Does the 6.5 grendel have the potential to replace the 5.56 for the military?

[cory]

Although there have been proposals in the past for micro-caliber cartridges, I haven't seen anyone in the military or industry currently advocating going smaller than 5.56mm. Afghanistan seems to have had the opposite effect, making it likely that any 5.56 replacement will be bigger, not smaller.


IMO, it would help to do so by demonstrating that there would actually be a worthwhile improvement to be had from switching to a cartridge like 6.5 Grendel.

So far, I've seen negligible testing done by Horde members, and what little has been done has given mixed results. Some here have done very long range shooting, with promising results. OTOH, in penetration testing of 6.5 Grendel 100gr FMJ versus cinder block, the result was no better than 5.56mm.

The FMJ comparison is useless. The military no longer uses standard fmj. They use a steel core AP round. I don't see us being able to do this comparison any time soon.

A relevant comparison would be the 77gr smk load and a 123gr smk Grendel loads from 14.5" carbines. Assuming the Grendel or a variants was adopted, DMRs and special ops guys would be issued a 123gr smk load as it's available to their units. I'd bet the farm on that.

I would like to see a 6.5 bullet in the 6.5 SPC case. I do not think the current 6.5 Grendel case - especially the fit into the AR15 bolt - is optimal. As someone how dealt with government procurement in my career - the procurement process is ...........sad..........

When a new round is finally adopted, a new plarform will be developed for it. The Grendel needs a platform somewhere between the AR15 and AR10. It needs the width of the AR10 magwell, a lengthed to magwell to take a mag with ~2.4" rounds, the same carrier travel as the AR15 with a better designed bolt.

Or the LSAT telescoped ammunition would be a huge upgrade. If it can be made to work reliably.

Either way the x47 case is to much in terms of needed mag length and recoil. While the Grendel as is would be a huge upgrade, I think a slightly slimmed down x43 (closer to the current Grendel case than the 5.56) would be the sweet spot.

Personally though I look forward to the day that we have a carbine sized rail gun in the hands of our grunts.