Replacing the M16/M4

A few years ago, we were developing this kickass rifle, the XM8, based on the Heckler & Koch G36. It totally whooped the M16 in terms of reliability due to its gas piston system, but still shared the M16's other critical flaw: the 5.56mm NATO round. It also did not have any sort of compatibility with the AR platform.

Meanwhile, in a parallel universe, two new intermediate cartridges have appeared: the 6.5mm Grendel and the 6.8 Remington SPC. They both dramatically outperform the 5.45mm Soviet, the 5.56mm NATO, and the 7.62mm Soviet rounds in nearly all respects. While the Grendel seems designed purely for distance and accuracy without a thought to killing power, the Remington gives similar in-flight characteristics and makes a 0.3mm bigger hole. The Barrett REC7, which was featured on an episode of Futureweapons, is an Armalite-platform rifle that utilizes the Remington cartridge and the gas piston system of the XM8, effectively providing the best of three worlds.

Is it time for the US military to replace its rifles, and if so, with what?

 

I don't think so. I had an M4 in the Marines and I loved it. Great rifle.

 

Granny says give `em a ray gun...

... dat way dey can zap dem terrorists inna butt.

 

Half of the people I meet on the Internet claim to be Marines. One was even such a bad liar that he described himself as a "former" Marine... I told him "yeah, I quit playing CoD too".

Anyway, how many terrorists did you send to Allah with your M4?

 

None. I had the M4 while I was on a MEU in SE Asia. I had an M16-A4 in Iraq. Anymore questions you want to ask me, tough guy, or did you actually want to discuss the topic of the thread you started?

 

Didn't the russian go with a 5.xx round in the AK-74 and later model that they use? Didn't the chinese do the same?
I think I saw or read something about that lately... I'll google it.

Added: Yep... 5,45 × 39 mm M74

 

My vote would be for either a Remington ACR or IMI TAR-21 Tavor in 6.8mm SPC.

 

A portable railgun would be nice...

 

Why not personnal force shields while we at it?

 

We have a LOT of M-16s and M-4s. It will cost a fortune to replace them all.

If the new rifle uses the same ammunition it makes the process a lot easier and you can phase them in. If the new rifle uses different ammo, it creates a nightmare of issues for restocking, and a huge risk for troops who may be unable to share ammunition if necessary.

There are several good reasons that military takes so long to decide to change such a pervasive weapons system. There has to be a very significant improvement, and a significant need to justify the immense cost and hassle of an upgrade.

Right now we just don't have nearly enough need, nor do we have enough money to do so.

 

Railgun already exist... Just not in a portable form...
Force fields are just scifi science.

 

You could replace all the rifles in the Army for the price of ONE F-22. For the price of two, you could also replace all the rifles in the Marine Corps and make a decent dent into refitting the SAW to fire 6.8.

 

So are man-portable railguns.

 

Heck, bring back the M1 Garand.

30.06 is a great round

 

We need to go back to the .45. It is as American as John Wayne and was the caliber that won WW2.

 

The other half claim to be C-130 pilots.
I kid, I kid.


I think he's the real deal, as is Ignorance is Bliss and Mushroom if you ever chat with them...both Marines, though no longer active as Marines at least.

One thing I would never do, is to claim I'm a Marine.
I do have standards afterall.

 

Not particularly accurate being such a heavy round.

 

What the hell do I know about rifles? I do not think I have touched one since FT.

 

I know Jack and Squat about rifles, but I'm never one to pass up an opportunity
to bloviate.

 

Bloviate? Really? You are going to need a lot more unnecessary words and remember to put some of them in bold. This might make no sense because I might not be thinking of the right definition for "bloviate." Anti-freeze in my brain has made me retarded.

 

The rifle needs to be accurate, lightweight and like any rifle,
the rifle should shoot straight when the rifle is pointed
at whatever the rifleman is aiming at. Also the rifle should always go bang after
the rifleman squeezes the trigger of said rifle.

This concludes my knowledge of the rifle.

*inside joke* from another thread.

 

With only 8rds. :/

 

When adjusting the sights on your rifle, make sure to properly calculate the aggregate distance differential from your rifle to the target you wish to eliminate with your rifle. You can only make the adjustment with your rifle once per round, but if you did not adjust for cosine error on your field of vision, you can make the rifle adjustment again because it does not count for the new set of calculations.

 

For snipers and medium machine guns. That much power is wasted in 95% of infantry combat and the recoil is prohibitively large for an assault rifle or LMG/SAW.

And that's not even getting into the massive reduction in rounds per Soldier because 30.06 is way heavier than modern intermediate rounds.

 

Oh sure get all technical on me...

let me break out the slide rule from my Trigonometry class.