New Army "Caliber Configuration Study"

[stanc]

Guardsman26 wrote:

A lot of very interesting discussions are taking place about what the US Army's Caliber Configuration Study (CCS) means for industry. The US Army's Marksmanship Unit (USAMU) has helped focus the development, testing and evaluation of prospective new calibers for the Combat Lightweight Automatic weapon System (CLAWS) program by independently developing two rounds (discussed elsewhere on this forum). One is a 6.5 mm round designed to fit within the action length of 5.56 mm. The other is a 6.5 mm round designed to fit within the action length of 7.62 mm.

Only the second of these two rounds is cable of comfortably exceeding 7.62 x 51 mm NATO performance in a lighter package. But, and it's a big but, the smaller 6.5 mm round that fits within a 5.56 mm action length makes it very easy to upgrade legacy weapons with a new upper, rather than buying millions of new guns. As Tony will immediately point out, unless you exceed 7.62 mm performance, you will need to keep 7.62 mm weapons. However, since 7.62 mm weapons are likely to be replaced through the larger caliber Lightweight Dismounted Automatic Machine Gun (LDAM) program, we could see something like a .338 DM / Sniper weapons used for long range work as well as large caliber GPMGs. So matching 7.62 mm performance may be less of an issue than we originally thought.

The economic argument may therefore favour a smaller 6.5 mm round, although that is not my preference. The smaller round is essentially a militarised Grendel and still delivers excellent long-range performance.

What is incredible and what seemed impossible only a few years ago may well become a reality: this could mark the beginning of the end for 5.56 mm NATO. That is definitely a step forward in my book.

http://forums.delphiforums.com/autogun/m...g=5556.697