New Army "Caliber Configuration Study"

[BluntForceTrauma]

So, if I advocate using only 65G and 40mm ABGL for dismounted patrols, would anyone be comfortable advocating, instead, 5.56 and 40mm ABGL? Why, or why not?

The argument, theoretically, applies to the one as well as the other: ARs and LMGs — 65G or 5.56 — keep them pinned down and provide local protection for the ABGLs, which are the real killers, much as the Wehrmacht MG42s were.

Under that scenario, is the capability of the AR and LMG round in and of itself that important? Does quantity of 5.56 trump capability of 65G? Or does the overlap of 65G into 7.62 M80 territory trump 5.56 quantity?

I see cheap laser-ranged, air-burst grenades as a game-changing technology, just as the rifled bore made mass troop formations in open country inadvisable and 50 years later the machine gun made them suicidal. Infantry tactics were forced to change to open formations using organic cover. Now ranged grenades help solve the problem of neutralizing infantry under cover.

John

P.S. For the sake of calculations, each 5.56 M855 cartridge weighs 190 grains, 7.62 M80 weighs 393, 65G 123gr cartridge weighs 270.

1000 rounds, respectively, of M80 weighs 56 lbs., M855 27 lbs., 65G 39 lbs.

Or, 56 lbs. of M855 is 2063 rounds and 65G is 1452 rounds.