I would be more comfortable if it was being made by a good, solid American arms company, like Winchester or Remington, or Springfield, however.

A few thoughts: /1/ I can't believe anybody is still putting sling butt mounts on the bottom. Garrison mentality over tactical use all the way! Geez, it's only been 30+ years, why do soldiers still have to improvise thiese sling mounts with rigger's tape and 550 cord etc? /2/ Ammo: you don't need hollow tips to be extremely deadly. Copy the Russian "poison bullets" (what Afghans called them when the 5.54 AKMs came in). This is a very well conceived "Geneva legal" rule beater with a hollow cavity in the tip, but no hollow tip. These bullets are designed to fly far and accurately, but then to upset on impact and spin 180* on impact. They even have steel "penetrator tips" in front of the lead "driver" for getting through body armor and helmets before they spin out. /3/ Calibers: something like .243, 6.5, 6.8 or 7mm seems to be indicated, considering that most of our fighting for the foreseeable future will be in open desert or MOUT, with troops dismounting from vehicles for short sharp engagements. The old advantage of .223 was that a troop in the jungle on a long patrol could carry double the bullets on him for the same weight/space as .308. This matters much less when the troops are jumping out of a vehicle to pursue the enemy. /4/ Bring back M-14s, now, lots of them! The USMC uses them in their accurized scoped "designated marksman" version. He is not a sniper, but much more than another rifleman! We have 100s of 1,000s of them in warehouses, the ammo is also in the system, they work great in the desert, they should be in every infantry squad in the desert and mountain wars. No new rifle, funding, etc. Just issue the orders and distribute them.

Just a few thoughts.