Oglee

Caseless is a stretch even for 2035 but its possible. CTA though is where it is at, remember Brass is not an infinite resource and its price varies so prices of ammo varies. Polymer cases would allow ammo to be made cheaper, allow more people to manufacture it, and would have a static cost vs a variable cost.

Kind of, except it will have a free floated rail which in testing has shown to greatly increase bolt life. That is part of the reason for the FF requirement in the RIS II. Sundowner I think we agree more than it seems. I was thinking you meant going from 5.56 to 6.5 in brass cased ammunition, since you meant LSAT I agree 100%. The current US LSAT program is actually a joint program between us and a few other countries, it should be interestin to see how it all works out in the end, I'm not a fortune teller so I can only wait and see if the program pans out and if it is truly worth it in the end. Until then though sticking with the 5.56 is fine and works exceptionally well out to 600M, past 300M pushes the limits of most average joes but if your on the top of your game you can get COM hits at distance.

While not the original intent(the intent dates back to the BAR days) the Marine Corps did look into replacing the M16 with the M27. They found it cost to much and would take nearly 20 years for HK to supply all the rifles they would need(HK has nothing on Colt in this department). Instead they are working on a PiP(free float rail, collapsing but stock) for the M16 which will net them 90% of the capabilities of the M27 but will cost them 25% as much as the M27 does and will be completed in less than 5 years(once they select the collapsing stock and free float rail).

The IAR did no replace the SAW, it suplemented it. They still have SAWs which can be issued as needed based on mission. The whole IAR thing really only works for the Marines and its overpriced. It was also down selected as the best of the losers since none of the entrants met the requirements. We have switched bullet construction multiple times but it is still 5.56 so all the loading dies remain the same. SOCOM lead the way to the 6.8 an we ended up sticking to 5.56 because new bullet designs proved to work excellently and ended up being far cheaper. As to the guy who quoted Tony Willions...his data is suspect and has been proven wrong on a few issues by certain ballisticians. There is no such thing as a do all round.

You are wrong, compare 20mm and up with the standard issue NATO 5.56 caliber is apples to oranges. In order for a caliber swap to happen Lake City would have to retool which will cost billions, the figures have been looked at before and its expensive..more so than anyone can imagine, thats a lot for such a minor increase in performance. Also 6.5 is not a cureall and honestly is not much better than 5.56 using the righ bullet design. I won't deny the terminal ballistics are improved(no such thing as knock down power) it is still only a minor increase. I think the biggest issue with a caliber change is that the Army buys ammo 10 years in advance so we have a huge stock of 5.56 already, but 5.56 works out to 600M. Remeber we looked at and developed 6.8 and what do we use now..5.56, even 6.8 was not really worth the upgrade when one caliber is already getting the job done. I have never had issues with the brown tip ammo out to 400M which at that distance shot placement is key no matter the caliber. 5.56 has been working ever since the war started, the difference is we now have a whole host of enhanced bullet designs that perform even bette at distances than M855 does. We are finding that the guys with the MK-17's are having to shoot a person the same amount of times as everyone with the M4A1 but they have to carry more weight, carry less ammo, and have a more harsh recoil and muzzle climb to deal with. I have even successfully used a M4CQBR(10.3" barrel) out to 200M before. When we get into fights with armored guys M995 is a must and a that point a larger caliber is a bit better since the only thing going through the armor is the tungsten penetrator which will act like an ice pick no matter the caliber so larger is better there, but even then 6.5 is only a minor incremental upgrade that costs billions to get. Aside from cost and the incremental upgrade we also have the NATO issues to deal with, alot o which are just adopting 5.56. I doubt they would be thrilled with changing calibers after a few years of doing just that

More like before you leave the wire and go on patrol wipe down your BCG and put a liberal amount of CLP on it, reinsert BCG into M4 and close dust cover. That will last you your patrol. The issue comes in with guys who have not wiped down their BCG's and have it covered in sand and have sand all in the barrel extension and then run their weapons completely bone dry. A dry gritty system is going to fail, that is why you apply lubricant before a patrol. That said LSAT does not have this issues as there is no bolt carrier group(BCG). For those who have no idea how the LSAT system works here is a video of how the cased telescoping variant works(Caseless is near identical other than it does not eject the round as there is nothing to eject) http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ul6ckFTfZNA

If they operate like the LSAT LMG and Carbine currently do they have a push through rod that loads the nex round, but also can push out a bad round that may not ignite or that you may need to remove to show the weapon is clear. As to the same size ammo its doable, so far they have numerous bullets in the same telescoped ammo for the LSAT program

New guy here, I joined for this thread discussion. Nothing will come from the IC. Having actually time behind the HK416, MK-16, and SOPMOD II M4A1 I can tell you that none offer any noteworthy upgrade. We abandonded the MK-16 forthat very reason, the M4A1(issued with the SOPMOD II items) was capable of everything the MK-16 was, but it costs us a lot less. The HK416 is also nothing spectacular, its a piston operated M4 that has parts life equal to the M4A1 but costs 3 times as much as our M4A1's. the Army is currently running the PiP as well which when finished will get them a M4A1 almost exactly like SOCOMS, the Marines are also doig a PiP for their M16's and it will be the M16A5 when finished. I can tell you first hand that the issues with the M4 are 1 of 3 things. 1. Bad and worn magazines, 2. Improper lubrication(alot believe lube is bad because it attracks sand but in my experiences the more the better) and 3. Worn parts(the Army is horrible at replacing parts, they work on the mindset of well replace t when it breaks). None of the systems in the IC will fix those 3 issues, and in order to upgrade to a new, marginally better system it would cost us $1.8 billion and 10+ years for a marginally bette system that offers at most a 5% increase in capability and maintainability. Now you tell me, is $1.8 billion and 10+ years worth it? LSAT is right around the corner and would be a full fledged system by the time the Army finally fields all 500,000 IC rifles. LSAT is where it is headed and will be worth the upgrade. LSAT is already TRL7, it has been in testig at Benning since 2011 and is performing amazingly. According to AAI it will be done with testing and ready for field trials in 1.5years, if it does well we could see the LMG fielded in the next 10 years with a carbine variant close behind(it is in the works since 2008). The other good thing about the LSAT weapons is that mechanically they are one of the most simplistic systems ever designed, and aside from the barrel and trigger have very, very few parts to wear out and break. Due to their push through system(vs the standard pull extraction) they are far more reliable and they run far cooler than any system out their since their chamber is seperate from the barrel(but still fully supported). The polymer cased telescoping ammo is fully ready and they have M855A1 variants already working, caseless is 1-2 years behind the cased telescoping. This weapon is actually a LSAT weapon, granted its kind of like a mix of the ACR/XCR it fires the cased telescoped ammo in a quad stack mag, so it is a LSAT system which is where we are heading so given the timeline of this game it makes sense.