A newer better M-4

[bobdina]

This just came in my paid subscription of Army Times so I cannot cut and paste the Article but I will give you a brief on the article
There are 6 new upgrades the Army has propsed to Congress on Oct. 30 while awaiting to see if the Defense Dept approves a new carbine competion.
1-adding a heavier barrel for increased performance during high rates of fire
2-replcing the direct imingement gas system with a piston gas system
3-Improving the trigger pull
4-adding an improved rail system for better stength
5-adding ambidextrous controls
6-adding a round counter to keep track of rounds fired during the weapons lifetime

The Army wants a new competition to replace the m4/m16 series of rifles however the DOD's Joint requirements Oversight council has not given the OK yet'
The Army has made 62 improvements on the M-4 since first fielding it.
The Army heard criticism of the rifle from soldiers in Afghanistan's Battle of Wanat where one Staff Sgt's M4 failed him early in the battle and was unusable even after a quick tear down, and a Spec.4 whose rifle failed after firing 12 magazines in 30 minutes rendering it useless. They also heard testimony of another soldier who fired 40 magazines without a failure.

When they release this full article (2 full pages) on it's web site I will post the link to it.

[GTFPDQ]

I thought the US had adopted the TAZER as their new personal weapons?

[nastyleg]

the gas piston alone will solve many complaints....my only complaint on the M4 is the caliber size...they need to bring back the 30 caliber to the standard assault rifle.

[MickDonalds]

The M-4 is trash. Has been for a long time. Other militaries laugh at us because of our toy guns we carry around that jam and fail consistently. The ARMY is so worried about smaller soldiers (aka females) that can't handle a bigger round, as well as the completely ridiculous "shipping convenience" of the 5.56 (meaning: you can get more 5.56 ammo in a shipping container than you can 7.62) that they're completely ignoring the reliability of the M-4 and trying to be cheap, updating it instead of giving us the HK 420 and letting us have a better rifle.

[GTFPDQ]

5.56 was always too small a round. Yes, it does damage but not enough to stop something in its tracks.

[MickDonalds]

5.56 was always too small a round. Yes, it does damage but not enough to stop something in its tracks.

Exactly right you are, my mate. The 5.56 was perfect against the Soviets in the Cold War linear warfare scenario because the Soviets would have used 2 soldiers to carry a wounded one (one that would in theory get hit and disabled, but not die immediately, then die about 2-3 hours later from internal bleeding due to the tumble effect of the 5.56 round, which would have taken 2 more riflemen out of the fight. That was a genius idea, and theoretically works in linear warfare.

However, flash forward to our enemy nowadays. They don't pick up their wounded and take them to safety and hospital for treatment. The wounded "martyrs" oftentimes put on a suicide vest or lay on top of a grenade and lay there, bleeding out and WAITING for the sweep and clearing teams to get there. This is why the 5.56 isn't as effective for Iraq/Afghanistan as it is in conventional warfare. We need the .30 caliber 7.62 so we can kill immediately and momentarily.

[dmaxx3500]

6.8 works good,,

[ghost]

Heh. I'm all for upping the standard round to the 7.62. This leaves some questions though - Can a conversion kit be designed for the M4/M16 class of rifles, or will this require a completely new weapon?



6.8 works good,,


Yeah, from what I've heard it works pretty well too. The only thing is that it's an uncommon round, and getting it fielded would be a huge pain in the ass. It would take an awfully long time.