12-14-2012, 10:08 PM
All of the above. The Chinese now control most of the copper supplies in the world. And it is foolish to leave brass on the battlefield. Too expensive.
We are looking at either a steele case or some form of plastic. Best case would be to have the option of using brass, steele or plastic. But we are at the end of the road for brass cases in the military.
And the Army is looking at some form of general purpose cartridge (GPC) to replace both the .223 and the .308 thus reducing the number of platforms in a typical squad. Currently we have the M16/M4, the SAW (M249) in 5.56mm. the Marines have added an infantry automatic rifle (IAR). Then we have the 7.62mm weapons such as the designated marksman rifle (DMR) and the medium MG. Two rounds, two mags. Lots of logistics. As the Shooting Times article pointed out, a round like the 6.5 Grendel makes sense.
We have a similar problem with the larger rounds. We have the 20mm, the 25mm and the 30mm all doing similar missions. Makes sense to merge everything to the 25mm.
We are looking at either a steele case or some form of plastic. Best case would be to have the option of using brass, steele or plastic. But we are at the end of the road for brass cases in the military.
And the Army is looking at some form of general purpose cartridge (GPC) to replace both the .223 and the .308 thus reducing the number of platforms in a typical squad. Currently we have the M16/M4, the SAW (M249) in 5.56mm. the Marines have added an infantry automatic rifle (IAR). Then we have the 7.62mm weapons such as the designated marksman rifle (DMR) and the medium MG. Two rounds, two mags. Lots of logistics. As the Shooting Times article pointed out, a round like the 6.5 Grendel makes sense.
We have a similar problem with the larger rounds. We have the 20mm, the 25mm and the 30mm all doing similar missions. Makes sense to merge everything to the 25mm.