Weer’d Beard has a post up about assault rifles that got me thinking. I agree with his point– the small-caliber assault rifle concept is essentially the answer to an unasked question. Some of the stories coming from Afghanistan and Iraq about the effectiveness of the 5.56MM round are disturbing.
I think the best solution is a semi-auto bullpup in a major caliber, like 7.62 x 51 NATO, for the troops, and a good automatic weapon in the same caliber for the two “swing men” in a squad. I say “in the same caliber” because two types of ammo in a squad would wreak havoc, and if push comes to shove, the riflemen can break down the belts (or unload the mags) for the automatics for their own rifles.
So, for the standard eight man Army squad, you would have two automatic rifles and six semi auto rifles, with both derived from the same weapon, so that parts and training would be standardized. The FAL operated like this– the squad automatic simply had a heavier barrel than the rifle version.
Also, I consider the argument that some people just won’t be able to operate a major caliber rifle to be utter bull– physical size has no bearing on competence. Go take a look at some of the men who were in the Airborne in WWII– some of those guys were small framed, but they were able to operate major caliber weapons. For a visual, here’s Breda operating an M-14.
A librarian who stands 5′ 4″ is able to put rounds on target with a gun that most modern American males wouldn’t shoot… a second time. So why have we equipped our troops with a round that is usually delegated to varmint shooting?
Kahiel
26 Nov 09 at 12:41 AM
I have never bought the argument that the .308 was too heavy of a round for use in modern combat. I used to shoot the M14 at the Nationals when I was in high school and I could keep the round on target, including the “rattle battle” (Infantry Cup if I remember the real name two magazines in about 10 seconds from 600, 500 and 200 yards). The adoption of the SAW in 5.56 really disturbed me as now our troops no longer have a heavy weapon on the battle field.