Us army adopts .50 cal replacement

[hellfish6 7]

It's official:

http://www.strategypage.com/gallery....gun.htm

Quote[/b] ]The US Army issued a contract to build a new heavy machine-gun, the M307. It can fire 25mm "smart shells" or, with a barrel change, the older .50 caliver (12.7mm) bullets. Earlier, it planned to build a new .50 caliber machine-gun, the M312.

Now it’s official, the U.S. Army is building a replacement for the 1920s era M-2 .50 caliber (12.7mm) heavy machine-gun. The new weapon, the M-307, has been designed so it can fire either the computer controlled 25mm "smart shell" or (by changing the barrel and receiver), .50 caliber ammo. The troops will begin receiving the new weapon in three or four years.

The M-2, nicknamed "Ma Deuce" by the troops, has been around so long because it was very good at what it did. Accurate, reliable, rugged and easy to use, many of the M-2s currently in use are decades old. The army doesn’t want to build new ones, and wasn’t sure it could do without the venerable, and very useful, Ma Deuce. So instead of going ahead with the plan to build a new .50 caliber machine-gun (the XM312), the manufacturer of the XM307 (General Dynamics) was given the go ahead on manufacturing their weapon with the stipulation that it be convertible to a plain old, non-computer, .50 caliber weapon by quickly swapping out a few parts. The XM312 was only eight pounds lighter than the 50 pound XM307, as the electronic component of the XM307 is not all that heavy, just expensive and always in need of fresh batteries. Maybe they’ll get in the habit of slipping a fresh battery into each box of 25mm ammo.

Aside from the .50 caliber ammo being 20 times cheaper than the high tech 25mm stuff, if there are teething problems with the computer controlled weapon, the troops will still have a spiffy new version of the old M-2. An XM307 with a .50 caliber barrel is still 14 pounds lighter than an M-2 and can use some aspects of the fire control electronics (like the range finder).

The 25mm XM307 was developed from the 1990s project to produce a 20mm computer controlled shell for an infantry weapon, as well as a heavier crew served weapon (the XM307). The 20mm shell proved to be rather less lethal than was required, so it was decided to move up to 25mm. The infantry weapon (the OICW) combined the 25mm weapon and a 5.56mm rifle in one unwieldy arrangement that has now been dropped. There will be a semi-automatic 25mm weapon (the XM-25) for the infantry (that looks and feels like a hefty shotgun) and the automatic XM307 (which weighs 50 pounds and fires the 25mm rounds at the rate of about 250 a minute, or four a second.) The computer controlled 25mm round, at over 20 bucks each, can also be fired one at a time. This will often be sufficient, because the XM307 has a built in range finder that can put a 25mm round through a window, and have it detonate inside the room. This can be very useful, and there’s no need to put dozens of rounds through the window, as is the case with the current .50 caliber weapon. The XM307 can also fire more conventional armor piercing and incendiary shell. The major problem with the XM307 is that this new computer controlled stuff has not been used in combat yet. Until it is, no one will be quite sure just how much of an improvement it is over Ma Deuce.

[4 IN 1 0]

it is quite a old news

i got a website with lots of pic about those 2 guns

[Jinef 2]

What a waste of money.

[denoir 0]

Absolutely not. The Browning is a bitch to carry. I'm surprised that no composite material heavy machine gun hasn't been built earlier. Plus the 25 mm burst ammo is going to give infantry unprecedented capabilities.

[red oct 2]

i saw videos of this thing being put into action and it looks pretty cool. one man carries the tri-pod and the ammo drums and the other carries the weapon it self. the gun just snaps onto the tri-pod and you won't have to carry w/ you heavy sand bags to help anchor the gun down because of the recoil like w/ other machine guns. its really pretty cool.

[Gollum1 0]

The infantry weapon (the OICW) combined the 25mm weapon and a 5.56mm rifle in one unwieldy arrangement that has now been dropped.

The OICW dropped? That's news for me.

[hellfish6 7]

The OICW was too heavy and awkward to carry for infantry use. Instead, we adopted the XM-8.

As for this being old news, it isn't. This contract was just approved last week. The weapon is now officially being adopted by the Army. It's not an experiment anymore.

[MLF 0]

Got any pictures?

[hellfish6 7]

Yeah, but they're tiny.

[Winters 1]

Absolutely not. The Browning is a bitch to carry. I'm surprised that no composite material heavy machine gun hasn't been built earlier. Plus the 25 mm burst ammo is going to give infantry unprecedented capabilities.

Absolutely,

I can tell you from experience that the M2 is a pain to carry for any amount of time. This version is 14!!!! pounds lighter, thats a HUGE difference in the field.

[Mister Frag 0]

Got any pictures?

GlobalSecurity has better pictures.

[ralphwiggum 6]

let'see which one comes first.

Army finally getting it to all front line soldiers

or

OFP addon.

[soul_assassin 1723]

man shiat here come scifi guns, what happened to "guns should look like guns and not supersoakers"?

[desantnik 0]

thats what they said about the m16...

[Harnu 0]

Hydration is the key to victory, and soon apparently so will Duracell.

[Ex-RoNiN 0]

Hydration is the key to victory, and soon apparently so will Duracell.

Hmm, that don't make sense mate

[Harnu 0]

Hydration is the key to victory, and soon apparently so will Duracell.

Hmm, that don't make sense mate

Duracell = Batteries.

You need water to keep fighting, and with all this technology the army wants to put into it's weapons, batteries would be as important to keep fighting aswell.

[Ex-RoNiN 0]

Hydration is the key to victory, and soon apparently so will Duracell.

Hmm, that don't make sense mate

Duracell = Batteries.

You need water to keep fighting, and with all this technology the army wants to put into it's weapons, batteries would be as important to keep fighting aswell.

Ah got ya. Thanks

[Commander-598 0]

Plus the 25 mm burst ammo is going to give infantry unprecedented capabilities.

Sure...

[toadeater 0]

That's right, soon a US machine gun will cost as much as a Russian tank.

But I guess no one is planning on that kind of war. This is probably intended more for urban warfare. Still seems like overkill to me though, considering the price and reliability issues.

[red oct 2]

for those of you that asked i found a pic of the machine gun.

http://fas.org/man/dod-101/sys/land/ocsw_atd.jpg

[4 IN 1 0]

seems OICW aint good at all, anyway thats why XM8 and M307 are coming way earlier then XM29(due to the 8+25=29+4 pounds heavier issue )poor ATK

added:it is quite funny for outsider to see that while marine suffered from lack of "green money" for useful new stuff, and needed to look up at mother navy to ask for money, the Army are wasting lots of money on useless things(through they are not suppost to be friendly to another )

[cozza 24]

sure this ways less and fire smart bullets but the old .50 has been in the hearts of Soldiers around the world.

Plus all the new crap coming out. Land warrior, XM8. Dosnt anyone in this forum like the weapons and the way soldiering is now or back in 1991.

[Gollum1 0]

sure this ways less and fire smart bullets but the old .50 has been in the hearts of Soldiers around the world

Weapons are just tools, soldiers don't want better tools? They don't want to break up with their old love, the inanimate-metal-heavy-object the M2? That makes no sense.

Furthermore, if this weapon is better it will replace the Browning in the "hearts" of soldiers around the world.

edit: "Why use this new musket crap, I think crossbows are way better and have proved themselves in combat."

"M16? I'll keep my Garand instead of that plastic toy thank you."

[denoir 0]

Composite materials have already proven their value - the G36 is a good sucess example. Computerization is a natural development and bound to come sooner or later.

Personally given the choice between the first generation computerized weapon and stick, I'd probably go with the stick. I don't mind however at all when others do the field testing [ ]