weiterer

We all see todays war are mostly Urban Wars, its the war of the future, so military weapons for street fights have to be smaller, faster, etc.

The MP5 is until today the best military, law enforcement choosen weapon by most special teams, or swat groups.

HK launched recently the HK416.

Its a mix from the best of both worlds. The mp5 and m16.
Will this be the new weapon that will replace the MM16 on military forces and Special teams?

Im sure a version with a longer barrel is coming soon for open field operations. But for urban enviroments it look amazing.

Here are some details:
http://www.hkdefense.us/corporate/media/pdf/416revised4-5-05.pdf

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Rammer

Like CMA said, there won't be a direct replacement anytime soon for the ol M16. The M4 is what will replace it with, if anything in my opinion.

If it was me in the streets over there I know I would want an M4 with an ACOG on it

elgallo114

I beg to differ. Colt is already developing a replacement for the M16. Thank God. No offense to any M16/AR15 lovers out there, but they really haven't proven themselves to be as good or better than many other options.

I'll try to find the new prototype on the net, but when I read the article several months ago, it was a .308 that resembled the FN-FAL. In fact, it's magazines would be interchangable. I for one am glad to be rid of the varmint round (.223) and back to a proven battle field round (.308).

If I can find it tonight, I'll post a link or pics.

HighDesertWolf

A marine friend of mine and I were discussing guns a few months back just before he shipped off again to Iraq for a 3rd tour of duty. He had told me the marines have dumped colt and now have a contract with FN and are currently slowly but surely fading out the beloved colts for FN made AR type rifles chambered in 308 and 223. from the sound of it the 223 models which still accept standard m-16 mags will be used by the grunts and the 308 versions will be used for special applications. but the bottom line is I dont see our armed forces kicking the AR design anytime soon. just my 2 cents

weiterer

The problem is that sometime americans are to nationalists. The m16 has more than 40 years, its a great gun but dont get my wrong, even after 40 years it has problems, it jamms, and its very expensive to maintain and clean.
In vietnam its was a nigthmare in the jungle, now on Iraq they still have problems with the sand on the desert. The m4 even today is not as well made for jungle or desert warfare because its a very delicated weapong. You have to clean it all the time, and on real combat it tends to jam or break allot. I know people love the m16. Me, included, but its not the best Assault rifle made, thats a fact, even the AK seems to better today, where arabs give them practically no cleaning, and a very bad treatment and they still work. FNs, and HKs have also prooven to be better. So i dont think the US army is going to have them for longer. They already changed the Beretta MP9 to a the HK USP with was specially designed for the US army. As far as i remember it was made for the US army and the USOCOMM

elgallo114

This is the XM8. An HK weapon system that got cancled about 9 months ago. It's supposed to be going into civilian production, but no one knows when.



Here also.



Depending on who you talk to, this program was cancelled either due to performance issues, or that fact that HK was sold during the development process and money became an issue.

I'm still trying to find good pics and info about the current program and testing for the .308 from Colt.

elgallo114

By the way, the XM8 is not much more than a G-36 made closer to U.S. Military specs.

elgallo114

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.

Bulzeye

Lots of things have been suggested and tested.
Heck, after how many years, they are just in the last 10 really getting lots of the short barreled 'special forces' guns out there, figuring out that they need heavier bullets to keep decent terminal ballistics out of thoseshort barrels beyond 200 yards, and somebody finally realized that soldiers shoot a lot more accurately with a dot or low mag scope than they do with iron sights.
OK, how many of the people here couldn't figure that out? No hands?

If that is reallly where we are, there is a lotof work to do yet.
Obviously, there is a lot of red tape and are a lot of other considerations that come into play when you are considering equipments for hundreds and hundreds of thousands of soldiers.

Something that may be interesting reading...
SCAR weapon:
http://www.defensereview.com/modules.php?name=News&file=article&sid=750

Other thoughts on the 6.8 and such:
http://forums.military.com/eve/forums/a/tpc/f/3101927042/m/322101822