Alternative to 6.5 Grendel?

[LRRPF52]

If you look at the original assault rifle intermediate cartridge, it has a 33m case length, or max case length of 1.299", and max COL of 1.890". This cartridge changed military small arms forever.





The .221 Fireball has a max COL of 1.830". If you look at the Sturmgewehr magazines, they are much shorter in terms of overall length for cartridges, meaning you can carry a lot of them. They were steel then, but applying the same principle of a very short, bottle-necked case, rather than trying to appease the .30 cal nazis' of Dr. Carten's Ordnance Board, we could have had an insane little shooter if propellant technology had been tackled and addressed with serious efforts thinking outside the box.



It is possible to duplicate or exceed 5.56 NATO performance from the .221 Fireball case, using advanced propellants and existing metallic case technology. Go to 6mm or .257" and reduce the soldier's load. 90% of the people even carrying M4's will never, ever face the enemy in combat, but in case they do, they need a lightweight, compact PDW with at least 5.56 performance.

Heck, up to 50% of the personnel in a light infantry unit will not engage the enemy with their shoulder-fired weapons because of the nature of their duty positions.

If I could cut the soldier's load down, without compromising or even improving performance in the carbines, I would look at it seriously.

DM's and LMG's are another matter where 6.5 Grendel performance would be a heaven send.