Well, I might have been talking out of my arse again, cuz I can't find anything on the net about Colt's contender for replacing the M16. I do remeber seeing the contender on the cover of a magazine (don't remember which one either) and now I'm wondering if I'm remembering the facts wrong.

Anyway, what I was able to learn is that the above weapon system I mentioned from HK has been totally scrapped and a "conversion" idea is not being tested. Apparently, they might (and notice I saidmight) be looking into converting current weapons into 6.8 mm. This might makes sense if I coulf figure out a plausible solution to the logistical nightmare it would be to convert existing weapons while conducting combat operations in at least two theaters right now. From what I understand the conversion would not be that hard, for one rifle. But add in almost 2 million that the military has, and you see the point. For those who might not be familiar with the 6.8mm, I pulled this off another site. You'll soon see how you probably already like the round!

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In the United States, Remington has developed the 6.8 mm Remington SPC cartridge, which is the same overall length at the 5.56 x 45 mm NATO round but fires a bullet the same caliber as the .270 Winchester hunting cartridge. Its similar size to the 5.56 × 45 mm means that existing rifles can be converted without an excessive amount of re-work.

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Anyway, I think it'll be at least 12 to 15 years before anything "new" is being commonly used by out troops.